Looking to add spark to a lineup that to that point had lost this season’s opening five games, the Predators made a call to the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL to recall forward Zach L’Heureux.
One of the final cuts from the roster coming out of training camp, L’Heureux played four games with the Admirals after being sent back. In those four games, he scored three goals and added two assists.
L’Heureux made his NHL debut Oct. 22 at Bridgestone Arena against the Boston Bruins. As is NHL custom, L’Heureux’s teammates sent him out onto the ice for the warmup for a couple of solo laps before the rest of the team joined him. L’Heureux elected to take his solo laps without his helmet on, running afoul of NHL rule 9.6, which states, “It is mandatory for all players who entered the NHL beginning with the 2019-2020 season or later to wear their helmet during pregame warmup.” He did put his helmet on when the rest of the team hit the ice for the warmup.
L’Heureux and company won the game against the Bruins, ending the team’s five-game, season-opening losing streak. Relieved to see the end of a losing streak that no one had anticipated, head coach Andrew Brunette praised what he saw from L’Heureux in his NHL debut, specifically noting the difficult circumstances in which he faced.
“You are coming into a team that’s struggling a little bit at 0-5 and a little bit of a veteran team for a young guy to come in,” Brunette says. “I thought he was fearless, he just did his job, played his role, didn’t try to do too much. I think he’s a really intelligent player, and he’s got a really good stick and really good instincts for the game of hockey.”
As his NHL career begins, he won’t necessarily be looked upon to provide a tremendous amount of offense in Nashville right away. But in just his second professional season, L’Heureux already has a bit of a reputation as a pain in the backside to play against.
So far, L’Heureux – whom the Predators selected 27th overall in 2021 and traded up in that draft to do so – has been playing on the Predators fourth line alongside veterans Cole Smith and Michael McCarron, both of whom play with a large measure of sandpaper in their game.
Smith and McCarron have been fourth-line fixtures the past couple of seasons, and so far L’Heureux has proved to be a perfect addition for the pair, known mostly for their role of bringing a physical presence and killing penalties.
“We really complement each other well out there,” L’Heureux says of his line. “It’s fun to play with them.”
He’s Happy and he knows it
Nicknamed Happy – a reference to his French last name, which translates to English as “the happy one” – L’Heureux lives up to that moniker, for the most part anyway, save for when he’s trying to get under the skin of his opponents. And that happens just about every time he hits the ice, as evidenced by the lofty penalty minute totals he has accumulated throughout his hockey career.
Somewhat surprisingly, L’Heureux earned his first NHL point before his first NHL penalty minutes. In his third game played Oct. 26, L’Heureux assisted on fellow Quebecer Alexandre Carrier’s game-tying, third-period goal. Following the game, locker room video produced by the Predators showed McCarron presenting his linemate with the puck from that assist to loud cheers from his teammates.
“He’s a puck hound,” Brunette said after the game. “He’s a really slippery, smart player.”
L’Heureux’s ascension to the Predators and into the lineup has come at the expense of Philip Tomasino and Juuso Parssinen, who began the season on the roster and took turns joining McCarron and Smith on the fourth line.
L’Heureux provides more flexibility to play up and down the lineup than either Tomasino or Parssinen, and his physical play is well-suited for the fourth line role that he’s being asked to play with the team.