Former University of Maine hockey All-American Gustav Nyquist will turn 35 on Sept. 1.
But, like a fine wine, he is getting better with age.
Nyquist signed a two-year, $6.37 million free agent contract with the National Hockey League’s Nashville Predators last summer and has had the best season of his 13-year NHL career heading into the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning this weekend.
A two-time Hobey Baker Award finalist — given to the nation’s best college player, Nyquist played in 81 of Nashville’s 82 regular season games and has 75 points on 23 goals and 52 assists. He is the Predators’ third-leading scorer.
The 2021 UMaine Sports Hall of Famer’s previous season-high was 54 points (27 goals, 27 assists) with Detroit during the 2014-15 campaign.
He is on a line with Nashville scoring leader and fellow Swede Filip Forsberg (48 goals, 46 assists, 94 points in 82 games) and No. 4 point-getter Ryan O’Reilly (26-43-69 in 82 games).
In addition to Nyquist, four other former Black Bears are playing for Stanley Cup playoff-bound teams: Florida winger Ryan Lomberg, Las Vegas defenseman Ben Hutton, Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman and Carolina winger Bradly Nadeau.
Along with the players, Jim Montgomery, a 1998 UMaine Sports Hall of Famer, former Black Bear All-American and Hobey Baker Award finalist, will again lead the Boston Bruins into the playoffs as their second-year head coach.
The 54-year-old Montgomery, the Jack Adams Award winner as coach of the year last season when the Bruins set the regular season record for points (135) and wins (65), led the Bruins to a second place finish in the Atlantic Division with their 47-20-15 record this season.
The Bruins will begin a best-of-seven playoff series by hosting Toronto at 8 p.m. Saturday.
The 25-year-old Swayman, who won the Mike Richter Award as the nation’s best goalie during the 2019-20 season at UMaine, has again shared the goaltending with Linus Ullmark.
Swayman has posted a 25-10-8 record this season with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage. He has three shutouts.
He has now appeared in 132 career games and is 79-33-15 with a 2.34 GAA, a .919 save percentage and 12 shutouts.
Hutton, who turns 31 on Saturday, had two goals and eight assists in 40 games entering a regular season-ending game against Anaheim on Thursday.
He has appeared in 508 career NHL games and has 24 goals and 98 assists.
The 29-year-old Lomberg has scored five goals and assists on two others in 75 games for the Atlantic Division champion Panthers, who will open their best-of-seven series against visiting in-state rival Tampa Bay at 12:30 p.m. Sunday.
latest umaine hockey news
UMaine men’s hockey lands Colgate’s leading scorer
UMaine beat Colgate 3-1 on Jan. 5, and the teams skated to a 4-4 tie the next night.
Lomberg has 257 NHL games to his credit and has 28 goals and 22 assists.
The 18-year-old Nadeau was a first round draft pick of Carolina last summer (30th overall) and signed earlier this month after having an All-Hockey East second team freshman season at UMaine with a team-leading 46 points on 19 goals and 27 assists.
He made his NHL debut in a 6-3 loss to Columbus in the Hurricanes’ regular season finale on Tuesday.
The Hurricanes will entertain the New York Islanders at 5 p.m. Saturday to begin their best-of- seven playoff series.
Nashville and Vegas and the other Western Conference teams will find out their playoff opponents after Thursday’s games.