Summer Check-in: Colton Sissons

We may be in the dog days of summer, but the Nashville Predators already have their sights set on the 2023-24 season.

After taking some well-deserved time away to rest their bodies and minds during the summer months, a handful of Preds players are already back training and hitting the ice together at Centennial Sportsplex to prepare for the start of training camp in September.

One of those players is forward Colton Sissons, who emerged as a strong leader both on and off the ice amid the trades and injuries that plagued Nashville's veteran core in the latter half of the 2022-23 season. He checked in to give an update on what he's been up to this summer and discuss his goals and expectations for next season:

Favorite vacation/trip this summer?

"I went home for about two weeks, back to Vancouver, and hung out with the family. I was staying with my sister and chasing my niece around, so that was a good trip."

Favorite summer activity in Nashville?

"We play a lot of golf; that's probably a pretty common answer. Going out on the lake is nice once in a while, too… I also got a new pool at my house. That's been quite a process since Jan. 1, but we're finally swimming now."

New free-agent signing you are most looking forward to playing with this season?

"They're all exciting guys to have joining us. They're guys that have been around and vets in the league. Luke Schenn and I have a bit of a connection from our junior hockey days in Kelowna. We didn't play together, but we've got some ties out west so that will be good. I've been competing against [Ryan O'Reilly] quite a bit in our division over the last several years, and he's just a centerman that I have a lot of respect for. I'm going to be picking his brain about the face-off during training camp here, so I'm looking forward to that."

Which of your teammates from last season are you most excited about in 2023-24?

"One guy who was hampered by a bad injury there was [Juuso Parssinen]. It was too bad that we didn't get to see more of him because it was pretty exciting the way he was playing before that unfortunate injury that sent him back a little bit. So I expect him to be very, very good and surprise a lot of people this year."

What are your personal goals for this season?

"I expect to be better every single year in every facet. As an older player in the league now, you've got to find ways to keep getting better. The moment you kind of let your foot off the gas is when you start getting your job taken by some younger guys. So I don't take that for granted, and I put in the work every offseason to become just a little bit faster and a little bit stronger. I just need to keep growing in the leadership side of things, too. We're going to have a young team and a lot of young guys to help along the way, so hopefully I can be a guy that they can lean on and trust that I'm in their corner. I just want everyone to get better and to win hockey games. That's what it's all about."

Do you feel any additional pressure as one of the few veterans remaining from last season?

"We lost some big personalities and important guys to our team and in the locker room. So it's going to have to be on a lot of us to step up - not just myself, but the guys that have been around a while and know how things are done. We'll have to set the tone. We have some great character guys coming in with O'Reilly and Schenn and [Gustav Nyquist], so we're going to have lots of help. So we're not too worried about that. But as far as pressure goes, there's always pressure in the NHL, no matter how you slice it. I think that's just how it goes."