“Playing with a chip on his shoulder” hardly seems to tell the full story of what drives Nashville Predators forward Rocco Grimaldi.



Grimaldi is a player whose neck has to hurt from constantly looking up over half-a-foot at the average 6-foot-1 NHL player. Don’t worry — he laughed when I first said that to him on the ice.



Standing 5-foot-6, Grimaldi has had to prove people wrong at every level of hockey. The former U.S. National Team Development Program standout, world junior gold medalist, North Dakota leading scorer, and Florida Panthers second-round pick has excelled at every level, having his play as the topic of conversation rather than his size.



Despite his impressive résumé and early successes at the professional level, Grimaldi has been unable to secure a full-time role in the NHL. The self-proclaimed “vertically challenged” forward played a career-high 20 NHL games in the 2015-16 season with the...