Far more than the husband of Country icon, Carrie Underwood, Mike Fisher cut his teeth in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators, a team he played 11 years for.  Fisher was never Ottawa's best player, but he was a bona fide leader who was a solid two-way player and a key figure in their Stanley Cup Final in 2007. The Senators missed their window, and Fisher was traded to the Nashville Predators in the 2010-11 Season, who was thrilled to get his veteran presence.

With Nashville, Fisher approached his personal best, a 51-Point year in 2011-12, two Points shy of his best mark.  Fisher was not a player that would make an All-Star Game, but the way he left everything out there on the ice earned him the 2012 Foundation Player Award.  This unique accolade is given to the player "who applies the core values of hockey – commitment, perseverance, and teamwork to enrich the lives of people within the community."  If this wasn't a perfect honor for Fisher, we don't know what it is!

Fisher would have two 40-Point plus years with the Preds, and his presence was instrumental in their run to the Finals in 2017.  Age caught up with Fisher, who temporarily retired after the Finals but came back for one more year before calling it quits for good in 2018.

As a Predator, Fisher scored 241 Points.

From Wisconsin, Craig Smith was a high First Round Pick (9^th Overall) in 2009, but he played two years at the University of Wisconsin before signing with the Predators.  The NCAA seasoning was adequate, as he became the first Nashville Draft Pick to join the team without serving time in the AHL.

Smith had 36 Points in his rookie season but plummeted to just 12 in 44 Games in his second year.  The Center would have his first 50-plus year in 2013-14, scoring 52, which was his career-high as a Predator.  He had 51 Points in 2017-18, with another career-best of 25 Goals.  Following the 2019-20 Season, Smith signed with the Bruins as a Free Agent.

Smith had 330 Points and a Plus/Minus of +67 in 661 Games.

The more we do this, the more we view the NHL Amateur Draft as a mystery.  Constantly, there are First Round Pick who never make it to the big dance, and there are mid-to-late Round Picks who have long careers, and Martin Erat fell into the latter category.

The Nashville Predators chose Erat 191^st Overall in 1999, and the Right Wing from the Czech Republic made the team two years later.  Erat’s rookie year was decent (33 Points), but he struggled as a sophomore, so much so that he was demoted to the AHL for most of the year.  With the sophomore slump in his rearview mirror, Erat was set to be an established NHL player.

Erat had 49 Points in 2003-04 and repeated that in 2005-06, the year after the NHL Lockout.  He would again replicate Point outputs, this time of 57 in 2006-07 and 2007-08, and Erat would have at least 49 Points over the next four seasons.  Erat was not a top line player but a strong second line player and a valuable commodity to the Predators when he played there.

After he turned 30, Erat was traded to Washington.  As a Predator, Erat accumulated 481 Points in 723 Games.

Glen Murray began and ended his career with the Boston Bruins, but in between that was a stint with Pittsburgh, and a six-year run with Los Angeles, that started late in the 1996-97 Season.

Murray received more ice time in L.A., and he was also beginning the prime of his hockey career.  The Right Wing put up 60 Points in his first full year in Los Angeles, and while he dropped to 31 in his second, he rebounded with 62 in his third (1999-00).  Murray continued his trend of bouncing up and down in his Kings stint, dropping back to 39 Points in year four, and at this point, the Kings might have thought they knew what they had with him.

Murray was traded to his original team, Boston, very early in the 2001/02 Season, and he was even better, going to two All-Star Games in the last half of his career.  With the Kings, Murray tabulated 211 Points in 304 Games.