When the Nashville Predators were formed, they knew they needed a backstop to work from their end out, and Czech Goalie Tomas Vokoun proved to be the correct building block to build on.

 In 2004-05 Vokoun had only played one game in the NHL, as he was mostly in the minors, but he was ready to show his skills with Nashville.  Before long, Vokoun was the prime backstop for the Predators, and he would earn Vezina votes in both the 2002-03 and 2003-04 Season.

After the lockout in 2004-05, Vokoun had his best professional season, where he had a 36-18-7 record and a 2.67 GAA.  He was fourth for the Vezina, the best he ever finished, and Vokoun was a large part of Nashville’s early success.

Vokoun was traded to Florida in 2007, and he left with a 161-159-46 record.

The career of Tomas Vokoun as a Florida Panther is not as celebrated nearly as much as it should be.  Perhaps it was because he led the NHL in Losses twice as a Panther and that he is known for the blooper clip of being injured by his own teammate who meant to slash the goal post in frustration (but hit Vokoun instead).

From the Czech Republic, Tomas Vokoun had a fantastic career in the NHL, most notably with the Nashville Predators where he had three straight seasons where he finished in the top ten in Vezina Trophy voting with a 10^th, 8^th and 4^th place finish in the 2003/04, 04/05 and 06/07 respectively.  The year after the two-time NHL All-Star would play for the Florida Panthers and would lead the league in Goalie Point Shares.