Top 50 Nashville Predators
The Nashville Predators made their debut in 1998, bringing hockey to the Volunteer State.
As a new team, the Predators have not yet won a Stanley Cup, but they did make it to the Finals in 2017 and have one of the more dedicated fan bases in American hockey.
This list is up to the end of the 2022/23 season.
Note: Hockey lists are based on an amalgamation of tenure, traditional statistics, advanced statistics, playoff statistics, and post-season accolades.
Already the greatest Swiss-born hockey player of all time, Roman Josi has to date played his entire NHL career with the Nashville Predators, the team that drafted him in the Second Round in 2008. Josi continued to play in Switzerland for two years, honing his skills there, and then had…
While it was projected that Shea Weber was going to have a good career in the National Hockey League, the native of British Columbia turned out to be an absolute steal for the Nashville Predators, who landed him late in the Second Round. A large and imposing Defenseman, Weber debuted…
Pekka Rinne was an afterthought in the 2004 NHL Draft, where Nashville took the Finnish Goalie with the 258th Overall Pick. For a "throwaway," Rinne is to date the best Predator Goalie of all time and likely will be for years. Rinne played in three Games from 2005-06 to 2007-08, but he…
As of this writing, Filip Forsberg has played all of his career with the Nashville Predators, the organization where the Swedish Center has showcased his skills. Forsberg debuted with Nashville after the Washington Capitals drafted him in 2012. The Center was a First Team All-Rookie in 2014-15, scoring 63 Points, and…
In 1998, the Nashville Predators made David Legwand the first ever Draft Pick in team history, and in terms of longevity and character, it was an A+ all around. The American-born Center spent his first year in the minors (save for one Game), and while he never had the skills…
A late round pick by the Los Angeles Kings in 1993, Kimmo Timonen continued to play in his native Finland for a few years, but when he decided to try his luck in the NHL it was with the Nashville Predators, who traded for his rights. The Defenseman split his…
Ryan Ellis played his first ten years in the National Hockey League with the Nashville Predators, the team that selected him 11th Overall in 1999, The Defenseman was somewhat of an enigma, as he had a physical style of play, despite not having an imposing size nor logging significant penalty minutes. From…
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…
Mattias Ekholm played the first twelve years of his NHL career with the Predators, drafted in 2009 (102nd Overall) and arriving in 2012. Ekholm spent his first year in North America in the Minors, and he would become a jack-of-all-trades blueliner for Nashville. Ekholm might not be a player who will dazzle…
Ryan Suter was the Seventh Overall Pick in 2003, and the native of Wisconsin elected to stay in his home state, playing for the University of Wisconsin for a full year before he signed with the team that drafted him, the Nashville Predators. Suter joined the Predators in the year…
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…
From Wisconsin, Craig Smith was a high First Round Pick (9th 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.…
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…
Juuse Soros is still a Predator as of this writing, and arguably he is either on the cusp of greatness. Drafted in 2013, Finland’s Saros arrived in North America two years later, bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL and earning All-Rookie honors in 2017-18, though he only…
From Sweden, Viktor Arvidsson made it to the Predators for six Games the year he was drafted (2014-15), and the Left Wing would emerge as one of the better penalty killers in club history. Arvidsson had a mediocre sophomore year but broke out with back-to-back 61 Point seasons in 2016-17…
Traded from Columbus during the 2015/16 Season, Center, Ryan Johansen finished the split year with 60 Points, the third straight campaign where he scored at least 60. Johansen kept up that consistency, scoring 61 Points in 2016-17, and while he was injured in the playoffs, his contributions were part of…
Nashville selected Dan Hamhuis with their First Round Pick (12th Overall) in 2001, and the Predators had high hopes for the former CHL Defenseman of the Year. Hamhuis spent his first year of professional hockey in the AHL, and in his rookie NHL year (2002-03), he scored 26 Points, with would…
Mike Dunham won the William M. Jennings Trophy as a rookie, but he was never going to get the lion's share of the goaltending duties for the team he won that award with. How could he? He was playing for the New Jersey Devils, who had Martin Brodeur. With the growth of the…
The fourth NHL team of Steve Sullivan’s career was the Nashville Predators, a team he joined during his ninth year (2003-04). Sullivan finished that year strong, scoring 30 Points in 24 Games, with 73 in total that year, a number that would be his second best ever. Following the lockout year…
J.P. Dumont played his first two NHL years with Chicago, where he was a youngster and saw minimal ice time. Dumont was then traded to Buffalo, a team he was with for five years, but is arguably the organization he is most commonly associated with. After Buffalo, Dumont signed with Nashville, the…