A PGP Guide to: The Nashville Predators

A PGP Guide to: The Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators aesthetic is bright gold jerseys, country music, Broadway, saber toothed tigers, catfish being thrown onto the ice, incredibly specific crowd chants, elite Finnish goaltending, defensemen who somehow become superstars, and a hockey team that turned a city nobody initially thought of as a hockey market into Smashville.

The Predators are one of the NHL's younger franchises, which means their history looks very different from teams like Montreal or Detroit. There aren't generations of Stanley Cup dynasties or Original Six legends. Instead, Nashville's story is about building hockey culture basically from scratch.

They entered the NHL in 1998, nearly disappeared less than a decade later, but eventually built one of the loudest home environments in hockey. This is a team that reached their first Stanley Cup Final in 2017 and won the Presidents' Trophy one year later. Now, after two disappointing seasons and a major front office change, they're trying to figure out what the next version of Predators hockey is supposed to look like.

The Basics

Team: Nashville Predators

Conference: Western Conference

Division: Central Division

Home Arena: Bridgestone Arena

Location: Nashville, Tennessee

Franchise Founded: 1997

First NHL Season: 1998-99

Team Colors: Gold, navy and white

Stanley Cups: 0

Biggest Rivals: Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Winnipeg Jets, St. Louis Blues

The Predators play at Bridgestone Arena, right in the middle of downtown Nashville on Broadway, which is honestly an absurdly perfect location for this particular hockey team. The building opened in 1996, two years before the Predators began playing, and has become one of Nashville's major entertainment venues for both hockey and concerts. Predators home games are surrounded by bars, live music and downtown crowds, so game night doesn't really exist separately from the rest of Nashville nightlife..

The Origin Story

Nashville obviously wasn’t an obvious NHL city in the 1990s. Tennessee wasn't exactly known as traditional hockey territory, there had never been a major professional sports franchise based in Nashville, and the city's sports identity was much more closely associated with college football and the South generally than ice hockey, but Nashville was growing. The city built a new downtown arena, and local leaders began pursuing major league sports. In June 1997, the NHL granted Nashville an expansion franchise. The organization officially became the league's 27th team, with its first season scheduled for 1998-99. 

In 1971, construction workers digging beneath downtown Nashville discovered a cave containing the fang and foreleg bone of a saber toothed cat. The discovery happened beneath the site of what is now the UBS Tower, only a few blocks from where the Predators would eventually play. When Nashville received its NHL franchise decades later, ownership decided to build the team's identity around the discovery. The saber-toothed cat logo came first and when fans were asked to choose the team name, the finalists included Predators, Fury, Attack and Ice Tigers. Predators won and suddenly Nashville had a hockey team.

The organization hired David Poile as its first general manager and Barry Trotz as its first head coach, both becoming enormously important to the franchise. The Predators played their first NHL game on October 10, 1998, losing 1-0 to Florida. Three days later, Andrew Brunette— the same Andrew Brunette who now coaches the team—scored the first goal in franchise history as Nashville earned its first win against Carolina. 

The Vibe Check

The Nashville Predators are one of the best examples of a team becoming completely inseparable from its city. Everything is extremely Nashville considering the arena is on Broadway, country singers perform the national anthem, music is everywhere, the fans call themselves Smashville, the team wears aggressively bright gold, there's a saber-toothed cat mascot named Gnash, people throw catfish, I mean what is going on in Nashville except for a party?

The crowd has enough coordinated chants that attending your first Predators game can feel like accidentally joining a very enthusiastic club whose rules everyone else already knows. Nashville doesn't try to imitate an old Northern hockey market, because it created its own hockey culture.

The History You Need to Know

The early Predators weren't glamorous, they were an expansion team trying to survive. Under Barry Trotz, Nashville developed a reputation for being disciplined, structured and extremely annoying to play against. The organization didn't have the financial resources of some NHL clubs, so it relied heavily on drafting, development and finding players other teams overlooked.

One of the first major players was David Legwand, Nashville's first ever NHL Draft selection at 2nd overall in 1998. Slowly, the Predators became respectable as they reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 2004, then they started making them regularly, but the franchise itself nearly had a very different ending. During the mid-2000s, attendance and financial uncertainty led to serious relocation concerns. Canadian businessman Jim Balsillie attempted to purchase the franchise with obvious ambitions of eventually moving it to Hamilton, Ontario. Instead, a group of local investors ultimately purchased the team in 2007 and helped keep it in Nashville.

Nashville became incredibly good at producing defensemen and goaltenders with names in its history like  Shea Weber, Ryan Suter, Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, P.K. Subban, and behind them, Pekka Rinne. By the mid-2010s, Nashville had become a legitimate contender. In 2017, the Predators entered the playoffs as the lowest seeded team in the Western Conference and immediately faced the first seeded Chicago Blackhawks. Chicago was only two years removed from its third Stanley Cup in six seasons, but Nashville swept them and Chicago scored three goals in the entire series. The Predators then beat St. Louis, then Anaheim, and on May 22, 2017, Nashville advanced to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in franchise history.

Downtown Nashville basically transformed into one enormous hockey party as tens of thousands of fans gathered outside Bridgestone Arena during home games. Country stars performed, national anthem singers became part of the story, the crowd chants went national, and suddenly everyone knew what Smashville was. Nashville faced Sidney Crosby's Pittsburgh Penguins in the Final, winning Games 3 and 4 at home to tie the series 2-2, but Pittsburgh ultimately won in six games. While it was painful, the run completely transformed the franchise's identity.

Nashville came back even stronger. The 2017-18 Predators went 53-18-11 with 117 points, finishing with the best regular season record in the NHL and winning the first Presidents' Trophy in franchise history. Pekka Rinne won the Vezina Trophy, Roman Josi was entering his prime, Filip Forsberg had become a star and Nashville looked like it might have a genuine championship window, but it never quite happened. Winnipeg eliminated Nashville in seven games in the second round in 2018, then Dallas eliminated them in 2019. The roster gradually changed, Peter Laviolette was fired, Rinne eventually retired, and the team entered a strange period of being competitive enough to make the playoffs but not really dangerous enough to win the Cup.

Nashville qualified for the postseason nine times in ten seasons from 2014 through 2024, but never returned to the Stanley Cup Final.

The Icons

Pekka Rinne

The franchise icon.

If you associate one person with Nashville Predators hockey, it should probably be Pekka Rinne. Nashville drafted him 258th overall in 2004 and he became one of the best goaltenders of his generation. Rinne spent his entire NHL career with Nashville and retired as the franchise leader in basically every important goaltending category, including games played, wins and shutouts. He won 369 games and recorded 60 shutouts.He won the Vezina Trophy in 2018, backstopped the 2017 Stanley Cup Final run and became one of the most beloved athletes in Nashville sports history. His number 35 became the first number the Predators ever retired and in June 2026, Rinne was selected for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2026.

Shea Weber

The captain with the terrifying slap shot.

Shea Weber was Nashville's captain from 2010 through 2016 and became one of the best defensemen in the NHL. He was huge, physical, a legitimate offensive threat, and his slap shot was the kind of thing that made blocking shots look like an extremely poor career decision. Weber never won the Stanley Cup with Nashville, but he helped define the franchise's identity during the era before the 2017 breakthrough. He was traded to Montreal for P.K. Subban in one of the biggest one-for-one trades of the modern NHL.

Roman Josi

The greatest skater in franchise history.

At this point, Roman Josi has passed from current star into franchise icon. Nashville drafted him in the second round in 2008, he became captain in 2017, won the Norris Trophy in 2020, became the franchise's all-time leader in points, and passed David Legwand for the most games played in Predators history. Josi is skilled, mobile, aggressive, reliable and built around the blue line.

David Legwand

The original Predator.

David Legwand was the first player Nashville ever selected in the NHL Draft. The Predators took him second overall in 1998, and he went on to spend most of his NHL career in Nashville. For years he held a huge portion of the franchise records simply because he had been there from nearly the beginning.

Filip Forsberg

The offensive face of the franchise.

There is an alternate universe where Filip Forsberg is a Washington Capital and Predators fans prefer not to think about it. Washington drafted Forsberg 11th overall in 2012 and then traded him to Nashville in 2013 for Martin Erat and Michael Latta. Forsberg developed into the best goal scorer in Predators history and has spent more than a decade becoming one of the faces of the franchise. Also note: the mustache.

David Poile

Not a player, but you cannot tell the Predators story without him.

David Poile became Nashville's first general manager before the team ever played a game and remained in the role until 2023. For 26 years, Nashville had 1 singular GM and it was him. He built essentially every version of the Predators from expansion team to Stanley Cup finalist and eventually became the winningest general manager in NHL history. 

The Current Era

The current Nashville era starts with one enormous mistake in expectations. In the summer of 2024, Nashville made one of the biggest free agency splashes in recent NHL history. The Predators signed former Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos, 2023 Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Marchessault, and defenseman Brady Skjei. Suddenly everyone looked at Nashville and thought oh, they're going for it. Except the 2024-25 season was a disaster. The team missed the playoffs and management essentially decided to run it back in 2025-26 and hope the roster would finally click.

It improved, but not enough. Nashville finished 38-34-10, sixth in the Central Division, and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second consecutive season and third time in four years. That forced the franchise into a much bigger conversation. Were they still trying to win right now? Were they rebuilding? Were they supposed to build around aging veterans? Or move toward the younger prospect group?

They decided to change the front office. Barry Trotz, who had returned to Nashville as GM in 2023 after becoming the franchise's original head coach, announced in February 2026 that he would retire once Nashville found his replacement. On June 2, 2026, the Predators hired former Colorado Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland as president of hockey operations and general manager. MacFarland immediately started changing things.

Nashville acquired Ross Colton from Colorado, then Jack Drury and Chase Bradley from Colorado, Adam Edstrom from the Rangers, Nils Höglander from Vancouver, Mavrik Bourque and Ilya Lyubushkin from Dallas. They signed Alexander Kerfoot. They traded Zachary L'Heureux and Fedor Svechkov. Nashville also traded Luke Evangelista to New Jersey for a conditional first round pick and a second round pick in the 2028 Draft. Nashville now owns seven selections in the first two rounds of the next two drafts. This isn't a clean rebuild, but it isn't simply them trying to run back the old team either.

MacFarland appears to be trying to get younger, faster, deeper and more flexible without wasting what is left of the Josi/Forsberg/Stamkos era.

The Players You Need to Know

Roman Josi

The captain & franchise legend.

Roman Josi has been captain since 2017 and has essentially become the face of Predators hockey. He drives offense from defense, plays huge minutes, runs the power play, and remains the player through whom so much of Nashville's game flows. Josi is also coming off a pretty fun summer as he captained Switzerland to a silver medal at the 2026 IIHF World Championship and was named tournament MVP. At this point, every season with Josi matters because he is no longer the young star building toward his prime, he's one of the greatest players the franchise will ever have. 

Filip Forsberg

The goal scorer.

Filip Forsberg is Nashville's most dangerous offensive player and the franchise's all time leading goal scorer. In 2025-26, he led the Predators with 75 points in 82 games and scored 40 goals.If the team needs goals, Forsberg is probably involved. He also somehow manages to combine genuine starplayer skill with looking like he should either be scoring a playoff overtime winner or appearing in a vintage Western. The mustache remains elite.

Steven Stamkos

The Hall of Fame level veteran trying to make the Nashville chapter work.

Steven Stamkos becoming a Nashville Predator still feels a little weird. He spent 16 seasons in Tampa Bay, was their captain, won two Stanley Cups, became one of the greatest goal scorers of his generation, and then signed a 4 year contract with Nashville in 2024. His first Predators season was disappointing by his standards, but his second was much better. Stamkos scored 42 goals in 2025-26, tied for ninth in the NHL and the most on Nashville. His shot is very much still alive. At this stage, Nashville doesn't need him to become the franchise, they need him to be exactly what they signed him to be – a veteran scorer who can help them win now.

Juuse Saros

The heir to Pekka.

Imagine becoming the starting goalie for a franchise immediately after the most beloved player in team history happens to play your exact position. No pressure! Juuse Saros was Rinne's backup before becoming Nashville's top goalie, and despite being smaller than the stereotypical modern NHL netminder, he has become one of the league's biggest workhorses. In 2025-26, Saros played 59 games, second most among NHL goalies, and led the league with 1,519 saves. His numbers have dipped over the last couple seasons as the team around him has struggled, but Nashville remains heavily committed to him. Goalies are basically a sacred institution in Nashville at this point.

Mavrik Bourque

The major new young piece.

Mavrik Bourque might be one of the most important players to watch this season because he represents what MacFarland seems to be trying to do. He’s younger, skilled, already NHL-ready, but still capable of becoming more. Nashville acquired the 24 year old from Dallas on July 1 after Bourque recorded career highs of 20 goals and 41 points in 82 games for the Stars. Three days later, the Predators signed him to a six year, $33 million contract. He's expected to get an opportunity at center and could end up playing a major offensive role surprisingly quickly.

Ryan O'Reilly

The veteran hockey dad.

Ryan O'Reilly is the kind of player coaches love. He wins faceoffs, defends, plays difficult minutes, can score, has won a Stanley Cup, a Conn Smythe, a Selke, and generally looks like he would willingly play 25 minutes while missing several teeth. In 2025-26, O'Reilly led Nashville with 49 assists. He's part of the veteran core Nashville is trying to support with younger, faster players.

Jonathan Marchessault

The bounce back question.

Marchessault arrived in Nashville in 2024 immediately after winning the 2023 Conn Smythe Trophy with Vegas and following that with a 42 goal season. The expectation was obvious – goals and a lot of them. Instead, the Nashville fit hasn't been seamless. After recording 56 points in his first Predators season, Marchessault dropped to 31 points in 2025-26. If Nashville wants to return to the playoffs, getting more out of Marchessault would help immensely.

Matthew Wood

The young forward Nashville needs to hit.

Nashville drafted Matthew Wood 15th overall in 2023, and he's one of the organization's most important young offensive pieces. He made his NHL debut in April 2025 and enters this season with a legitimate opportunity to become part of Nashville's top nine. For years, the Predators have been much better at developing defensemen and goalies than producing elite homegrown forwards. Wood becoming a real scoring threat would be a very welcome change.

Jack Drury

The new middle six center.

Drury came over from Colorado in June after playing all 82 games for the Avalanche and recording a career high 27 points. More importantly, he's extremely good in the faceoff circle, he won 58.1% of his draws in 2025-26, fifth-best among players who took at least 900 faceoffs. Nashville liked him enough to immediately sign him for five years and $22.5 million. He's probably never going to be the glamorous name on the poster, but he may become one of those players Nashville fans love because he makes everything function better.

Ross Colton

The chaos and energy addition.

Ross Colton brings exactly what you expect when someone describes a player as having sandpaper. He hits, competes, can play throughout the lineup, and already has a Stanley Cup from Tampa Bay, where he scored the Cup winning goal in 2021, and MacFarland knows him well from Colorado.

The Rivalries

Chicago Blackhawks

This is probably the most important rivalry in Predators history. Part of it is geography since Nashville and Chicago aren't incredibly far apart, which means fans travel. Part of it is the Central Division. But the biggest part comes from the era when Chicago was one of the NHL's dominant teams and Nashville was constantly trying to become something more. The teams met in the playoffs in 2010, 2015 and 2017. Chicago eliminated Nashville in both 2010 and 2015 and went on to win the Stanley Cup both times. Then came 2017 when Chicago entered the playoffs with the best record in the Western Conference and Nashville entered as the lowest seed, but the Predators swept them. Chicago is also the team Nashville has played more than any other opponent; through March 2026, they had met 143 times in the regular season. The rivalry isn't at its 2010s peak right now, but the history is real.

Dallas Stars

Dallas-Nashville is pure Central Division tension. They have similar defensive identities for long stretches of their histories, a lot of meaningful regular season games, and a playoff series that hurt. Dallas eliminated Nashville in six games in the first round in 2019, during the final stretch of Nashville's strongest contention era. The teams continued seeing each other constantly afterward, and even Dallas's own coverage has described Nashville as one of the Stars' most hated opponents. Now add the fact that Nashville just acquired Mavrik Bourque and Ilya Lyubushkin from Dallas. More reason to hate each other!

Winnipeg Jets

This rivalry largely exists because of 2018. Nashville had just reached the Stanley Cup Final the year before and then produced the best regular season in franchise history. Winnipeg was emerging as one of the most dangerous teams in hockey. They met in the second round which went to 7 games, and Winnipeg won Game 7 in Nashville. That was brutal because the 2017-18 team remains arguably the best Predators team ever assembled. The teams are still Central Division opponents, so while it isn't always screaming hatred, there is a lot of history underneath those games.

St. Louis Blues

This rivalry is classic Central Division annoyance. The teams have spent years playing each other constantly, and stylistically there has often been plenty of overlap with both teams playing physical hockey, defensive structure, heavy forechecking, games that feel like they require several ice packs afterward. Nashville eliminated St. Louis in six games during the second round of the 2017 playoffs, which was the first time the Predators ever advanced to the Western Conference Final. Because the teams remain division opponents, the rivalry is less about one singular historic event and more about sustained familiarity. Sometimes you hate someone because of one horrible thing, and sometimes you hate them because you see them four times a year for twenty years.

The Fanbase

This might be the most fun section for Nashville because Predators fans have traditions… SO MANY traditions. Collectively, the fanbase and surrounding community are known as Smashville, and Bridgestone Arena has developed one of the most distinctive game environments in hockey. A lot of the chants originate from Section 303, historically known as the Cellblock, and the most famous are directed at the opposing goalie.

After Nashville scores, the crowd chants the goalie's name and follows it with a series of increasingly insulting, but mostly unserious, chants. The tradition became nationally famous during the 2017 Stanley Cup run.

Then there's the end of each period, when the public address announcer announces “one minute remaining in the period,” the crowd responds: “THANKS, PAUL!” That's for longtime PA announcer Paul McCann. More than 17,000 people collectively thanking the arena announcer for telling them how clocks work is exactly the kind of tradition hockey should have and I hope Paul is forever loved.

Then there are the catfish (this is Nashville's answer to Detroit throwing octopuses). Fans occasionally toss catfish onto the ice, particularly during major games and playoff runs. You may ask, why catfish? Partially Southern culture, partially because Nashville fans wanted their own answer to Detroit's octopus tradition, and mostly because hockey traditions stop making sense if you think about them too hard.

The 2017 run took everything to another level, tens of thousands of people packed Broadway for outdoor watch parties, the city became covered in gold, and Nashville developed a reputation as one of the NHL's loudest, most theatrical playoff environments. That's the thing about Smashville, it doesn’t behave like a traditional hockey market and that’s what makes this team perfect.

The Retired Numbers

The Nashville Predators have officially retired one number.

No. 35 — Pekka Rinne

Of course it's Pekka. Nashville retired Rinne's number 35 in 2022, making him the first player in franchise history to receive the honor. He spent his entire NHL career with the Predators, won the Vezina, led Nashville to its only Stanley Cup Final, retired as the franchise leader in virtually every important goaltending category, and is now entering the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2026.

This section will definitely grow eventually.

Roman Josi's number 59 feels like the most obvious future candidate and Filip Forsberg's number 9 could eventually enter that conversation too!

The Team Identity

Historically, Nashville has been a defense and goaltending factory. I mean, Pekka Rinne? Juuse Saros? Shea Weber? Roman Josi? Ryan Suter, Ryan Ellis, Mattias Ekholm? P.K. Subban? Just an insane list of the craziest defenseman and goaltenders in hockey.  Even during different eras and under different coaches, the Predators have repeatedly been strongest when their identity starts from the back end. The problem has usually been offense.

Nashville has had good forwards – Filip Forsberg is legitimately great – but the franchise has never really produced the endless waves of elite offensive talent you associate with some Stanley Cup contenders. Chris MacFarland inherited a roster with major veteran names, but instead of simply adding more veterans, he spent the summer acquiring players like: Mavrik Bourque, Jack Drury, Nils Höglander, Ross Colton, Adam Edstrom. Meanwhile, Nashville still has prospects including Matthew Wood, Joakim Kemell, Ryan Ufko, Aiden Fink and others trying to push into the NHL lineup. The Evangelista trade also gave Nashville even more future draft capital.

This version of the Predators feels less like a traditional rebuild and more like a franchise trying to change generations while the older one is still in the room. Josi isn't gone, Forsberg isn't gone, Stamkos isn't gone, Saros isn't gone. They're trying to get younger around them quickly enough that those veterans might still matter when Nashville becomes genuinely dangerous again. This season is about whether it works.

Why You Should Watch Them

You should watch the Nashville Predators because they're one of those teams where becoming a fan gives you an entire little hockey culture to learn. You get Broadway, Smashville, gold jerseys, the saber-toothed tiger whose existence is literally based on bones found beneath downtown Nashville, catfish on the ice, the goalie chants, “THANKS, PAUL!”. This is a team who had Pekka Rinne and is trying to thrive with Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg. The 2017 Stanley Cup Final run and the 2018 Presidents' Trophy that followed was something explosive for Nashville. They’re also one of the strongest examples in the NHL of a nontraditional hockey market becoming completely legitimate.

The current team is interesting for a different reason. Nashville tried the glamorous free agent thing in 2024 and it didn't work as they missed the playoffs twice. Now there's a new general manager with a heavily redesigned forward group, a lot of draft picks, young players pushing upward, and several franchise veterans who do not have unlimited time left. Roman Josi is still one of the defining players in Predators history, Filip Forsberg just scored 40 goals, Steven Stamkos just scored 42, Juuse Saros is still carrying enormous workloads, Mavrik Bourque is getting a chance to become something bigger, And Chris MacFarland has spent his first three months basically rearranging every piece of furniture in the house.

Nashville isn't entering 2026-27 as a polished Stanley Cup favorite, but they’re not starting over either, they’re just a proud franchise with aging stars, an impatient fanbase, a new decision maker and absolutely no interest in wasting another season trying the same thing.