Five big moves made the Predators into a Stanley Cup scoring threat
Nashville is no longer a defense-only franchise.
Hello! It’s time for the Stanley Cup Final.
Yes, I know. This makes no sense. The Nashville Predators are in the Stanley Cup Final. They won the Western Conference.
Not the Los Angeles Kings or Chicago Blackhawks, who’ve represented that conference in the Cup Final five of the last eight seasons. Or perennial playoff contenders like the St. Louis Blues or San Jose Sharks.
No, it’s the Predators. And if you’re a casual hockey fan you may have some outdated preconceptions about them. Namely, that they can’t score.
Defending has never been an issue for Nashville, who landed a top-tier goalie in Pekka Rinne and a shutdown defenseman in Shea Weber and built out from there.
Their general manager, David Poile, is admired across the league for his eye for defensive talent. But top scorers always eluded Nashville, keeping them from making deep runs when they made the playoffs for years.
No longer. Over the last three seasons, the Predators have ranked 11th in the NHL with 2.80 goals per game. They have a handful of true scoring threats up front.
The kicker? Few of them were actually drafted by Nashville. And the ones that were kind of came out of nowhere. Let’s figure out how exactly the Predators went from a low-scoring franchise to a threatening Stanley Cup Final contender.
2012 - Predators acquire Mike Fisher from the Senators
At 36 years old and slowing down a bit, it’s easy to forget that Fisher was a well-regarded two-way player when the Predators traded for him back in 2011. Just look at the cost: Nashville relinquished that year’s first-round pick for him.
Fisher has since settled in as a penalty killing forward with offensive upside, even in the twilight of his career. Every few seasons with the Predators, Fisher puts up a nice 40-50 point campaign. This was one of those years.
That used to make him one of the team’s top scorers.
2013- The Forsberg Theft™
Every fanbase can point to one trade by their team that will haunt them forever. The one move that makes them grit their teeth and shake their head whenever it resurfaces in their memories.
The Forsberg trade qualifies for Capitals fans. Forsberg, the 11th-overall pick in 2012, didn’t even crack the Caps roster before Washington traded him the next April to the Predators.
For nothing, really. The return was Martin Erat and Michael Latta. The pair combined for six goals in 175 games. Forsberg once scored that many goals in one game for Nashville, so ...
Forsberg is probably the best (and first?) elite scorer the Predators have ever had, with 91 goals and 191 points in 264 NHL games. He is special, and acquiring him was the hockey coup of the decade.
2014 - Neal for Hornqvist
This was a pretty interesting move at the time. Neal had scored 40 goals in his first full season with Pittsburgh and finished just shy of 30 the season before this trade. Hornqvist had never been a prolific scorer, but he owned an edgy side the Penguins lacked.
Whatever the reasons for the trade, Poile had just added another elite goal-scorer to his forward group. Neal hit the 30-goal mark last season but injuries have kept him from reaching his full potential so far. Even so, he finished third on the team with 23 goals this season behind Forsberg and ...
2014 - Drafting Viktor Arvidsson
The 5’9 winger from Sweden sat and watched 111 players get drafted before the Predators took a chance on him in the fourth round. It’s not like he earned that fall. His draft year totals in Sweden (16 goals, 40 points in 50 games) would make most players a higher pick.
Maybe his height scared teams off, like so many other players. And like Johnny Gaudreau and Jonathan Marchessault before him, Arvidsson thrived when given a chance in the NHL. “Arvy” broke out this year with 31 goals and 61 points, one of just 25 players this season to crack the 30-goal mark.
And the kid is just electric.
Good scouting, development and risk-taking get you players like that when the rest of the league zags on draft day.
2016 - Ryan Johansen solves their center problem
Obviously the Predators weren’t planning for this day when they took stud defenseman Seth Jones fourth overall in the 2013 draft. But when Blue Jackets management soured on Ryan Johansen, the Predators and Blue Jackets suddenly had players the other team could desperately use.
Johansen erased most doubts about his worth this season with 61 points and 47 assists (sixth-best among NHL centers). And he was a legitimate Conn Smythe candidate before a hit in the conference finals caused an acute compartment syndrome (basically a massive and rapid swelling that chokes blood supply) in his left thigh. Between Forsberg, Arvidsson and Johansen, the Predators owned one of the best top lines in the NHL this year.
That’s a claim the Predators have never been able to make. And it’s remarkable how they built their scoring prowess without sacrificing their strengths on defense or in goal. Every trade for a new top forward was either a clear win for Nashville or a fair move for all parties.
Nashville’s front office was as opportunistic as they were patient, both in development and waiting for the market and the right players to come to them. It resulted in a multi-faceted team that has a greater chance than you think of winning the Stanley Cup.