Ice Hockey team

Nashville Predators

Club · United States · NHL

«The Preds»

514 Matches

249 wins

265 losses

1518–1595 Goals

−77 Difference

3.0 Scored per game

Form L W L W L L

It stopped being one in 1997, when the NHL awarded Craig Leipold's group an expansion franchise, and the city settled on a name by public vote that November: "Predators", a nod to a Smilodon skeleton dug up in Nashville in 1971. Barry Trotz took the first head coaching job, David Poile became general manager, and the pair spent a decade building a roster before the franchise nearly left town altogether — a 2007 attempt by Leipold to sell to Jim Balsillie set off relocation fears that only ended when a local ownership group bought the club in 2008 for roughly $193 million.

The Preds play at Bridgestone Arena, in front of 17,159 seats of gold and navy. Josi wears the captaincy now and holds the franchise scoring record, but the longer shadow belongs to Pekka Rinne, whose 311 wins and 51 shutouts still stand atop the club's goaltending list and who won the Vezina Trophy in 2018. That 2017-18 season remains the high point on paper: a 53-18-11 record, the Presidents' Trophy for the league's best regular-season mark, and the first of two straight Central Division titles.

The run that mattered more came a year earlier. In 2016-17, Nashville beat Anaheim to take the Western Conference and reached its only Stanley Cup Final, where Pittsburgh beat them in six games despite Jason Arnott's game-winning goal in the deciding match. Chicago has since become the team fans point to as the real rival, sharpened by sixteen playoff meetings across the 2010s, while Winnipeg earned its own grudge by eliminating the Preds in a Game 7 in 2018. What the franchise still hasn't managed, through all of it, is a Stanley Cup.

Latest results

Fixtures and results

14 Oct	NHL	Vegas Golden Knights H	2:5	L
11 Oct	NHL	Ottawa Senators A	2:3	L
9 Oct	NHL	Montreal Canadiens A	5:2	W
7 Oct	NHL	Toronto Maple Leafs A	4:5	L
4 Oct	NHL	Dallas Stars H	2:1	W
2 Oct	NHL	Minnesota Wild H	1:3	L

Standing

NHL

Group stage · Central Division

#	Team	M	W	L	Goals
2	Utah Mammoth	4	2	2	13:12
4	Colorado Avalanche	4	2	2	10:8
5	Minnesota Wild	4	1	3	7:10
6	Winnipeg Jets	4	1	3	8:13
7	Dallas Stars	6	2	4	13:11
7	St. Louis Blues	4	1	3	5:7
8	Chicago Blackhawks	7	2	5	17:29
8	Nashville Predators	4	1	3	9:16