Nashville Predators: Who’s the Best Predator?
Let’s get it straight- the 33-year-old goaltender has been wrought with inconsistencies since having hip surgery a few years back, yes. But let there be no mistake, no one on the Nashville Predators roster has been the single best player on the ice for his team as many nights over their career as Pekka Rinne.
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Barry Trotz stacked his Predator team upon Rinne’s shoulders, and those shoulders carried an offensively underwhelming unit to the postseason on multiple occasions. And while the Finnish All-Star’s play has been shaky in recent times, he was able to flash his world-class form at pinnacle moments during last year’s playoffs.
If Rinne is able to consistently capture the elite-level play he displayed in Smashville for years, the Nashville Predators have as good a chance of capturing Stanley Cup hardware as anyone in the league.
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Veteran sniper and Alternate Captain James Neal deserves an honorable mention for being a constant on-ice threat to the opposition, and a slim argument could be made for tossing in winger Craig Smith, based solely on how bad the Predators looked without him in last year’s playoffs. No matter your opinion on the matter, having so many options for best player on the team is a fantastic problem for the Nashville Predators to have.