Nashville Predators: Ranking the Best Draft Classes in Team History

We’re just a week away from the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, and the Nashville Predators are one of those teams that’s hard to pinpoint on who they might be targeting.

This figures to be an unpredictable draft due to so many leagues cancelling their seasons in 2020 and there being not as much to go off of in terms of scouting as there usually is.

More than ever you might see late-round draft picks turn out to be superstars eventually. Going off the gut instinct is something you’re going to see a lot of from NHL general managers in this year.

The Nashville Predators need another strong draft class this year. They can’t have one full of busts that never make it to the NHL level. It seems like a new era of hockey is coming to Nashville, but you have to draft smart to avoid becoming a lottery pick team.

I left off draft classes post-2015 as the book is still be written on these draft picks with players like Alexandre Carrier, Eeli Tolvanen, Dante Fabbro and Rem Pitlick. We should get a clearer sense of these four recent draft picks in 2021-22.

It’s time to go back down memory lane and check out some of the best draft classes in Nashville Predators history.

Nashville Predators make their first draft pick in 1998

I’m starting this countdown off with the draft pick that started it all, and that’s David Legwand. I get that this draft class wasn’t what you would call “star studded”, but the Predators didn’t screw up by taking the wrong player at the 2nd overall pick.

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This is widely considered a weak draft class, and the Predators made the best possible choice by taking Legwand, a player that to this day still leads a lot of major statistical categories including goals (210), assists (356) and games played (956).

Even the second-round pick from that year wasn’t a total bust. Denis Arkhipov went on to play 273 games and put up 111 points for Nashville once he got onto the NHL ice for the 2000-01 season.

In the 9th round the Predators took Karlis Skrastins, a defenseman who ended up playing 307 games for Nashville and logged an average ice time of over 20 minutes per game. You’ll take that every time from a late round draft pick.

The rest of the draft class really didn’t pan out, but you can say that for pretty much every team from that draft.

The first Predators superstar is drafted

There’s no way I was going to leave out the draft class that included Shea Weber, a player who will always be right up there with Pekka Rinne as one of the all-time greats of the franchise.

Weber was drafted in the 2nd round at the 49th pick overall, and was the fourth player taken in that 2003 draft class by the Nashville Predators. His future defensive linemate Ryan Suter was taken in the firs round, followed by another defenseman in Kevin Klein at the 37th-overall pick.

The Predators had three 2nd-round picks in this draft, but had a blunder with one of them by drafting Konstantin Glazachev, who never logged NHL ice time.

Still, this draft class was fruitful as the franchise took on the persona of being a defensive-minded club that was hard to play against. Klein was underrated as he went on to have a very productive NHL career, and of course we know all about Suter and Weber.

These picks is are important ones for the Predators as they gradually were rising into being a perennial playoff team.

A legend is drafted late in the 2004 Draft

Try not to get teary eyed on this one, but I couldn’t omit the 2004 Nashville Predators draft class thanks to one man. The undisputed G.O.A.T of the franchise and the player that played a major part in the Predators becoming a successful NHL franchise in Nashville.

Pekka Rinne was drafted all the way back in the 8th round, proving that you can find legendary players in any part of the draft. It does take a lot of luck, and the Predators were definitely lucky to draft Rinne so far back in the draft.

I realize this draft class as a whole is a bust, but Poile and his scouts made the pick of all picks to set this franchise up as a viable contender for nearly every season to come after drafting Rinne and getting him into the NHL crease as a regular starter.

There’s also Alexander Radulov who was taken at the 15th-overall pick. It’s turned out to be a great pick even though it didn’t work out in Nashville long-term. He ignited the fanbase at the time with his ability to score and his energy.

What could’ve been if Radulov hadn’t pushed his way out of Nashville and been a long-time Predator? Either way, the pick itself proved to be a good one as Radulov still has a vital role in the NHL as he’s coming up on the 350-poin mark for his NHL career.

Best draft class top to bottom

It’s hard to grade draft classes against each other because almost all of them are full of busts. Drafting is extremely difficult in all sports, but especially true in hockey.

For the sake of this rankings list I built for the Predators draft classes, I looked for drafts where the team drafted the most players who made the biggest impacts on the NHL level.

The 2009 draft class sticks out more than any other draft. They drafted four players who ended up making huge impacts on the NHL level, and two of them are still big parts of the Predators blueline in Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm.

In current times Ellis is getting a lot of criticism in Predators fan circles for being overrated and not worthy of top-line status. Maybe there’s slight truth to that in 2021, but for almost all of his career he’s been a top-line defenseman who has helped make the Predators a very good team.

Then you have Ekholm, who was taken in the 4th round at the 102nd overall pick. A huge steal considering what he has become, and what hopefully he still can be even going into the 2021-22 season.

Craig Smith, who played for the Predators all the way into 2020, was taken in this draft class as well in the 4th round, and just four picks before Ekholm. What a couple of picks by Poile. This is the kind of stuff general managers live for. Finding mid-round gems like Smith and Ekholm.

And not to be overlooked, Gabriel Bourque was taken in this draft in the 5th round. His NHL career came up rather short unfortunately, but he did give the Predators 242 games and 78 points.

Honorable Mention

I came really close to putting the 2013 draft class in my top-five, which included Seth Jones and Juuse Saros. If Jones would’ve spent longer in Nashville then you’d have a strong case, and Saros’ future could warrant moving this ahead of the 1998 drafting of Legwand.

It was also tempting to add 2014 into the list with Kevin Fiala and Viktor Arvidsson taken in this draft. But again, Fiala wasn’t here long enough to make his full impact on the franchise.