5 historically bad Nashville Predators teams and how they finished their seasons

The past Predators teams in the early years had a massive talent gap to compete, but the same cannot be said about the 2024-25 Predators who are flirting with their worst standings finish in their 26 years of existence.
Predators v Capitals
Predators v Capitals | Mitchell Layton/GettyImages
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Joel Bouchard #42...
Joel Bouchard #42... | Stephen Dunn/GettyImages

3. 1999-2000 Nashville Predators: 28-40-7-7 (70 Points)

Leading Point Scorer: Cliff Ronning, 62 PTS

The still infant Nashville Predators were in their second season as an NHL franchise, and the expectations were extremely low. Fans were still happy to just have a team, and a little progress was really all people were hoping for. That and fights, fights and more fights.

If progress was all you were looking for, then the Predators did slightly improve from their inaugural season, but not by much. Like many of it's bad finishes in their history, the Predators couldn't find the back of the net, going 25th out of 28 teams with 2.43 goals per game.

Not too far below the current Predators team in 2025. Just pathetic for this year's Predators team to barely be outscoring a 1999-2000 Predators roster that had very little superstar talent. In fact, I don't think you can count one as being superstar level in 1999-2000, although you had some decent players like Cliff Ronning and Kimmo Timonen.

The 1999-2000 Predators would lose seven of their last nine games, but did mix in a five-game point streak in mid-March. The Predators would close the season out by getting walloped by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim by a 5-1 score. They would land the sixth overall pick in the next draft and select Scott Hartnell.

2. 2001-02 Nashville Predators, Going Backwards: 28-41-13 (69 PTS)

Leading Point Scorer: Cliff Ronning, 49 PTS

After an encouraging 80-point season and two straight years of improving their season point totals, the 2001-02 Predators would get knocked back down a peg. Proof of how difficult it was to build a winning team from expansion back then.

It wasn't all doom and gloom, however. The team had some young talent, led by Martin Erat's rookie season of 33 points in 80 games. Kimmo Timonen was a high quality defenseman with 42 points, and the 19-year-old Scott Hartnell played with a lot of swagger. At least we could see something being built. A foundation to eventually making the playoffs.

The Predators would pile up a lot of losses in the final 20 games 2001-2002. They would only win two games over the last five weeks of the season. They would secure the sixth-overall pick in the 2002 draft, and would swing and miss badly by taking Scottie Upshall.

Upshall wasn't a terrible NHL player by any means, but never lived up to top-10 status and only played in 77 games for the Predators.

If you're going to have a 69-point season, a direction the Predators are heading in, you better make sure you hit a home run with your high draft pick. To the defense of the 2002 Predators, that draft class was pretty weak all the way around.