Looking Back at the Five Best Regular Seasons in Nashville Predators History
The Predators just set a franchise record for point streak at 16 games after beating another one of the NHL's heavyweights, the Florida Panthers.
2018-19 Nashville Predators: 100 PTS, 1st In Central Division
Leader In PTS: Ryan Johansen- 64
Leader in Goals: Viktor Ardvisson- 34
Starting Goalie: Pekka Rinne- 30 Wins, .918 SV%, 2.42 GAA, 4 Shutouts
Backup Goalie: Juuse Saros- 17 Wins, .915 SV%, 2.62 GAA, 3 Shutouts
Following the Presidents Trophy season, the Predators remained a strong regular season team and their Stanley Cup window was still viewed as being open even after a crushing 2nd Round exit to the Winnipeg Jets in seven games.
The Predators were a deep team this year, with 11 players hitting 30 points or more. For comparison, this year's team currently has seven players with 30-plus points, with Ryan McDonagh just needs two more points to be eights player to hit that mark this season.
Johansen piled up the assists this season with 50, which at the time was the third-most for a season in franchise history. It ranks as the sixth-most now.
The goal scoring was also spread out with 26 players scoring at least one goal, with Arvidsson leading the team with 34. Filip Forsberg came right behind that with 28 goals.
This was the second-straight year of the Predators winning the Central Division, and also their second overall in franchise history. They haven't come close to winning the division since then.
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What really carried this team in 2018-19 regular season was stellar goaltending from both Pekka Rinne and the emergence of Juuse Saros as his trustworthy sidekick. Everyone saw the future of the crease was for Saros as Rinne was nearing the end of his illustrious NHL career.
The Predators would rank third in the NHL in goals against per game, allowing only 2.59 per game. They were also excellent on the penalty kill ranking sixth in the NHL at 82.1 percent.
The bad memories of this team reside in the postseason when they fell apart in the first round losing to the Dallas Stars in six games. That doesn't take away that it was one of the best regular season campaigns in team history, making the first round exit all the more painful.
2005-06 Nashville Predators: 106 PTS, 2nd in Central Division
Leader in PTS: Paul Kariya- 84
Leader in Goals: Paul Kariya, Steve Sullivan- 31
Starting Goalie: Tomas Vokoun- 36 Wins, .919 SV%, 2.67 GAA, 4 Shutouts
Backup Goalie: Chris Mason- 12 Wins, .913 SV%, 2.54 GAA, 2 Shutouts
The year that Paul Kariya arrived to Smashville and the Nashville Predators arrived on the NHL scene as a team to be taken seriously after some difficult years building from an expansion franchise.
Kariya showed the Predators fans some elite offensive skill that they had never seen. In fact, the Predators were still gradually growing hockey in the South and many fans were still learning the ins and outs of the beautiful game.
The Predators had a blend of veterans and young talent to lean on this year. Kariya of course led the way, but Sullivan made for an awesome one-two veteran punch to be the leaders.
Scott Hartnell broke into the NHL at a very young age of 18, and was already in his fifth NHL season at this point and set a career high in 2005-06 with 25 goals and 48 points as an important complementary scorer to Kariya and Sullivan.
You also had Martin Erat as a vital depth piece and still very early in his NHL career at age 24. He had 49 points in 80 games.
The defensive corps was also impressive, although very young and unproven. Shea Weber was new to the scene, as was Ryan Suter. Marek Zidlicky was only 28-years-old, but posted a 49-point season as a defenseman.
In what is a common theme in Predators history, the goaltending was rock solid. The days before Pekka Rinne, there was Tomas Vokoun. He finished fourth in the Vezina Trophy voting during this year, and Chris Mason was a quality backup to Vokoun.
The Predators were top-10 in penalty kill, power play and goals against per game. They made a return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second consecutive year but lost in five games to the San Jose Sharks in the first round. But we knew at that point they were building something sustainable.
2014-15 Nashville Predators: 104 PTS, 2nd in Central Division
Leader in PTS: Filip Forsberg- 63
Leader in Goals: Filip Forsberg- 26
Starting Goalie: Pekka Rinne- 41 Wins, .923 SV%, 2.18 GAA, 4 Shutouts
The year a Nashville Predators legend really took off; Filip Forsberg. A player that is still propelling the Predators a decade later.
This was considered Forsberg's NHL rookie season even though he played in 18 games combined the previous two seasons. To this date it's still the best rookie campaign in Predators history, and no one has really come close.
Forsberg finished fourth in the Calder Trophy race, playing in all 82 regular season games, getting on the All-Rookie team while averaging over 17 minutes of ice time at 20-years-old.
This was also Roman Josi's second fulltime season in the NHL at age 24, recording 55 points and finishing 5th in the Norris Trophy voting. He hasn't looked back since.
As for Pekka Rinne, he was already well-established as the cornerstone of the Predators franchise. He would start in 64 games and finish second place in the Vezina Trophy voting.
This was Year 1 of Peter Laviolette as the franchise's second head coach after taking over for Barry Trotz. The team missed the playoffs the year before, and it was finally time to shift to a different philosophy.
Laviolette's system took many more risks on offense and pushed the pace more than what fans were used to up to that point in the franchise's history. The quick turnaround in the first year under Laviolette is impressive, and reminds me a little of what we're seeing now under Andrew Brunette in Year 1 of his tenure.
The Predators were very much carried by Pekka Rinne to get to 106 points this year. He had 43 quality starts and lost out to Carey Price for the Vezina Trophy.
2006-07 Nashville Predators: 110 PTS, 2nd In Central Division
Leader in PTS: Paul Kariya- 76
Leader in Goals: David Legwand, Jason Arnott- 27
Starting Goalies: Tomas Vokoun- 27 Wins, .920 SV%, 2.40 GAA Chris Mason: 24 Wins, .925 SV%
First off, to finish with 110 points in the standings and not claim a division title is just a travesty. But unfortunately the Predators were sharing a division with the Detroit Red Wings who finished three points ahead.
Yet again, the goaltending really was Nashville's backbone. Both Vokoun and Mason basically split the workload and each put up equally elite level numbers. The team save percentage between the duo was an incredible .922. Just unheard for goalies to split the regular season games.
This is also arguably one of the deepest offensive teams the Predators have had in their history, even dating to current times. The team finished fourth in goal scoring with 272 goals, and to give you an idea of where they're at here in 2024, they have 228 goals with 12 games remaining. So to do some quick math, the Predators need to average over 3.5 goals per game over their last 12 to surpass the 2006-07 team's goal total.
Paul Kariya was back for Year 2 with the Predators and only saw a slight regression in his point total from 84 to 76 points. Those 76 points is still sixth-most for a season in franchise history.
What's really impressive about the 2006-07 is the depth. Seven point scorers with 50 or more points. This year's team will likely have no more than five, with Tommy Novak needing 11 points in the last 12 games to be No.5 on this team with 50-plus points.
This team was loaded with reliable veterans with Kariya, Sullivan, David Legwand, Jason Arnott, Kimmo Timonen and J.P. Dumont. They just couldn't get by the Sharks who had their number two postseasons in a row.
2017-18 Nashville Predators: 117 PTS, 1st In Central Division
Leader in PTS: Filip Forsberg- 64
Leader in Goals: Viktor Arvidsson- 29
Starting Goalie: Pekka Rinne- 42 Wins, .927 SV%, 2.31 GAA Backup: Juuse Saros- 11 Wins, .925 SV%
There was little suspense involved that the Presidents Trophy season would be at the top of this list of best regular seasons in Predators history. The banner jokes were born out of this fateful season.
All of that aside, this team was a wagon for sure. They had just gone to the Stanley Cup Final unexpectedly and gave the Sidney Crosby led Pittsburgh Penguins a hard fight in six games, and should've gone seven.
You can also say that this was when the front office began to make some poor long-term signings, most notably the Kyle Turris signing that still haunts this team.
But just looking at the regular season, the Predators were extremely hard to score against thanks to Pekka Rinne's Vezina Trophy campaign with eight shutouts and a .927 save percentage. The emergence of Juuse Saros as his quality backup also helped in 23 starts with a .923 save percentage.
The Predators enjoyed balanced offensive output as well. They weren't top heavy by any means with Forsberg leading the team with 64 points, Arvidsson with 61 and Johansen with 54 to spearhead Nashville's JoFA line. Similar top line domination to what we're seeing currently with Ryan O'Reilly, Forsberg and Gus Nyquist.
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P.K. Subban going for 59 points as a defenseman, and Roman Josi chipping in with his normal offensive output of 53 points gave Nashville one of the best, if not the best, bluelines in the NHL that season.
Craig Smith and Calle Jarnkrok were key role players to the offense, and even Scott Hartnell made a return to Smashville at age 35 and chipped in 25 points.
The Predators were 7th in the NHL in goals scored with 261 and 2nd in goals against only allowing 204. Their penalty kill was 6th at 81.9 percent and their power play was just outside the top-10 at 21.3 percent.
Fast forwarding back to the current team, if they can just win seven of their last 12 remaining games they'll achieve the 100-point threshold for the 8th time in franchise history.
Does this team have a chance to be included in your top-5 best regular season teams in Predators history if they finish off strong in the final 12 games? Let me know @chad_minton on X.