Chicago Blackhawks: Central Division preview for 2019-20

Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators have been one of the best teams in the NHL for a while now. They have boasted one of the leagues best defenses with players like P.K. Subban, Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, and Mattias Ekholm. They are going to have a bit of a different look this year as they dealt P.K. Subban to the New Jersey Devils. It was a cap dump as they didn’t get the return you would think for a player of Subban’s caliber.

They have elite goaltending in Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros is one of the best backups in the league. They are set at that position as well so between the solid defense and the good goaltending they will be a good team once again. They won the Central Division last year with a record of 47-29-6 for 100 points. The Blackhawks, not surprisingly, didn’t have much success against them as they went 1-2-1 for three points out of a possible eight.

Not much is going to change for them this year, as they should be one of the Western Conference powerhouses once again. They have great forwards as well like Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen, and Viktor Arvidsson. They also got a boost by adding one of the best free-agent forwards in Matt Duchene. He signed a long term contract with Nashville and should bring another element of the offense to their already awesome group.

Nashville is a team that expects to win the Stanley Cup and anything less would be a disappointment. Unfortunately for them, they are not the only team in the Western Conference with that mindset. This should be another good year for the Predators.