From gritty hockey to offensive powerhouse, a look at the Nashville Predators' decade

Jon Garcia | Nashville Tennessean

The 2010s were a fantastic decade for the Nashville Predators.

They hosted an NHL All-Star Game, finally raised some banners to the rafters, brought home the Presidents' Trophy, made several high-profile trades and appeared in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time.

A cadre of explosive talent — both offensive and defensive — developed and thrived. In 2010, the Predators were known as a gritty, grinding, defensive minded team. Now they are known for high-scoring defensemen and dynamic, talented forwards. Those last three words were a mystery to the team 10 years ago.

Pekka Rinne cemented himself as one of the better goaltenders in the league. He won the Vezina Trophy as the league's best goalie in 2018.

Mike Fisher came in from Ottawa and endeared himself to the locals, playing in 429 games over eight years and earning the captaincy for two of them. He retired, came out of retirement, in hopes of helping the Preds win the Stanley Cup, then retired again.

And the NHL at large learned something that fans in Music City have known for years: Nashville is a thriving hockey market with devoted and raucous fans that make the atmosphere at 501 Broadway a can't-miss experience.

There were also a few hiccups along the way.

They fired Barry Trotz — the only coach the franchise had ever known — and brought in Stanley Cup winner Peter Laviolette, who still helms the bench. Since leaving Nashville, Trotz won two Jack Adams trophies as the NHL's best coach (with Washington in '16, with the Islanders in '18) and a Stanley Cup.

Former captain Shea Weber is once again in the Norris Trophy discussion — the award for the NHL's best defenseman — albeit with a different team. Weber was traded to the Montreal Canadiens for P.K. Subban in June of 2016. Subban himself was traded in the summer of 2019 for salary cap reasons.

But when looking at the names of roster players that started the decade with the ones that are finishing it, one really gets an idea of how much the NHL has changed.

Names like J.P. Dumont, Steve Sullivan, Ryan Suter, Jason Arnott, Patric Hornqvist, and David Legwand give way to Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, Filip Forsberg, Viktor Arvidsson, Ryan Johansen and Matt Duchene.

Funny enough, Dan Hamhuis will end both decades in a Predators uniform.

What will the 2020s have in store?

Nashville Predators 2009-10 roster

Forwards

Jason Arnott (C)

Wade Belak

Dustin Boyd

J.P. Dumont

Martin Erat

Marcel Goc

Patric Hornqvist

Ryan Jones

David Legwand

Cal O'Reilly

Mike Santorelli

Dave Scatchard

Jerred Smithson

Nick Spaling

Steve Sullivan

Andreas Thuresson

Jordin Tootoo

Joel Ward

Colin Wilson

Defense

Francis Bouillon

Cody Franson

Dan Hamhuis

Kevin Klein

Alexander Sulzer

Ryan Suter (A)

Shea Weber (A)

Goalies

Dan Ellis

Pekka Rinne

Nashville Predators 2019-20 roster

Forwards

Viktor Arvidson

Colin Blackwell

Nick Bonino

Matt Duchene

Filip Forsberg (A)

Mikael Granlund

Rocco Grimaldi

Calle Jarnkork

Ryan Johansen (A)

Colton Sissons

Craig Smith

Yakov Trenin

Kyle Turris

Austin Watson

Defense

Mattias Ekholm (A)

Ryan Ellis (A)

Dante Fabbro

Dan Hamhuis

Matt Irwin

Roman Josi (C)

Yannick Weber

Goalies