Preds offer Vegas Golden Knights an expansion model to follow
The first ever draft pick of the Nashville Predators was still paying dividends almost 20 years later when the club reached the Stanley Cup final for the first time.
If there is a model for the Vegas Golden Knights to follow as the NHL’s 31st team enters its first draft Friday in Chicago, it might just be the Preds, an expansion squad in 1998 that built itself into annual playoff contender and eventual Stanley Cup finalist through years of shrewd drafting and player development.
David Legwand, that famed first Predators pick in 1998, was traded to Detroit in 2014 in a package that netted the club then-Swedish prospect Calle Jarnkrok, who became a helpful contributor during the Predators unlikely run to the final — which ended in a six-game defeat to the back-to-back champion Pittsburgh Penguins.
David Poile is ultimately responsible for the larger strategy of the Preds, guiding the team since day one following a lengthy tenure with the Washington Capitals where he was replaced by George McPhee, now the first GM of the Golden Knights.