The Nashville Predators entered last season with legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations following the high-profile additions of Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei.
The team also secured goaltender Juuse Saros with an eight-year contract extension. General manager Barry Trotz essentially went “all-in” to bring the Stanley Cup to Nashville for the first time, but the team fell far short of realizing that goal.
Amidst speculation that Stamkos regretted his decision to sign with the Predators, he immediately pushed back on that notion.
“The people that are asking that question are also the people that were picking the Nashville Predators to go to the Stanley Cup Final, right?” he said via The Athletic. “We all thought something was going to happen, and it didn’t. We all thought that Nashville had a great year (two seasons ago) and made the playoffs, we added some really good players and important pieces, and we were just going to build on that. I mean, yeah, you make a decision not because you think you’re going to fail. You’re making that decision because you think you’re going to be part of something that’s going to grow into something successful.
“Once you make that decision, there’s no going back on it. It was a disappointing year, for sure. But it is what it is. I think the Tampa situation is in the rear-view mirror.”
In his first season with the Predators, Stamkos scored 27 goals with 26 assists while playing in all 82 regular season games, but has yet to light the lamp in each of the first four games of this season.
Steven Stamkos chose to sign with the Predators last offseason
Stamkos, whom the Tampa Bay Lightning made the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 NHL Draft, had spent his entire career with the franchise and was later even named team captain.
He led the Lightning to three straight appearances in the Stanley Cup Final, two of which resulted in Stanley Cup wins. But after failing to come to terms with the Lightning on a new contract, he chose to make a major career change and ultimately joined the Predators with a four-year, $32 million contract.
Nashville was one of the most disappointing teams in the NHL last season, but has a modest 2-1-1 record through the first four games of the current season.
