The 2017-18 season marks the twentieth anniversary of the Nashville Predators’ existence. For most of those years, one key component has been missing. It’s something that makes pretenders into contenders, good teams into great teams, and brief periods of success into dynasties.
An elite first-line center.
That may read as a knock against some of the men that have served that role for Nashville in the past, and I would never mean to denigrate the likes of Mike Fisher & David Legwand. The fact of the matter is that as good as Fisher & Legwand were during their careers, they were never considered among the best of their position in the NHL.