Nashville Predators: New Ownership Might Bring the Change We All Need

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A bombshell was dropped on Nashville Predators fans last week when in the dead of the offseason a major change at the very top appears to be occuring.

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To be clear, no it doesn’t involve General Manager David Poile. It actually goes above him. Former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam is in talks to eventually become the majority owner of the Nashville Predators, Per an original report from Eben Novy-Williams of Sportico:

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Talk about some major Nashville Predators news coming out of nowhere as we watch the 2022 Stanley Cup Final, and can’t get our minds off of the very real possibility of losing Filip Forsberg next month.

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Haslam is the brother of the well-known, and not-so-popular, owner of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, Jimmy Haslam. Let’s try to keep those two seperate, otherwise you’re going to hate this change in ownership and not be convinced otherwise.

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The Nashville Predators haven’t gone through much change in terms of ownership since 2007 when Predators Holdings LLC made the purchase of the franchise.

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Sean Henry, President and CEO of the Nashville Predators, echoed his excitement of adding Haslam to the ownership group and the desire to keep the team “local” and pursuing Stanley Cups each year, per the team’s official website:

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A new boss is coming to Smashville Initially this news got me feeling nauseous. After all, change can be scary. However, I quickly came off of that and actually feel rather optimistic about the change. Although maybe not on this large of a scale all the way at the top, this is kind of what we were askig for.

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Let’s face it; the Nashville Predators have been gradually becoming a stale franchise since their 2017 run to the Stanley Cup Final, and subsequently winning the Presidents Trophy the season after that. It’s been tough sledding since then.

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What angers myself, and many fans, is this franchise appears to be drifting listlessly into utter mediocrity. Not the worst team by any means, but certainly not a team you’re taking seriously to win a Stanley Cup anytime soon.

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A change in ownership from a large group of owners to a single majority owner can be a double-edged sword.

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It can work out magnificently if Haslam has that competitive desire to be a winning owner that brings the city of Nashville its first ever professional major sports championship. On the flip side, if he proves to be inept in building an NHL franchise, then this could get even worse as far as not having a vision.

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