The Daily Faceoff Show: How significant is the sale of the Nashville Predators?
Frank Seravalli and Matt Larkin took in another inbox question on The Daily Faceoff Show, this time inquiring about the Nashville Predators being sold to former Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, and whether or not this is significant to the NHL.
Matt Larkin: “I think it’s significant, but also, the thing that jumps out to me is from the Predators perspective, just what it might mean for their identity. Because you look at Bill’s brother Jimmy, the owner of the Cleveland Browns, he’s really changed that franchise, made it more, I don’t want to say prestige franchise, but a loud franchise that makes plays for big time players. It changed the look, the branding of the team. If you look at the Nashville Predators, in the cap era, usually their spending, I was looking at the past five or six seasons, and they’re always at the bottom half of the league in their cap spending.
What I’m wondering is, will new ownership and a new identity make this a more aggressive franchise that tries to target the Johnny Gaudreaus of the world, spend to the very tip of the cap, spend extra money on coaching, whatever it is? So that’s what jumped out to me, just a possible identity change for the Nashville Predators, because yes, they’re a popular destination, I think at least for medium-level free agents, but I wouldn’t call them a top tier prestige destination. Would that change?”
Frank Seravalli: “It could change, and I also wonder what it means for management and off-ice as well. New ownership comes in, David Poile has been there such a long time, has chased that elusive Stanley Cup seemingly forever. The only general manager that that team has ever known, we still haven’t seen Barry Trotz land somewhere yet. There were reports in the last 48 hours that Barry Trotz purchased a home in Nashville. Does he have a front office role in his future with a franchise that he’s familiar with?
Great point by you about their spending. They’ve sort of been very conservative, and also an interesting ownership group as a whole, sixteen different members of that ownership group. It seems like they might have reached a point where they just simply couldn’t say no to this price that was offered by Bill Haslam as you mentioned.
And in this case, moving forward, I’d love to see what the valuation is. What’s the sale price of this franchise? 26 out of 32 in the NHL on Sportico’s franchise value rankings, we saw what the Pittsburgh Pengiuns went for. This could be a significant moment in terms of setting future franchise prices in the NHL, which has always lagged behind the other three major sports in North America.”
You can watch the full episode here…