During his first season as general manager, Barry Trotz never labeled his efforts as rebuilding, retooling, or just attempting to reset the Nashville Predators.
Revival may be the best way to define what he has done for the NHL franchise he helped create more than a quarter century ago.
Not only has Trotz helped the Predators restore their “Smashville” character, but Nashville has returned to the Stanley Cup playoffs a year after missing the title race for the first time since the 2013-14 season. That was Trotz’s final season as the expansion team’s only head coach since its inception in 1998-99.
His return to his previous squad has been a resounding success thus far.
The Predators won’t know who they’ll face in the first round until later this week, but when the playoffs begin this weekend, Nashville will be there for the ninth time in ten seasons and the sixteenth time in twenty.
“Smashville… was a place where you didn’t want to come in on a Saturday night and have to play the Predators, because you’re just trying to get out, and I think we got away from that,” Trotz said Tuesday, a day after Nashville finished 47-30-5 after losing 4-2 on the road to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Captain Roman Josi, who played his first three NHL seasons under Trotz, said it was wonderful hearing that Trotz would return as the Predators’ new general manager.
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