Central Division Championship 2019–20

Lore & Background

The 2019–20 Predators were built on a philosophy that Roman Josi and head coach Peter Laviolette had been refining since the 2017 Conference Final run. The blueprint was simple in principle and brutal in execution: control the neutral zone, kill the puck, and let Pekka Rinne make the saves that kept the scoreboard quiet. Opposing teams learned quickly that scoring on Nashville required sustained, sustained pressure, and even then Rinne was often there to deny them. The team's goals-against numbers were among the best in the league, and their penalty-kill unit was a wall that few power-play units could breach consistently.

The roster blended veteran grit with emerging talent. Ryan O'Reilly, acquired at the 2019 trade deadline, brought a two-way forward presence that complemented the existing core of Filip Forsberg, Ryan Strome, and Marco Scandella. The defense, anchored by Josi and Mattias Ekholm, was a physical and puck-moving unit that dictated the pace of every game. Even the depth players—Juuso Valimaki, Colton Sissons, and the young forwards—bought into the system with an intensity that made the team feel larger than its roster.

The season's abrupt end in March 2020 left a bittersweet residue. The Predators had earned a first-round bye and were positioned to make a deep playoff run, but the league's suspension meant no Stanley Cup, no overtime heroics, no summer celebration. For Nashville fans, the division title became a monument to what was possible—a season that played out like a championship run in regular-season form, frozen in time by forces no hockey team could control.

In Their Own Story

The arena lights hummed their low, electric buzz over the ice as the final horn sounded. Roman Josi dropped his stick on the boards, skates carving a shallow crescent in the white surface, and let out a breath he'd been holding for sixty minutes. Around him, teammates converged in a loose cluster—Ekholm grabbing Forsberg's shoulder, O'Reilly already pointing at the Jumbotron where the division standings were frozen in their final, dominant configuration. In the crease, Pekka Rinne peeled off his mask, ran a hand through his hair, and simply nodded. No roar. No speech. Just the quiet acknowledgment of a job done the hard way, shift after shift, save after save. The ice beneath his skates was scarred and pitted, a map of every battle fought that night. Somewhere in the stands, a family of four clapped in slow, stunned rhythm. The season was over—not finished, not celebrated, just… over. And yet, in that frozen moment, it was enough. It was everything they'd built for.

Reader's Guide

Central Division Title – 2019–20 Season

The Nashville Predators finished the 2019–20 regular season as the top-ranked team in the NHL's Central Division, ahead of the Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, Winnipeg Jets, Minnesota Wild, Colorado Avalanche, and Columbus Blue Jackets. The title was earned through a league-leading defensive structure and goaltending, with Roman Josi captaining the unit and Pekka Rinne anchoring the net.

Status: Historical record. Division titles are awarded each season, so this specific 2019–20 standing is a fixed point in franchise history. It remains the Predators' most recent Central Division title as of the last completed regular season before the pandemic.

Context note: Because the 2019–20 playoffs were never played, this division crown carries no playoff-validation. It stands as a regular-season achievement only, which Nashville fans often cite when discussing the team's peak defensive identity. The record is not 'broken' in any meaningful sense—it simply belongs to that season.

The achievement is frequently referenced alongside the 2017 Conference Final run as evidence that the Predators' structured, defensive style could compete with the league's most talented rosters.

Did You Know?

• The 2019–20 Predators' defensive system was so effective that their goals-against average placed them among the top three teams in the entire NHL, a testament to a team built more on structure than individual scoring tal
• Pekka Rinne, in his final season with Nashville, was the emotional and statistical anchor of the division-title run, and his departure after the 2020–21 season marked the end of an era for the franchise.
• The season's suspension meant the Predators never used their first-round playoff bye, making the 2019–20 division title the one Nashville achievement that was never stress-tested in postseason hockey.
• Roman Josi, the captain who led the team to the division crown, had been with the Predators since 2012, making the 2019–20 run the culmination of nearly a decade of growth within the organization.