SECAUCUS, NEW JERSEY - JULY 23: A general view of the draft board from the first round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft at the NHL Network studios on July 23, 2021 in Secaucus, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
In the first round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, we received another clear sign of the Nashville Predators’ direction. They selected not one but two forwards whose strengths suit Nashville for purely aggressive, hard-working hockey.
For the 2019-2020 season and much of the 2020-2021 campaign, one of the main complaints about the Predators was that they had no identity and were unable to play cohesively.