In an off-season that was largely devoted to signing the multitude of the Nashville Predators pending free agents to new contracts, Dave Poile’s signing of Barrett Jackman to a two-year $4 million contract was a largely unappreciated move at the time.
A career St. Louis Blue, Jackman wasn’t given the opportunity to re-sign with the team that had selected him 17th overall in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft and Dave Poile wasted no time adding the gritty veteran to the Predators roster to round out Nashville’s already formidable defensive depth. Now after a year of wearing the Predators gold, Jackman had a solid, if subtle, impact on the team and in particular its younger defenders.