The visiting Nashville Predators were granted an expansion franchise in June 1997 and can celebrate a 20th anniversary next year, although they will most likely wait until the 2018-19 season to put a 20-year patch on their jerseys since the team began NHL play in the 1998-99 season, joining the Blues, Blackhawks and Red Wings in the Central Division, the only division the Predators have been in since inception.
In September 1997 owner Craig Leipold and team president Jack Diller held a press conference in order to unveil the franchise’s new logo, a saber-toothed cat (Smilodon floridanus), a reference to skeletal remains unearthed in Nashville when the First American National Bank was built.