The next round of expansion began in the fall of 1996. Eleven prospective ownership groups from nine different cities made formal applications for an NHL expansion franchise. Groups from Hamilton, Norfolk (Virginia), Oklahoma City and three from Houston were unsuccessful in convincing the NHL's expansion committee that they merited franchises, while four bids were accepted and conditional franchises were awarded to groups in Atlanta, Columbus (Ohio), St. Paul and Nashville on June 25, 1997. (The eleventh bid from a group in Raleigh, North Carolina was withdrawn early due to stalled negotiations over the building of a new arena there. In May of 1997 Peter Karmanos, owner of the Hartford Whalers, announced that his team was relocating to North Carolina to begin play in the fall of '97; the Carolina Hurricanes played at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro for two seasons until the new arena in Raleigh was completed.) The NHL met its goal of having 28 member clubs by 2000.
The four new franchises wouldn't all begin playing at the same time. Columbus and St. Paul would begin play in 2000, Atlanta in 1999 and Nashville in 1998. Nashville would go first, only a year after the announcement, because their new arena was already built and open. (Philips Arena in Atlanta broke ground 20 days before the expansion announcement. The new arenas in Columbus and St. Paul wouldn't break ground until 1998.)
It didn't take Nashville owner Craig Leipold long to begin assembling his hockey operations staff. David Poile, long-time general manager of the Washington Capitals, was hired to the same position in Nashville on July 9, 1997. Head coach Barry Trotz and assistant coach Paul Gardner were hired less than a month later; they had filled the same positions with the Portland Pirates of the AHL, top affiliate of the Capitals. After the team's logo was revealed in September they held a "name the team" contest: they would be known as the Nashville Predators.
The Rules of the Draft
The rules of the 1998 Expansion Draft were similar to the rules of the draft in 1993 with a few changes.
In 1993 the existing clubs were allowed to protect one goaltender, five defencemen and nine forwards, which had significant ramifications on their rosters. In the weeks leading up to the 1993 Expansion Draft several trades involving goaltenders were made in order for the existing teams to better position themselves to stem their losses due to the draft. John Vanbiesbrouck, Ron Hextall, Mark Fitzpatrick, Stephane Beauregard, Jimmy Waite, Peter Sidorkiewicz and Craig Billington were among the goalies moved (Vanbiesbrouck and Fitzpatrick were chosen in the draft).
It was decided that in the 1998, 1999 and 2000 drafts the existing clubs would be allowed protect the same number of players as they had in 1993 or they could choose to protect two goaltenders, three defencemen and seven forwards instead. They could enjoy the privilege of protecting two goaltenders at the expense of leaving more defencemen and forwards exposed.
It was known that there would be an expansion draft in 1999 for the Atlanta Thrashers so the existing clubs were afforded a couple more small concessions in 1998: if they lost a goaltender in 1998 they would be exempt from losing one in the 1999 draft, and they would be allowed to each protect an additional forward or defenceman in 1998. (In effect the teams had the option of protecting one goaltender, five defencemen and ten forwards; one goalie, six defencemen and nine forwards; two goalies, three defencemen and eight forwards; or two goalies, four defencemen and seven forwards.) First and second year players were exempt, as were unsigned North American entry draft choices. Unsigned European draft choices from the 1994 Entry Draft and earlier drafts were eligible for claim.
The existing clubs were compelled to expose players with minimum levels of NHL experience as well, as they had been in the 1993 draft. Each would have to expose at least one defenceman and two forwards with a minimum of 40 games played in the NHL in 1997-98 or 75 games over the course of the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons. The goaltender requirements would depend on whether the existing club was protecting one or two goalies. If the team protected a pair of goalies it had to expose one that had played in 10 games in 1997-98 or 25 over the course of 1996-97 and 1997-98. (A "game" in this case was considered to mean any game in which a goalie played for at least 31 minutes.) If the existing club protected only one goalie they did not have to expose a goalie with NHL experience.
The Predators would choose only one player from each of the existing clubs, a total of 26: three goaltenders, eight defencemen, thirteen forwards and two more players from any other position. In the days leading up to the draft David Poile told the media he would use those two 'extra' picks on goaltenders.
The draft was nominally held Friday, June 26, 1998 but there was no real set time. It wasn't really a draft per se because the Predators were the only ones participating. From midnight on the morning of Friday the 19th (the time a trade freeze went into effect) to the time of the news conference at Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo on Friday the 26th David Poile had free reign to negotiate who he would take from each of the existing clubs. Poile didn't have to worry about competing with another club for expansion draft selections so he could concentrate on finding precisely who he wanted from each of the existing clubs, or he could negotiate considerations from the other clubs in exchange for not picking certain players. Friday the 26th was really just the date of the press conference to announce the selections and was the day the 'official' transactions were filed with the NHL Central Registry.
Protected Lists
A league-wide trade freeze occurred between midnight Friday, June 19 and immediately following the draft on Friday June 26th. The protected lists were filed by the end of the day on Sunday the 21st.| Mighty Ducks of Anaheim | Boston Bruins | Buffalo Sabres | Calgary Flames |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goaltenders | |||
| Guy Hebert | Byron Dafoe | Dominik Hasek | Ken Wregget |
| Patrick Lalime | Robbie Tallas | ||
| Defencemen | |||
| Dave Karpa | Ray Bourque | Darryl Shannon | Tommy Albelin |
| Jason Marshall | Kyle McLaren | Richard Smehlik | Jamie Allison |
| Jamie Pushor | Don Sweeney | Mike Wilson | Sami Helenius |
| Pavel Trnka | Darren Van Impe | Jason Woolley | Cale Hulse |
| Alexei Zhitnik | Todd Simpson | ||
| Forwards | |||
| Travis Green | Jason Allison | Donald Audette | Valeri Bure |
| Paul Kariya | Rob DiMaio | Matthew Barnaby | Andrew Cassels |
| Josef Marha | Ted Donato | Curtis Brown | Nils Ekman |
| Jim McKenzie | Steve Heinze | Michal Grosek | Theoren Fleury |
| Jeff Nielsen | Dmitri Khristich | Brian Holzinger | Ladislav Kohn |
| Steve Rucchin | Tim Taylor | Mike Peca | Marty McInnis |
| Teemu Selanne | Landon Wilson | Derek Plante | Michael Nylander |
| Wayne Primeau | Dave Roche | ||
| Geoff Sanderson | Cory Stillman | ||
| Miroslav Satan | Jason Wiemer | ||
| Carolina Hurricanes | Chicago Blackhawks | Colorado Avalanche | Dallas Stars |
| Goaltenders | |||
| Trevor Kidd | Jeff Hackett | Patrick Roy | Ed Belfour |
| Defencemen | |||
| Adam Burt | Chris Chelios | Adam Foote | Shawn Chambers |
| Steve Chiasson | Cam Russell | Jon Klemm | Sergey Gusev |
| Kevin Haller | Gary Suter | Sylvain Lefebvre | Derian Hatcher |
| Curtis Leschyshyn | Michal Sykora | Aaron Miller | Richard Matvichuk |
| Nolan Pratt | Eric Weinrich | Sandis Ozolinsh | Darryl Sydor |
| Glen Wesley | Sergei Zubov | ||
| Forwards | |||
| Nelson Emerson | Tony Amonte | Rene Corbet | Bob Bassen |
| Martin Gelinas | Eric Dazé | Adam Deadmarsh | Mike Keane |
| Stu Grimson | Steve Dubinsky | Shean Donovan | Jamie Langenbrunner |
| Sami Kapanen | Chad Kilger | Peter Forsberg | Jere Lehtinen |
| Robert Kron | Sergei Krivokrasov | Keith Jones | Grant Marshall |
| Jeff O'Neill | Ethan Moreau | Valeri Kamensky | Mike Modano |
| Keith Primeau | Bob Probert | Eric Lacroix | Joe Nieuwendyk |
| Gary Roberts | Jeff Shantz | Claude Lemieux | Brian Skrudland |
| Ray Sheppard | Alexei Zhamnov | Joe Sakic | Pat Verbeek |
| Stephane Yelle | |||
| Detroit Red Wings | Edmonton Oilers | Florida Panthers | Los Angeles Kings |
| Goaltenders | |||
| Chris Osgood | Eric Fichaud | Kevin Weekes | Stephane Fiset |
| Jamie Storr | |||
| Defencemen | |||
| Anders Eriksson | Drake Berehowsky | Ed Jovanovski | Aki Berg |
| Yan Golubovsky | Greg de Vries | Paul Laus | Rob Blake |
| Nicklas Lidstrom | Roman Hamrlik | Gord Murphy | Mattias Norstrom |
| Larry Murphy | Boris Mironov | Robert Svehla | Sean O'Donnell |
| Aaron Ward | Reijo Ruotsalainen | Rhett Warrener | |
| Forwards | |||
| Mathieu Dandenault | Josef Beranek | Dino Ciccarelli | Matt Johnson |
| Kris Draper | Kelly Buchberger | Radek Dvorak | Ian Laperriere |
| Sergei Federov | Bill Guerin | Viktor Kozlov | Glen Murray |
| Vyacheslav Kozlov | Mats Lindgren | Bill Lindsay | Yanic Perreault |
| Martin Lapointe | Todd Marchant | Scott Mellanby | Luc Robitaille |
| Igor Larionov | Dean McAmmond | David Nemirovsky | Jozef Stumpel |
| Kirk Maltby | Rem Murray | Rob Niedermayer | Vladimir Tsyplakov |
| Darren McCarty | Ryan Smyth | Steve Washburn | |
| Brendan Shanahan | Doug Weight | Chris Wells | |
| Steve Yzerman | Valeri Zelepukin | Ray Whitney | |
| Montreal Canadiens | New Jersey Devils | New York Islanders | New York Rangers |
| Goaltenders | |||
| Jocelyn Thibault | Martin Brodeur | Tommy Salo | Robb Stauber |
| Defencemen | |||
| Patrice Brisebois | Brad Bombardir | Bryan Berard | Jeff Beukeboom |
| Vladimir Malakhov | Ken Daneyko | Zdeno Chara | Eric Cairns |
| Dave Manson | Scott Niedermayer | Kenny Jonsson | Maxim Galanov |
| Stephane Quintal | Lyle Odelein | Scott Lachance | Alexander Karpovtsev |
| Craig Rivet | Scott Stevens | Rich Pilon | Brian Leetch |
| Igor Ulanov | Ulf Samuelsson | ||
| Forwards | |||
| Shayne Corson | Sergei Brylin | Mariusz Czerkawski | Adam Graves |
| Vincent Damphousse | Patrik Elias | Jason Dawe | Wayne Gretzky |
| Saku Koivu | Bobby Holik | Trevor Linden | Todd Harvey |
| Mark Recchi | Randy McKay | Sergei Nemchinov | Alexei Kovalev |
| Martin Rucinsky | Krzysztof Oliwa | Gino Odjick | Pat LaFontaine |
| Brian Savage | Denis Pederson | Zigmund Palffy | Darren Langdon |
| Turner Stevenson | Brian Rolston | Robert Reichel | Kevin Stevens |
| Scott Thornton | Vadim Sharifijanov | Joe Sacco | Niklas Sundstrom |
| Petr Sykora | Bryan Smolinski | ||
| Ottawa Senators | Philadelphia Flyers | Phoenix Coyotes | Pittsburgh Penguins |
| Goaltenders | |||
| Damian Rhodes | Ron Hextall | Nikolai Khabibulin | Tom Barrasso |
| Defencemen | |||
| Radim Bicanek | Dave Babych | Keith Carney | Kevin Hatcher |
| Igor Kravchuk | Eric Desjardins | Gerald Diduck | Darius Kasparaitis |
| Janne Laukkanen | Jeff Lank | Jason Doig | Jiri Slegr |
| Stanislav Neckar | Luke Richardson | Teppo Numminen | Chris Tamer |
| Lance Pitlick | Petr Svoboda | Deron Quint | Brad Werenka |
| Jason York | Chris Therien | Oleg Tverdovsky | |
| Forwards | |||
| Daniel Alfredsson | Rod Brind'amour | Bob Corkum | Stu Barnes |
| Radek Bonk | Alexandre Daigle | Jim Cummins | Ron Francis |
| Phil Crowe | Chris Gratton | Shane Doan | Jaromir Jagr |
| Bruce Gardiner | Trent Klatt | Dallas Drake | Robert Lang |
| Shawn McEachern | John Leclair | J.F. Jomphe | Mario Lemieux |
| Chris Murray | Eric Lindros | Jeremy Roenick | Ian Moran |
| Vaclav Prospal | Mike Maneluk | Cliff Ronning | Petr Nedved |
| Shaun Van Allen | Shjon Podein | Keith Tkachuk | Martin Straka |
| Alexei Yashin | Mike Sillinger | Rick Tocchet | German Titov |
| Tyler Wright | |||
| St. Louis Blues | San Jose Sharks | Tampa Bay Lightning | Toronto Maple Leafs |
| Goaltenders | |||
| Grant Fuhr | Steve Shields | Bill Ranford | Felix Potvin |
| Mike Vernon | |||
| Defencemen | |||
| Marc Bergevin | Bill Houlder | Enrico Ciccone | David Cooper |
| Al MacInnis | Bryan Marchment | Cory Cross | Sylvain Côté |
| Chris McAlpine | Marcus Ragnarsson | Jassen Cullimore | Mathieu Schneider |
| Rudy Poeschek | Mike Rathje | Karl Dykhuis | Jason Smith |
| Chris Pronger | David Wilkie | Yannick Tremblay | |
| Jamie Rivers | Dimitri Yushkevich | ||
| Forwards | |||
| Jim Campbell | Shawn Burr | Mikael Andersson | Lonny Bohonos |
| Kelly Chase | Jeff Friesen | Craig Janney | Nathan Dempsey |
| Craig Conroy | John MacLean | Sandy McCarthy | Tie Domi |
| Pavol Demitra | Stephane Matteau | Andrei Nazarov | Darby Hendrickson |
| Scott Pellerin | Joe Murphy | Brent Peterson | Kris King |
| Pascal Rhéaume | Owen Nolan | Mikael Renberg | Igor Korolev |
| Pierre Turgeon | Mike Ricci | Stephane Richer | Steve Sullivan |
| Tony Twist | Alexander Selivanov | Mats Sundin | |
| Darcy Tucker | Todd Warriner | ||
| Rob Zamuner | |||
| Vancouver Canucks | Washington Capitals | ||
| Goaltenders | |||
| Corey Hirsch | Olaf Kolzig | ||
| Defencemen | |||
| Bret Hedican | Sergei Gonchar | ||
| Jamie Huscroft | Calle Johansson | ||
| Jyrki Lumme | Ken Klee | ||
| Chris McAllister | Joe Reekie | ||
| Bryan McCabe | Mark Tinordi | ||
| Jason Strudwick | Brendan Witt | ||
| Forwards | |||
| Todd Bertuzzi | Craig Berube | ||
| Donald Brashear | Peter Bondra | ||
| Pavel Bure | Joe Juneau | ||
| Brad May | Steve Konowalchuk | ||
| Mark Messier | Andrei Nikolishin | ||
| Alexander Mogilny | Adam Oates | ||
| Markus Naslund | Michal Pivonka | ||
| Dave Scatchard | Chris Simon | ||
| Peter Zezel | Richard Zednik | ||
Available Players
In the days leading up to the expansion draft the existing clubs made a few trades. Some noteworthy trades:
- Marian Cisar traded from the Kings to the Predators for future considerations on June 1 (making Marian Cisar the very first Nashville Predator)
- Craig Janney from the Coyotes to the Lightning for Louie Debrusk and a 5th round pick in the 1998 Entry Draft (Jay Leach) on June 11
- The rights to Josef Beranek from the Penguins to the Oilers for Bobby Dollas and Tony Hrkac on June 16
- Dave Roche and Ken Wregget from the Penguins to the Flames for Todd Hlushko and German Titov on June 17
- Doug Bodger from the Devils to the Kings for a 4th round pick in '98 (Pierre Dagenais)
- Eric Fichaud from the Islanders to the Oilers for Mike Watt
- Jean-François Jomphe from the Mighty Ducks to the Coyotes for Jim McKenzie
- Bill Ranford from the Capitals to the Lightning for a 3rd round pick in '98 (Todd Hornung) and a 2nd round pick in '99 (Michal Sivek)
- Steve Shields and a 4th round pick in '98 (Miroslav Zalesak) from the Sabres to the Sharks for Kay Whitmore, a 2nd round pick in '98 (Jaroslav Kristek) and a 5th round pick in 2000 (Tyler Kolarik)
As always seemed to be the case at expansion drafts in the 1990s many of the trades before the draft involved goaltenders.
The Oilers acquired goaltender Fichaud because they weren't going to protect Curtis Joseph. Joseph's contract was expiring and although they wanted to keep him it was expected that his salary demands would not be met. (Ultimately Joseph signed a four-year contract worth over $6 million per season with the Maple Leafs in the off-season; he had been making $2.3 million with the Oilers.) Fichaud was young and promising insurance. (Backup Bob Essensa was 33 years old and also a pending unrestricted free agent.)
Similarly the Lightning felt they needed to bolster their goaltending and the Capitals didn't want to lose Ranford in the expansion draft for nothing. The Capitals protected Olaf Kolzig (fresh off a trip to the Stanley Cup finals) and the Lightning protected Ranford, hoping the former starting goalie could improve his play in Tampa and help the team recover from the worst season it had ever had. (Ranford played one year in Tampa and didn't help much.)
The Sabres suspected that backup goalie Steve Shields (who was admirable in relief of Dominik Hasek in the 1997 playoffs) would be chosen by the Predators if he was left exposed so he was dealt to the Sharks instead. At the time the Sharks' goalies, Kelly Hrudey and Mike Vernon, were 36 and 34 years old respectively and Hrudey was a pending free agent (he retired over the summer and became an analyst for Hockey Night in Canada). Shields split time with Vernon in 1998-99 and was named the Sharks' starting goalie in 1999-2000, a position he held briefly until it was usurped by Evgeni Nabokov in 2001.
The Flames acquired Ken Wregget from the Penguins hoping to improve their goaltending in 1998-99; in 1997-98 Rick Tabaracci, Dwayne Roloson and Tyler Moss combined for a league-worst 0.892 save percentage. Wregget was 34 years old and spent most of the 1997-98 season injured, and he did the same in 1998-99. Ultimately Wregget only played 27 games for the Flames in that one season, leaving for Detroit as a free agent in the summer of 1999. The Flames' goaltending in 1998-99 was disastrous until they signed Fred Brathwaite from the Canadian national team mid-season.
Available Players
| Mighty Ducks of Anaheim | Boston Bruins | Buffalo Sabres | Calgary Flames |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goaltenders | |||
| Mikhail Shtalenkov | Jim Carey | Kay WhitmoreIII | Tyler Moss |
| Joakim Persson | Dwayne RolosonII | ||
| Rick Tabaracci | |||
| Defencemen | |||
| Drew BannisterII | Dean Chynoweth | Bob Boughner | Joel Bouchard |
| Doug Houda | Dave Ellett | Mike Hurlbut | Eric CharronII |
| Nikolai TsulyginII | Grant Ledyard | Sergei KlimentievII | Kevin Dahl |
| Dean MalkocII | Rumun NdurII | Johan Finnstrom# | |
| Milt MastadII | Shayne Wright | Keith McCambridgeII | |
| Anders MyrvoldII | James PatrickIII | ||
| Charles PaquetteII | Pavel Rajnoha# | ||
| Barry Richter | Dimitri Riabykin# | ||
| Jon Rohloff | |||
| Andrei Sapozhnikov | |||
| Yevgeny Shaldybin | |||
| Andrei YakhanovII | |||
| Forwards | |||
| Shawn AntoskiII | Ken Baumgartner | Randy Burridge | Bobby Brown |
| Ted Drury | P-C DrouinII | Paul KruseII | Jim Dowd |
| Peter LeboutillierII | Bill McCauleyII | Scott NicholII | Aaron Gavey |
| Eric LecompteII | Trent McCleary | Rob RayV | Mathias Johansson# |
| Tommi Miettinen# | Kirk NielsenII | Dixon Ward | Jorgen Jonsson# |
| Richard ParkII | Andre RoyII | Andreas Karlsson# | |
| Craig Reichert | Mike Sullivan | Valeri Karpov | |
| Tomas Sandstrom | Esa Keskinen# | ||
| Brent SeverynIII | Jesper MattssonII | ||
| Jeremy Stevenson | Marty MurrayII | ||
| Kevin ToddV | Mike PelusoIII | ||
| Bob Wren | Ron SternIII | ||
| Scott YoungV | Ed Ward | ||
| Sergei Zolotov# | |||
| Carolina Hurricanes | Chicago Blackhawks | Colorado Avalanche | Dallas Stars |
| Goaltenders | |||
| Mike Fountain | Marc LamotheII | Craig BillingtonIII | Manny Fernandez |
| Pat Jablonski | Chris Terreri | Petr Franek | Jordan WillisII |
| Manny Legace | Andrei TrefilovII | ||
| Defencemen | |||
| Joacim Esbjörs# | Roger Johansson | Alexei Gusarov | Dan Keczmer |
| Sean Hill | Alain NasreddineII | Uwe KruppIII | Craig LudwigIII |
| Marek Malik | Jeff Ricciardi | Pascal TrepanierII | Craig MuniIII |
| Jason McBainII | Trent Yawney | Evgeny Petrochinin# | |
| Forwards | |||
| Kevin BrownII | Greg Johnson | Tom FitzgeraldV | Greg AdamsIII |
| Jeff Daniels | David LingII | Milan Hejduk# | Guy CarbonneauIII |
| Kevin Dineen | Reid Simpson | Mikael Johansson# | Patrick CoteII |
| Dimitri Gorenko# | Jari KurriIII | Peter DourisIII | |
| Steve Leach | Martin Lamarche | Benoit HogueIII | |
| Kent Manderville | François LerouxII | Mike KennedyII | |
| Paul Ranheim | Christian MatteII | Jeffrey MitchellII | |
| Steven Rice | Jeff Odgers | Dave Reid | |
| Brian SecordII | Warren Rychel | Kevin SawyerII | |
| Kevin Smyth | Chris TancillII | ||
| Detroit Red Wings | Edmonton Oilers | Florida Panthers | Los Angeles Kings |
| Goaltenders | |||
| Kevin Hodson | Bob EssensaIII | Todd MacDonaldII | Frederic Chabot |
| Norm Maracle | Curtis JosephIII | Kirk McLean | |
| Jean-François Labbé | John VanbiesbrouckIII | ||
| Steve Passmore | |||
| Defencemen | |||
| Vyacheslav FetisovIII | Adam Bennett | Chris Armstrong | Ruslan BatyrshinII |
| Jamie Macoun | Ladislav BenysekII | Terry Carkner | Doug Bodger |
| Dmitri MironovIII | Jason Bowen | Trevor DoyleII | Philippe BoucherII |
| Bob RouseIII | Kevin LoweIII | Dallas EakinsII | Garry Galley |
| Frank MusilIII | Jeff Norton | Jere Karalahti# | |
| Sami Nuutinen# | Wes SwinsonII | Jaroslav ModryII | |
| Alexander ZhurikII | Martin Strbak# | ||
| Kimmo Timonen# | |||
| Mark Visheau | |||
| Jan Vopat | |||
| Doug Zmolek | |||
| Forwards | |||
| Pavel Agarkov# | Dennis BonvieII | Ashley BuckbergerII | Dan Bylsma |
| Doug Brown | Jozef Cierny | Chad CabanaII | Russ Courtnall |
| Sylvain CloutierII | Zdeno Ciger | Dave Gagner | Ray Ferraro |
| Brent Gilchrist | Doug Friedman | Johan Garpenlov | Craig JohnsonII |
| Mike Knuble | Bill Huard | Kirk Muller | Nathan LafayetteII |
| Joey Kocur | Ralph Intranuovo | Sandy Moger | |
| Toivo Suursoo# | Andrei Kovalenko | Jeff ShevalierII | |
| Barrie MooreII | Jukka Tiilikainen# | ||
| Kevin PadenII | Tomas Vlasak# | ||
| Martin Reichel# | Roman Vopat | ||
| Keijo Sailynoja# | Magnus Wernblom# | ||
| Jussi Tarvainen# | Vitali YachmenevII | ||
| Montreal Canadiens | New Jersey Devils | New York Islanders | New York Rangers |
| Goaltenders | |||
| Andy Moog | Mike Dunham | Wade Flaherty | Jeff Heil |
| Tomas Vokoun | Rich Shulmistra | Mark McArthur | Mike RichterIII |
| Peter SidorkiewiczIII | Vitali Yeremeyev# | ||
| Defencemen | |||
| Brad BrownII | Kevin Dean | J.J. Daigneault | Sylvain Blouin |
| Steve Cheredaryk | Geordie Kinnear | Daniel Johansson# | Rich Brennan |
| Brett Clark | Vlastimil Kroupa | Chris Luongo | Bruce DriverIII |
| Dion DarlingII | Dick Tarnstrom# | Jeff Finley | |
| Peter PopovicII | Dennis VaskeII | Kim Johnsson# | |
| Zarley ZalapskiII | Alexander Korobolin# | ||
| Doug LidsterIII | |||
| Geoff Smith | |||
| Lee SorochanII | |||
| Brent Thompson | |||
| Forwards | |||
| Sebastien BordeleauII | Dave Andreychuk | Tom Chorske | Bill Berg |
| Marc BureauIII | Eric BertrandII | Vladimir Grachev# | Shane ChurlaIII |
| Martin GendronII | Steve BruleII | Pavel Gross# | Bob Errey |
| Jonas Hoglund | Bob Carpenter | Peter Hogardh# | Sergei Kondrashkin# |
| Arto Kuki# | Scott Daniels | Mike Hough | Radoslav Kropac# |
| Oleg Petrov | Doug GilmourIII | Dane Jackson | Alexander Lazarenko# |
| Patrick Poulin | Bobby House | Tomas Klimt# | Yuri Litvinov# |
| Peter Strom# | Fredrik Lindquist#† | Claude Lapointe | Pierre SevignyII |
| Mick VukotaIII | Steve ThomasIII | Mark Lawrence | Tim SweeneyIII |
| Dody WoodII | Kip MillerII | Rudolf Vercik# | |
| Nikolai Zavarukhin# | Dan PlanteII | ||
| Ottawa Senators | Philadelphia Flyers | Phoenix Coyotes | Pittsburgh Penguins |
| Goaltenders | |||
| Frederic CassiviII | Sean BurkeIII | Scott LangkowII | Jean-Sebastien Aubin |
| Jaroslav Miklenda# | Neil Little | Henrik Smangs# | |
| Ron Tugnutt | Dominic RousselII | Jimmy WaiteII | |
| Darcy WakalukIII | |||
| Defencemen | |||
| Per GustafssonII | Artem Anisimov#‡ | Murray BaronIII | Jonas Andersson-Junkka# |
| Justin HockingII | Frank Bialowas | Jim JohnsonIII | Stefan BergqvistII |
| Patrick Traverse | Paul Coffey | Norm MaciverIII | Bobby Dollas |
| Chris Joseph | Roger Ohman | Hans Jonsson# | |
| Kjell SamuelssonIII | Michel PetitIII | Alexei KrivchenkoII | |
| Jeff StaplesII | John Slaney | Fredrik OlaussonIII | |
| John Stevens | Ilja Stashenkov | Neil Wilkinson | |
| Roman Zolotov# | |||
| Forwards | |||
| Derek ArmstrongIII | Bruce Coles | Mika Alatalo# | Jan Alinc# |
| Clayton Beddoes | Craig Darby | Alexei BudayevII | Serge AubinII |
| Randy CunneyworthIII | John Druce | Louie DebruskII | Rob BrownV |
| Pat FalloonII | Paul HealeyII | Yevgeny Garanin# | Joe Dziedzic |
| Marc Labelle | Patrik Juhlin | Mike GartnerIII | Alex Hicks |
| Denny Lambert | Dan Kordic | Rhett Gordon | Todd Hlushko |
| Mike ProkopecII | Daniel LacroixII | Tavis Hansen | Tony Hrkac |
| Andry Schneider | Jan Lipiansky | Mark JanssensV | Andreas JohanssonII |
| Dennis VialII | Shawn McCosh | Darin KimbleV | Mikhail Kazakevich# |
| Jason Zent | Jim Montgomery | Jocelyn Lemieux | Jiri Kucera# |
| Sergei ZholtokII | Brantt MyhresII | Scott LevinsII | Valentin Morozov# |
| Joel OttoIII | Rob Murray | Ed OlczykIII | |
| Vladimir Potapov# | Domenic PittisII | ||
| Rauli Raitanen# | Sean ProngerII | ||
| Darrin ShannonII | Ryan Savoia | ||
| Mike Stapleton | Alek StojanovII | ||
| Mika Valila# | |||
| Garry ValkII | |||
| Boris Zelenko# | |||
| St. Louis Blues | San Jose Sharks | Tampa Bay Lightning | Toronto Maple Leafs |
| Goaltenders | |||
| Jamie McLennan | Jonas Forsberg# | Mark FitzpatrickII | Glenn Healy |
| Kelly HrudeyIII | Daren Puppa | ||
| Jason Muzzatti | Corey SchwabII | ||
| Derek Wilkinson | |||
| Defencemen | |||
| Steve DuchesneIII | Peter Allen | Ryan BrownII | Matt MartinII |
| Rory FitzpatrickII | Al IafrateIII | Viktor Ignatjev | Tommi Rajamaki# |
| Edwin Frylen# | Marty McSorleyIII | Mathieu RobyII | Greg Smyth |
| Todd Gill | Angel Nikolov# | Yves RacineII | Craig Wolanin |
| Alexander GodynyukII | Fredrik OduyaII | Rob Zettler | |
| Yuri Gunko# | David Shaw | ||
| Terry Hollinger | Ken Sutton | ||
| Libor Prochazka# | Jason WidmerII | ||
| Terry Virtue | |||
| Forwards | |||
| Blair Atcheynum | Niklas AnderssonII | Jason Bonsignore | Jamie Baker |
| Geoff CourtnallIII | Jan Coloun | Brian Bradley | Wendel ClarkIII |
| Mike Eastwood | Murray CravenIII | Paul Brousseau | Mikael Hakansson# |
| Brett HullIII | Todd Ewen | Jody HullV | Derek King |
| Chris Kenady | Anatoli Firsov# | Dimitri Klevakin# | Nick KypreosIII |
| Robert PetrovickyII | Tony Granato | Troy MalletteII | Zdenek NedvedII |
| Michel Picard | Dave LowryIII | Vladimir VujtekIII | Scott Pearson |
| Shayne ToporowskiII | Bernie NichollsIII | Paul Ysebaert | |
| Darren Turcotte | Jarrod Skalde | ||
| Ron Sutter | |||
| Markus Thuresson# | |||
| Alexei YegorovII | |||
| Vancouver Canucks | Washington Capitals | ||
| Goaltenders | |||
| Arturs IrbeIII | Stephane BeauregardV | ||
| Tim Keyes | Martin Brochu | ||
| Garth SnowII | |||
| Defencemen | |||
| Roger Akerstrom# | Patrick BoileauII | ||
| Adrian AucoinII | Jeff BrownIII | ||
| Karri Kivi# | Phil Housley | ||
| Dana Murzyn | Stewart MalgunasII | ||
| Bert Robertsson | |||
| Mark WottonII | |||
| Forwards | Notes | ||
| Hakan Ahlund# | Brian BellowsIII | II—pending Group II restricted free agent | |
| Jevgeni Babariko# | Andrew BrunetteII | III—pending Group III unrestricted free agent | |
| Brandon Convery | Mike Eagles | V—pending Group V free agent | |
| Larry CourvilleII | Dale HunterIII | #—unsigned European draft choice | |
| Roger Hansson# | Kevin KaminskiII | †—Fredrik Lindquist changed his name to Fredrik Bremberg in 2003 | |
| Tyson NashII | Todd KrygierIII | ‡—Artem Vyacheslavovich Anisimov, born 1976 in Kazan, USSR | |
| Stefan Nilsson# | Mark Major | ||
| Brian NoonanIII | Kelly Miller | ||
| David Roberts | Jeff Nelson | ||
| Steve StaoisII | Pat PeakeII | ||
| Scott Walker | Esa TikkanenIII | ||
| Jeff TomsII | |||
| Stefan Ustorf | |||
The Draft
| Player | Position | From |
|---|---|---|
| Mikhail Shtalenkov | Goaltender | Mighty Ducks of Anaheim |
| Mike Sullivan | Centre | Boston Bruins |
| Bob Boughner | Defenceman | Buffalo Sabres |
| Joel Bouchard | Defenceman | Calgary Flames |
| Jeff Daniels | Left Wing | Carolina Hurricanes |
| Greg Johnson | Centre | Chicago Blackhawks |
| Uwe Krupp | Defenceman | Colorado Avalanche |
| Patrick Cote | Left Wing | Dallas Stars |
| Doug Brown | Right Wing | Detroit Red Wings |
| Doug Friedman | Left Wing | Edmonton Oilers |
| Chris Armstrong | Defenceman | Florida Panthers |
| Frederic Chabot | Goaltender | Los Angeles Kings |
| Tomas Vokoun | Goaltender | Montreal Canadiens |
| Mike Dunham | Goaltender | New Jersey Devils |
| J.J. Daigneault | Defenceman | New York Islanders |
| Mike Richter | Goaltender | New York Rangers |
| Denny Lambert | Left Wing | Ottawa Senators |
| Craig Darby | Centre | Philadelphia Flyers |
| John Slaney | Defenceman | Phoenix Coyotes |
| Tony Hrkac | Centre | Pittsburgh Penguins |
| Blair Atcheynum | Right Wing | St. Louis Blues |
| Al Iafrate | Defenceman | San Jose Sharks |
| Paul Brousseau | Forward | Tampa Bay Lightning |
| Rob Zettler | Defenceman | Toronto Maple Leafs |
| Scott Walker | Right Wing | Vancouver Canucks |
| Andrew Brunette | Left Wing | Washington Capitals |
You'll notice that the Predators' list of selections includes several Group III unrestricted free agents: Al Iafrate, Uwe Krupp and Mike Richter. There's a piece of a trivia that a lot of people probably won't believe: Mike Richter was an original Nashville Predator. The reason why David Poile selected these unrestricted free agents was that under the collective bargaining agreement of the time a team that lost Group III free agents would receive compensatory draft picks for the (net) loss. Poile didn't really want to keep these players, he hoped that they would sign somewhere else for a lot of money. The more a player was paid the higher compensatory draft pick that their former team would receive.
Mike Richter re-signed with the Rangers on July 15, 1998 and the Predators received the 52nd overall pick in the 1999 draft, which they used to select Adam Hall. Uwe Krupp signed with the Red Wings on July 7, 1998 and the Predators received the 67th overall pick in the 1999 draft, which they used to select Jan Lasak. Al Iafrate was signed by the Hurricanes on July 14, 1998. He never played a game for the Hurricanes and announced his retirement September 1. The Predators received nothing for him.
In the hours that followed the expansion draft picks announcement the Predators made a series of trades with a smattering of teams. Most of these trades were pre-arranged: the Predators were being compensated for picking certain players from certain teams, or from not picking certain players from other teams. Most of the compensation going the other way from the Predators was "future considerations".
On the 26th of June, after the draft announcement, the following trades were announced:
- Flames traded Jim Dowd to the Predators for future considerations
- Blackhawks traded Sergei Krivokrasov to the Predators for future considerations
- Kings traded Kimmo Timonen and Jan Vopat to the Predators for future considerations
- Canadiens traded Sebastien Bordeleau to the Predators for future considerations
- Flyers traded Dominic Roussel and Jeff Staples to the Predators for a 7th round draft pick in 1998 (Cam Ondrik)
- Blues traded Darren Turcotte and either the highest compensatory pick they received in the 1999 draft or a 2nd round pick in 2000 (the Blues received the 40th overall pick in 1999 for losing Brett Hull to free agency; this pick was traded to the Predators, who traded it to the Panthers; the Panthers selected Alex Auld)
- Sharks traded Ville Peltonen to the Predators for a 5th round pick in 1998 (traded to the Coyotes, who selected Josh Blackburn)
Reportedly the Flames gave Dowd to the Predators for not selecting one of their goaltenders. The Flames only protected Ken Wregget, allowing them to protect more of their defencemen and forwards. The Blackhawks reportedly did the same for not selecting Chris Terreri. The Kings traded Timonen and Vopat to the Predators for having chosen Frederic Chabot and (reportedly) not choosing defenceman Garry Galley. Being that Chabot was a goalie it meant that the Kings would be exempt from losing a goalie to the Atlanta Thrashers in the 1999 Expansion Draft.
The Canadiens sent Sebastien Bordeleau to the Predators for similar reasons: in 1998 they didn't have to protect goalie José Théodore but they would have to in 1999. Rather than forcing themselves to protect Théodore and Jocelyn Thibault in 1999—thus having to expose more defencemen and forwards to the Atlanta Thrashers—they made a deal with the Predators to select goalie prospect Tomas Vokoun. Vokoun only played a single game for Montreal, giving up four goals in the first period of a game against the Flyers on February 6, 1997. When the Predators chose him from the Habs he was out of shape and his career was going nowhere fast as back up to Théodore on the AHL's Fredericton Canadiens. Théodore would become the Canadiens' starter and played over 600 games in his career until he retired in 2013. Vokoun would go on to become the Predators' starter and has played in 700 regular season games to date, winning 300 of them. (14 more career victories than Théodore.)
Other trades in the weeks that followed included the Predators trading Mike Sullivan to the Coyotes for a draft pick, the Kings sending Vitali Yachmenev to the Predators for future considerations, the Stars getting Tony Hrkac from the Predators for future considerations, and Doug Brown being traded back to the Red Wings by the Predators for Petr Sykora ("the other Petr Sykora", the defenceman born in 1978 not the winger born in 1976), a third round pick in 1999 (traded to the Oilers who selected Mike Comrie) and a conditional draft pick in 1999 (the 124th overall selection which the Wings got for losing Bob Rouse in free agency—the Predators chose Alexandr Krevsun).
The Predators also traded Jim Dowd and goalie Mikhail Shtalenkov to the Oilers just before the season started (October 1) for defencemen Drake Berehowsky and Greg de Vries and goalie Eric Fichaud. The Oilers re-signed Bob Essensa and felt Fichaud was expendable, I guess.
