Nashville's expansion draft.

[Gnashville]

Yeah, it was pretty sparse, especially compared to other venues/shops. I guess they wanted to take things slowly but it didn't scream "NHL Pro Shop" in the early years

My first game was in 2001 opening night. I remember going into to pro shop thinking I would get a t-shirt and was thinking “this must be the small one” and looked all over the arena for a real place to buy something. Lol good times

I wonder what the team would have looked like with Vegas expansion rules. Given how loaded the Red Wings were at the time Lidstrom or Datsyuk could have been Predators.

 

[Adz]

Forget the players, the initial crowd warmup was hilarious. They taught us the "Get Bit" chant to coincide with the Get Bit ticket purchase marketing them. Prior to the face-off, they'd have half the arena chant "Get" followed by the other half chanting "bit". Back and forth, then faster, followed by general screaming.

It was so lame and never caught on.

Hockey 101 classes taught by Pete and Terry. What's Icing again?

Had to sell 12K full season tickets to get the franchise so that first year attendance was really good (16,194 on a capacity of 17,113). Everybody came, but it took a while for the crowd to react appropriately to what was going on.

It was an innocent and wonderful time.

Every so often Logan and I have an impromptu "Git" "Bit" chant, because it was so...dumb.

 

[braindead]

In fairness the psycho fang fingers was pretty dumb when introduced but it stuck somehow and is endearing. Our first year, we each picked a player to adopt- I picked Patrick Kjellberg who I think was considering retiring and becoming a policeman before we got him. My wife picked Sebastian Bordeleau who was relatively exciting and I think had a career year. Dunham never felt like a star- there were no stars, it was a miserable team that played hard and opposing coaches tended to get fired after losing to us.

Krivo had the most talent but flamed out on the personal front. Scott Walker was the most entertaining for sure. Cote was a fun mess. Expectations were so low and it was fun being the unknown, unlikely underdog.

 

[PredsV82]

Has anyone actually done the breakdown of who would have been available in 1998 under the new rules, just for s and g's?

Problem of course was there were 4 expansion drafts in 3 years. The new rules would have been devastating in those circumstances

 

[Armourboy]

Has anyone actually done the breakdown of who would have been available in 1998 under the new rules, just for s and g's?

Problem of course was there were 4 expansion drafts in 3 years. The new rules would have been devastating in those circumstances

We always talk about the money but the number of drafts that had to be done means we never would have seen anything as good as Vegas.

Even with that it was a pretty top heavy league so something tells me outside of a team like Detroit it would still be fairly so so. Granted probably better than we got.

 

[Armourboy]

That's a big part of it, but I'd also probably be able to "find" more ticket money if it weren't so frustrating to drive into town and park too. Still, it's better than not having a team!

That's part of it too. We live an hour away so you are either grabbing dinner on the way up, the way back, or at the game, none of which are a cheap option. Toss in parking, the gas, tickets, etc and one game for me and the wife gets fairly steep, and it's hard to justify spending that when I can just watch at home for little to nothing.

Financials have changed a ton since the pandemic.

 

[glenngineer]

Has anyone actually done the breakdown of who would have been available in 1998 under the new rules, just for s and g's?

Problem of course was there were 4 expansion drafts in 3 years. The new rules would have been devastating in those circumstances

I’d do it if I had the time. Great idea.

 

[Viqsi]

Has anyone actually done the breakdown of who would have been available in 1998 under the new rules, just for s and g's?

Problem of course was there were 4 expansion drafts in 3 years. The new rules would have been devastating in those circumstances

Prediction: The Jackets and Wild would still be screwed.

 

[PredsV82]

Prediction: The Jackets and Wild would still be screwed.

Wild actually made the first playoff run of our group and made it to the WCF, IIRC in their third year. Pretty crazy that's their best run ever

 

[Gnashville]

Wild actually made the first playoff run of our group and made it to the WCF, IIRC in their third year. Pretty crazy that's their best run ever

Came back from down 3-1 in a series twice and won 2 game 7’s on the road including ending Patrick Roy’s career in OT. I don’t think they have ever came back from down 3-1 since then. They are 1-1 in game 7’s since then.

 

[triggrman]

Prediction: The Jackets and Wild would still be screwed.

Actually it get harder to protect the further down the list you go, not easier, they would have better selections.