The big news from the last week in Nashville was the retirement of Mike Fisher.
After 17 years in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators and Nashville Predators, Fisher decided to hang em up last week.
“This job I’ve been able to have for a majority of my life is so much fun. To help create 
that entertainment and to see the joy we can bring to people is such a unique and exciting opportunity. I’ll miss my teammates, my coaches and the game itself,” Fisher said in an interview in The Tennessean.
“This is the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make, but I know I’ve made the right one. I’ve decided to retire from the NHL.”
An open letter to Nashville fans thanked them for their loyalty to the team.
The Predator team that will take the ice this season will be much different.
Nick Bonino was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins team that defeated the Preds in six game sin the Stanley Cup Final; Bonino signed a four-year deal with the Pr4eds.
“I’ve been in the League long enough to know how great a city Nashville is,” Bonino said. “Guys love going there. Guys love going on Broadway and watching some live music and eating all the great food, but to see that intensity that the city had for the playoffs and then to experience it in the Final, I was trying to play on a broken leg and it made me that much closer to playing, just in warmups.”
In a coming home of sorts, Scott Hartnell signed a one-year deal to return to the Preds; he spent six seasons with Nashville to start his career.
“I just want to say how I excited I am, [general manager David Poile] and the Predators organization, to sign me,” Hartnell said. “Knowing coach [Peter Laviolette] and a few of the guys on the team from last year, I was a big fan of the city of Nashville and the team trying to win that [Stanley Cup]. To be a part of the fold now, it’s come almost full circle. I just absolutely loved coming in the last bunch of years to play. I’m just excited to get to Nashville and wish it was October already.”
Two big signings of the off season included the seven-year deal inked between Nashville and Viktor Arvidsson.
The average annual value is said to be $4.25 million.
The other was the eight-year deal signed by Ryan Johansen at an average vlue of $8 million annually.
“This is probably one of the best days of my life right now,” Johansen said. “I’m just so thankful for my family and my brother and friends. They’ve done everything they can to guide me in the right direction and teach me and learn from.”
The signing locks up the center through the 2024-25 season.
“That’s why I was brought here, to be a No. 1 center,” said Johansen on NHL.com. “That was my motivation going into the playoffs and throughout the series and putting ourselves in a position to play in the playoffs. And that’s exactly what you want. You want a three-time Stanley Cup champion in Jonathan Toews (of the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference First Round) looking you in the eyes, and you’ve got to find a way to beat him. And then moving on to [the] St. Louis [Blues] and then Anaheim and then unfortunately with the injury, but it could have been me and [Pittsburgh’s] Sidney Crosby going head-to-head, or [Evgeni Malkin].
“I guess we’ll never know that answer. I just embrace the challenge and the opportunity for me, and I feel like moving forward now I gained a ton of confidence from the experience of these playoffs and believing in my abilities that I can help our team in a big way.”
His signing will certainly bouy the fans in Nashville as the Preds look to get back to work they left unfinsihed in the Cup Final.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Nashville general manager David Poile said. “This was kind of the goal in planning for the offseason. We’ve got our whole core signed up, a lot of guys for a lot of years. Hopefully, we’ve chosen correctly. I believe we’ve chosen correctly. The thing that not only impressed me with the winning last year was also the closeness of the team. Our coaching staff has done a remarkable job. I think [Johansen] would echo that they feel confident in the coaches and the direction that they’re giving, and I think our room is a very close room, so I thought it was in my best interest and our team’s best interest if I could get the bulk of our team locked up for a long time so that they could play together for a long time.
“Here we go. We’ve got possibly one of the best, if not the best, lines in the League if coach [Peter] Laviolette decides to play [Johansen] with Arvidsson and Forsberg. But we’ve got another guy entering into this with Scott Hartnell this year, a former Predator now back, and he’s told the coach that he had great chemistry with [Johansen]. So we might have to double-shift him.”
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