Watch P.K. Subban’s classy farewell to Predators fans

P.K. Subban took to Instagram to send his farewell to the Nashville Predators.

P.K. Subban is experienced enough to know that the NHL is a business, so when he found out he was being traded to the New Jersey Devils, he took the trade in stride.

Before he officially became a Devil, however, Subban took to Instagram to give a classy farewell to the Nashville Predators, a team who he helped develop into a contender for the three seasons he was in “Smashville.”

“#Smashville — I love you! Thank you to team @predsnhl team, teammates, fans and community for embracing me over the past three years. Ready for this next chapter… @njdevils are you ready for the Subbanator? (insert Devils emoji).”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzBjKy3ljr8/

I can imagine that Predator fans looked at this video and nearly caved to tears.

When Subban was shipped to Nashville in 2016, the Predators were a solid team that just couldn’t get over the hump. That changed with Subban, who shored up the Predators’ blue line and made them a contender for the Stanley Cup. In the process, he became a fan favorite in Tennessee, just like he was in Montreal, and was clearly the face of the franchise.

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So it was truly a shock when the Predators announced that they traded their star defenseman to New Jersey in exchange for defenseman Steven Santini, Jeremy Davies, and two second-round picks. Though the trade will make Nashville a player in free agency, one still has to question if giving up Subban was too steep of a price to pay for cap space.

Nevertheless, the deal is done, and Subban will be heading to a Devils team that will surely need his services. As to the city he left behind? Nashville will forever have a special place in heart, and there is little doubt that he’ll get a hero’s welcome when he visits Nashville as a Devil next season.