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.