As per Adam Vingan of The Athletic, the Nashville Predators are holding a “major press conference” at 11 a.m. CT on Tuesday. His understanding is that the team will be making some kind of announcement or sharing news that involves goaltender Pekka Rinne.
Questions will be what the announcement is about. It wouldn’t really make sense for the Predators to announce an extension prior to the expansion draft, so the thought is that this could some sort of retirement announcement. If so, there will be a ton of reflection about how great a career he had in the NHL and with the franchise.
In his end-of-season interviews, Rinne would bite on offering any inside information regarding a decision for next season. He didn’t hint at retirement either, so until the press conference, it’s hard to know for certain.
Rinne, now 38 years old, would leave the NHL as the winningest Finnish goaltender of all-time. His 369 wins are 50 more than 2nd place Miikka Kiprusoff. He played in 683 games (also the most by any Finnish NHL goaltender) and he won the Vezina Trophy in 2018 following a 42-13-4 record, 2.31 GAA, .927 SV% and 8 shutouts. He was easily the best goaltender the Predators franchise has ever had.
After that, the Preds will need to focus on landing a responsible and qualified backup goaltender for next season. There really isn’t a viable option internally.
Could the Predators look at goaltenders like Chris Driedger, Jaroslav Halak or Petr Mrazek? Possibly. They could also visit the trade market and see if a deal can be made where the Preds dump off a player like Ryan Johansen or Matt Duchene in the process.
If this is it for Rinne in the NHL, Predators fans and fans around the hockey world just want to stay Thank You.
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