Three predators’ recovery choices will each seek to capture their first Stanley Cup when the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers start the NHL championship series on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT.
At least one will claim it.
The Oilers present a pair of Swedes written by Nashville: the 35 -year -old defender Mattias Ekholm (fourth round, NHL 2009) and the 32 -year -old striker Viktor Arvidsss (Fourth Tour, LNH 2014 recovery).
Florida has the defender Seth Jones, who was the selection of first round of Nashville in the draft of the NHL 2013, chosen with the fourth overall choice. Jones is the son of Popeye Jones, from Dresden and veteran of the 11 -year -old NBA who played collegially at Murray State from 1988 to 198.
The three draft choices were finally negotiated by Nashville.
Ekholm will get his third crack to win the Cup because he was part of the Predators team who reached the final in 2017 before losing against Pittsburgh in six games. He was also a member of the Edmonton team who lost in seven games against Florida last season.
The ekholm of 6-5 and 225 pounds spent 12 seasons in Nashville, and he ranks sixth in career matches played for the franchise (719) and 10th in career points (268).
He was exchanged in Edmonton in February 2023 when the PREDs began to clean the salary room.
In exchange for Ekholm and a sixth round choice in 2024, Nashville received the choice of Edmonton in the first round in 2023 (used to select the defender Tanner Molendyk), the choice of fourth round of the Oilers in 2024 (who finally became the attacker of the perspective Victor Norringer), the defender of the defender Ty Barrie and Prospect Reid Schaefer.
Being part of the first defensive couple of the oilers, Ekholm has just returned to the alignment of an injury at the bottom of the body at the end of the season. He returned to the victory of match 5 of the Oilers against Dallas in the Western Conference final, winning a decisive pass in this competition.
The Arvidsson 5-10 and 185 pounds played seven years in Nashville, totaling 239 points (127 goals, 112 assists) in 385 games. He ranks seventh career goals for preds.
Nashville treated Arvidsson in Los Angeles in July 2021, receiving a second round choice in 2021 (finally wrapped as part of a business to write the Zach L’Heureux striker) and a third round choice in 2022 (defender Kasper Kulonummi).
Arvidsson, like Ekholm, was a member of the 2016 Nashville team 2016-2017 who went to the Stanley Cup final. During the regular season of 2024-25, Arvidsson totaled 27 points (15 goals, 12 assists) in 67 competitions. It was a healthy scratch a few times in the playoffs, but has five points (a goals, four assists) in 11 eliminatory series competitions.
Jones 6-4 and 213 pounds was the second highest choice of recovery in the history of predators, only surmounted by David Legwand, which was chosen n ° 2 in total in 1998.
However, Jones only passed two and a half seasons with Nashville, totaling 63 points (15 goals, 48 assists) in 199 competitions. He was exchanged in Columbus in January 2016, with the reception center of the Ryan Johansen preds in exchange.
The Panthers acquired Jones of Chicago just before the deadline for trade in March, and it quickly became a precious part for a Florida team in search of its second consecutive cup.
In a regular season and combined playoffs, Jones totaled 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) on average for almost 25 minutes of ice time per competition.
