Dan Hamhuis News

The future is here for the National Hockey League's 30 teams. Friday night's NHL Entry Draft will finally brought to the league highly touted forwards John Tavares and Matt Duchene, as well as defenceman Victor Hedman.

NASHVILLE - NHL scouts and fans can look back over past entry drafts with a mixture of pleasure and pain.

Predators general manager David Poile isn't the only who believes that the closer the July 1 start of unrestricted free agency gets, the less likely the team is to re-sign some key players.

The Nashville Predators will have the 11th overall draft pick in Montreal next Friday, June 26th.

Team Russia players hoisting the trophy after defeating team Canada at the gold medal game in the World Ice Hockey Championships in Bern, Switzerland on Sunday.

He flashed it in his sophomore season with the Predators, but hasn't come close in the previous two seasons.

Russia won the gold-medal match at the ice hockey world championship Sunday, beating Canada 2-1. The Russians defended their title in a rematch of last year's final despite trailing on Jason Spezza's early goal.

Last year's runners-up Canada clinched a place in the world icehockey championship's semi-finals with a confident 4-2 win over Latvia in the last eight meeting here on Thursday.

The Predators have 12 draft picks, five in the first three rounds, of the 2009 NHL draft.

NASHVILLE - When a handful of Predators begin play at the World Championship in Switzerland later this week, they'll be battling against international competition for a shot at the gold medal.

"I think our mind-set coming into this week was that we have to run the table," Sullivan said after a 4-2 loss.

When Predators captain Jason Arnott made the decision to return to the lineup Saturday, he did so with a full-speed-ahead attitude.

Raffi Torres scored early in the third period and Steve Mason made the go-ahead goal stand up as the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Nashville Predators 2-1 Tuesday night in a key Western Conference showdown.

If there's anything the Predators can take solace in as they limp into Tuesday's showdown in Columbus, it's this: They've been down this road before.

It's entirely possible that tonight's meeting between the Predators and San Jose Sharks will serve as a playoff preview between the teams.

The Anaheim Ducks earned a huge overtime win over the Nashville Predators last week at home, and followed that with two more victories to put themselves on the brink of one of the top eight spots in the Western Conference.

Jonathan Cheechoo scored the game-winner in the shootout as the San Jose Sharks slipped past the Nashville Predators, 3-2, at HP Pavilion.

Teemu Selanne scored Anaheim's third power-play goal 34 seconds into overtime for his 1,200th NHL point, rookies Andrew Ebbett and Bobby Ryan also connected with the man advantage, and the Ducks beat the Nashville Predators 4-3 on Wednesday night.

Ryan Jones scored the game-winner with 2:18 remaining in regulation to give the Nashville PRedators a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

TONIGHT'S GAME Who. Predators vs. Coyotes. Where. Jobing.com Arena. When. 9 p.m. TV/radio. Fox SN/104.5-FM. Preview.