Don’t expect Nick Saban to be slamming his hand on the Predators’ draft table anytime soon, demanding the team pick his favorite prospect.
Likewise, don’t anticipate him to be looking over the shoulder of Andrew Brunette, advising the Preds’ coach on line combinations or whispering suggestions on how to improve the power play.
From left: Nick Saban and Bill Haslam
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Saban, who was introduced to reporters Monday as the team’s newest minority owner, instead hopes to share what he has learned about building a winning culture.
The recently retired Saban knows a thing or two about that, as a four-time former college head coach — Toledo, Michigan State, LSU and Alabama — and a two-year head coach of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.
Saban’s resume includes a record seven NCAA college football national championships, including six at Alabama and one at LSU. He totaled 297 wins as a head coach, the sixth-most in college football history, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame earlier this month.
“I’m no expert in hockey, so don’t look at me like I’m going to make some huge impact coaching around here because that’s not going to happen,” Saban said.
“But I do have a pretty good idea of what it takes to have successful organizations. One of the reasons we wanted to partner with the Predators and with this organization is that they want to be successful. They want to be successful for the people in this town, and for the fans that support it.”
The 74-year-old Saban grew up in Fairmont, West Virginia, where he said, “We didn’t have any ice, didn’t have any ice skates, and there was no hockey within a 100-mile radius.”
But he began developing an interest in the sport while at Michigan State in the mid-1980s, as the Spartans hockey team won the NCAA championship in 1986.
Saban originally reached out to Predators majority owner Bill Haslam when the latter headed a group seeking a WNBA team for Nashville, a dream that ultimately died in July 2025.
Haslam recalled, however, that Saban had said he might be interested in hockey as well.
“I thought, `That’s the greatest no-brainer of all time,’” said Haslam, a former Tennessee governor.
“You have somebody who understands building a championship culture, who understands I think better than almost anybody in sports the process that’s needed to get to where you compete as a champion, and somebody who — just like I do — loves sports, and loved the idea of being around.”
It didn’t hurt either that Saban is a business partner with Joe Agresti, the CEO of Dream Motor Group. The company’s portfolio includes 10 dealerships in the Southeast, two of which are located in Music City — Mercedes-Benz of Music City and Prancing Horse of Nashville.
Neither the Predators nor Saban have revealed just how much of a financial stake the latter has in the organization.
His job description with the Predators isn’t crystal clear either.
“What does it take to be a successful organization process?’” Saban said of his role. “There are some of the things we did when I was in the NFL as well as I was in college, from, `How do you bring players to a team? How do you manage the organization from a financial standpoint to maximize the players you could bring to a team, relative to what you can spend? How do you successfully get people in the organization to work together?’
“Bill and I have talked quite a bit about some of the things we did in football that may bleed over into what they could do here in the hockey organization that may be helpful. Some things maybe not, but anything like that that we can do, we’d love to do.”
Saban first made an appearance in the Bridgestone Arena stands in 2017, when he wore a Predators jersey to support the home team against Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup Final that year.
More recently, Saban visited with the Predators’ front office and also addressed a number of Nashville’s top young prospects at the organization’s annual development camp in July.
“I spoke to the team and the coaches, and kind of challenged the team — which was mostly the Triple A team, whatever that’s called — to be a team that nobody wanted to play against,” Saban said. “That was always our goal at Alabama. That’s how you compete, the toughness you play with, the disposition that you get out and compete with. So those kinds of things I’d like to continue to do, and whatever [Haslam] would like for me to do and thinks I can contribute in a positive way, I’d like to do.”
How often that means Saban will actually be in town remains to be seen.
But Haslam said he’d like to see the legendary former coach strolling the hallways as often as possible.
“If it’s up to me,” Haslam said with a chuckle while address Saban, “you’ll be playing a lot less golf this winter.”