Patrick Côté was part of the first two seasons in Nashville Predators history and set at least two team records that are unlikely to be broken in the modern NHL.
The Preds’ early years weren’t anything like what we’ve seen from Vegas or Seattle.
With much less friendly expansion draft rules to work with, Predators GM David Poile had to build a team of mostly castoffs and hope for luck in the draft. He didn’t get much, at least not in the way of stars.
The team attempted to make up the skill gap with tough, gritty players who could at least fill ‘em in if they couldn’t run ‘em up, and #17 was one of those guys.
Côté played in a career high 70 games for Nashville in the inaugural season.
The enforcer racked up 242 penalty minutes and 29 fights in that first season, putting the early smash into Smashville. Both of those totals will likely stand the test of time as the number of fights have dropped precipitously in the NHL in the last decade plus.
On the other hand, he scored just 1 goal and 2 assists and averaged just 4:14 of ice time per night. Those were the only points that the Quebec native scored in his NHL career.
Côté played just 21 games the following season to conclude his brief tenure with the Predators.
In 1998-1999 teams wore their white jerseys at home, but it is unknown what set Patrick Côté’s jersey is from.
Outside of the opening night set (which also had different customization), the inaugural season game worn jerseys weren’t given any markings or identification to be able to tell one set from another. Furthermore, there are very few photos of the Nashville Predators at home in the early years. This meant you had to rely on the team issued LOA’s to provide the set info and unfortunately most of the inaugural gamers in the wild no longer have their LOA…including this one.
Patrick Côté’s jersey has relatively light wear with a few more obvious marks. The wear syncs up with his four minutes of playtime per night average.
It is a Bauer model which was only worn by the Preds in 1998-1999 and is a massive 62G. Côté’s jersey is the largest jersey I have ever seen in my time collecting.
The right sleeve has stick/puck and paint transfer markings in the white areas. There are also faint stick marks on the right side of the chest.
The left sleeve has some burn residue on the sleeve #7 and there is also a pull and a slash/burn or two in the silver fabric of the sleeve.
On the back of the sweater there is a bloodstain or other unknown stain next to the right shoulder patch. There is also what appears to be a bloodstain on the “O” of Côté’s nameplate.
Beneath the right armpit is another cluster of faint stick marks that matches the one on the front of the jersey.
The shoulder patches on this sweater feature the “98” for the franchise’s inaugural season. The right shoulder patch has several marks or unknown stains near the top of the patch and one long loose thread. There is also one faint stick mark and a pull in the silver fabric near the left shoulder patch.