Nashville Predators Hire Goaltending Coach for AHL Affiliate
The Nashville Predators made a new coaching hire Wednesday afternoon.
Per a media release put out by the organization, President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Chris MacFarland announced the hiring of Jordan DeKort as the professional development goaltending coach.
DeKort is going to be the goaltending coach for the Predators’ AHL affiliate Milwaukee Admirals and the organization’s ECHL affiliate Atlanta Gladiators. The release also stated he will work alongside Director of Goaltending Mitch Korn and Goaltending Coach Ben Vanderklok.
At 30-years-old, DeKort was the director of goaltending and video coach for the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL. Last season in the OHL, the Rangers won the Memorial Cup, which is the league’s championship trophy.
DeKort spent the past five seasons as the Kitchener Rangers goaltending coach. During his playing career, DeKort was an OHL goalie for four different teams from 2011-2015.
The Predators goaltending room is led by Juuse Saros, who had a record of 28-22-8 last season with a goals-against average of 3.16 and a save percentage of .894. Nashville’s backup goaltender, Justus Annunen had a record of 10-12-2 with a goals-against average of 2.68 and a save percentage of .906.
Annuene has had a good offseason, though. Annuenen played for Team Finland in the IIHF World Championship in Switzerland in May and led Finland to a championship title over Roman Josi and Team Switzerland.
In the AHL, Matthew Murray was the leading goaltender for the Milwaukee Admirals for the 2025-2026 season. He appeared in 47 games and held a record of 22-22-2. His goals-against average was 2.83 with a save percentage of .904.
Magnus Chrona backed up Matthew Murray this past season in Milwaukee. In his 25 games, he held a record of 9-11-3 and a 2.94 goals-against average.
The Predators are soon bringing in more goalie competition in the next couple of seasons, too. With the No. 70 pick in the NHL Draft in June, the Predators took Russian goaltender Dmitri Borichev. Borichev was scouted as the top international goaltender going into the draft.
Another goalie that was seen at the Predators’ development camp was Jack Ivankovic. The University of Michigan goalie showed out his freshman year and will look to do so next college hockey season.
Regardless of the future of the Predators goaltending situation, DeKort will hope to coach them to the best of his ability.
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Graham Baakko writes for both Nashville Predators On SI and Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham graduated from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as an intern for GamecockCentral.