Poile relied on loyalty, love of family to reach 3,000 games as NHL GM

David Poile was unsure he'd last as an NHL general manager.

In 1983-84, his second season with the Washington Capitals, his team lost its first seven games. Owner Abe Pollin summoned him to his house.
"I said, 'You've got to be kidding,'" Poile said. "'I worked so hard to get this job. I've been the manager for one year, and he's going to fire me.'"
Poile can laugh now.
Turns out, Pollin wanted to give a pep talk. The Capitals won seven of their next eight and went on to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Poile went on to set the records for games and wins by an NHL GM.
When his Nashville Predators play the Philadelphia Flyers at Bridgestone Arena on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; BSSO, NBCSP+, ESPN+, SN NOW), Poile will become the first NHL GM to reach 3,000 games. Seven more wins, and he will become the first NHL GM to reach 1,500 in that category.
No one else is close. Glen Sather is second in games with 2,700, and Lou Lamoriello is third with 2,678. Lamoriello is second in wins with 1,365, Sather third with 1,319.
Poile won't be an NHL GM forever.
"I certainly realize that the end is near," the 72-year-old said.
But asked how much longer he would stay in his job, he said he didn't know how to answer that. He has been on one-year contracts with the Predators for more than a decade. He's in good health.
"He's doing what he loves every day," said his son, Brian, a Predators assistant GM. "I don't think he thinks of those 3,000 games as work. He's found his passion and what he's interested in doing. It's a great testament to him, and he's still going strong all these years."
Poile said he enjoys that each day presents new things. He never gets bored.
"It's more like, 'I hope I can get all this done today,'" he said. "I don't think I have any problem in terms of my enthusiasm, my energy, any of that."

How do you become the only person in more than a century of NHL history to reach 3,000 games as a GM? A unique combination of factors. A series of forks in the road.
Poile is the son of the late Bud Poile, the first GM of the Flyers and Vancouver Canucks, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder. That helped him leave a job at a phone company, land his first job in the NHL at a young age, and rise in the ranks in the League.
He's been loyal and had strong support professionally and personally. It says something that he's been the GM for two teams and had six coaches during 40 years, and he's been married to his high school sweetheart, Elizabeth, for 51.
"Personal record," he said, laughing.
"Yeah," she said, laughing at that. "For both of us."
He's had more runway than most GMs, particularly in Nashville, but has taken off. The Capitals made the playoffs in each of his first 14 seasons and had the fifth best points percentage (.559) during his tenure from 1982-97. He launched the Predators as an expansion team in 1998-99. Since 2003-04, they have made the playoffs 15 times and have the sixth best points percentage (.594).
He has had a long-term vision and evolved with the NHL over the decades. His biggest priority has been -- and ultimate legacy will be -- the growth of the game. He helped the Capitals stay in Washington, and he's part of the reason the Predators have not only survived but thrived.
"He's not part of that reason," Predators president Sean Henry said. "He is the reason."
Poile won the Lester Patrick Award in 2001 for his service to hockey in the United States, like his father did in 1989. He was named NHL General Manager of the Year in 2017 after the Predators made the Stanley Cup Final for the first time and was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018.
"I would like to be considered a builder," Poile said. "I'm very proud of that."
* * * * *

David and Elizabeth lived on the same street in Millbrae, California, one house apart. He sat behind her in French class at Mills High School. Eventually they became high school sweethearts and went to the senior prom together, though Elizabeth joked, "Hockey's always been his sweetheart."
Like father, like son.
Bud played 311 NHL games as a forward from 1942-50, winning the Stanley Cup with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1947. He later became coach of San Francisco of the Western Hockey League from 1962-66 and served as the Seals GM in 1965-66.
Elizabeth asked David what he wanted to do when he grew up.
"I don't think I ever asked a boy I dated that before," she said. "He said, 'I want to be a general manager in the National Hockey League and win the Stanley Cup.' I thought, 'That you know that you want to do all that so early in life, that's fantastic.'"
Bud became GM of the Flyers, who entered the NHL as an expansion team in 1967-68. David got to work as a trainer -- or what would be called a locker room attendant today -- at their first training camp. He saw their first game at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, driving all night through a snowstorm back to Boston, where he played center for Northeastern University.
Then Bud became GM of the Canucks, who entered the NHL as an expansion team in 1970-71. David came to camp as a player and got cut. Like everyone else, he sat on a bench outside the room and got called in to see the GM, who had a big legal pad in front of him.
"It was like I wasn't even his son," Poile said.
At the same time, he was known as "Bud's boy." He was in the room when the Canucks selected Dale Tallon with the No. 2 pick in the 1970 NHL Draft, and he was in the room when Tallon's representative, Alan Eagleson, negotiated Tallon's contract with his dad.
"The word 'luck' should probably be part of your article, because I was just there," David said. "I was just around. I was meeting all these people. That's a little bit of how I got my job to start with."
David had earned a business degree from Northeastern, married Elizabeth and started an executive training program at a phone company in British Columbia, distributing equipment to union workers, when he saw a chance to break into hockey.
He went to see Cliff Fletcher, who had been hired as the GM of an expansion team in Atlanta to begin play in 1972-73 and was in Vancouver to scout. The president of the team was Bill Putnam, who had been president of the Flyers and helped hire Bud in Philadelphia.
"Bill put in a good word for me," David said. "Obviously, my dad did."
David was hired as an administrative assistant. He and Elizabeth drove from Vancouver to Atlanta, and he opened the office in a trailer on Peachtree Street while the arena was being built nearby. Fletcher was still living in St. Louis, where he had been an assistant GM, so it was just Putnum, Putnam's secretary and Poile. He was 21.
"And that's how it starts," Poile said.

David Poile (bottom l.), then an administrative assistant with the Atlanta Flames, sits in on a meeting the night before the 1972 NHL Draft with coach Bernie Geoffrion (standing right) and GM Cliff Fletcher (r.). Also in the photo are Aldo Guidolin, Les Moore and Donnie Graham. Photo by Getty
Think of the experience Poile got and how it set up his future. He ran the name-the-team contest that resulted in the Flames. He developed a form for the scouts to use and collected their reports, creating the forerunner to a database. Eventually he started scouting himself and recommended players Fletcher went on to sign.
"He saw some use or value to me," Poile said, "and the rest, as they say, is history."
* * * * *
The Flames made the playoffs six times in eight seasons before moving to Calgary before the 1980-81 season.
Poile, now an assistant GM, interviewed for the Capitals GM job before the 1982-83 season. When he didn't hear anything, he called executive Dick Patrick. He said Patrick told him, "Oh, I was just going to call you. Why don't you come down?"
The Capitals were in trouble. They hadn't made the playoffs in eight seasons since joining the NHL as an expansion team in 1974-75. Poile said Pollin offered him a one-year contract to be the GM in Washington at the same salary he was making as an assistant GM in Calgary.
"He said, 'We don't know if this team is going to survive or not. We'll talk after the first year,'" Poile said.
Poile took the risk (after negotiating a three-year contract). On Aug. 30, 1982, he became the youngest GM in the NHL at 33. On Sept. 9, 1982, he made a huge move by acquiring Rod Langway from the Montreal Canadiens. Langway became a two-time winner of the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the NHL and a Hockey Hall of Famer.
During the next 15 years, David stopped being "Bud's boy," and Bud became "David's dad." Poile raised the standard and excitement level to the point where he lost his job after the Capitals missed the playoffs in 1996-97 for the first time during his tenure.
"I think that was the shelf life at the time," Poile said. "Our team was really, really, really good. They fired me."
While the Capitals went to the 1998 Stanley Cup Final with a roster he largely constructed, Poile had to go elsewhere. He was in deep discussions with the Maple Leafs when he accepted an offer to build an expansion team in Nashville to begin play in 1998-99.
Even his dad was unsure. Yes, Bud had been the first GM of the Flyers and Canucks, but he'd won the Cup as a player with the Maple Leafs. Toronto was an Original Six franchise.
"He did not understand this move," Poile said. "Nashville? Why Nashville?"
Good question. Why?
"I had a good feeling about what I wanted to do, maybe going back to what he did and the successes he had -- or maybe the lack of successes he had," Poile said. "I just felt, for good, for bad, whatever happens in Nashville, I'm going to have my fingerprints on everything. I'm so happy with that decision."
Had Poile chosen Toronto, would he have reached 3,000 games? Even if he'd won the Cup multiple times, he might not have lasted as long in that market.
"You don't know," Poile said.
What you know is this: He was right. Through good and bad, his fingerprints have been on everything in Nashville.

Nashville fans applaud David Poile (c.) for his record-breaking 1,320 wins as an NHL GM during a game against the Dallas Stars on March 6, 2018. Photo by Getty
The Predators missed the playoffs their first five seasons. At first they had to explain penalties on the scoreboard screen. When the Detroit Red Wings would visit, the Predators would offer transplants wearing Detroit jerseys to switch to Nashville jerseys.
Eventually the Predators became one of the best teams in the League, and Poile tried to put them over the top. He signed forward Paul Kariya as an unrestricted free agent Aug. 5, 2005, and acquired center Peter Forsberg in a trade with the Flyers on Feb. 15, 2007. In 2006-07, the Predators finished third in the League with 110 points.
But after they lost in the first round of the playoffs for the third straight time, owner Craig Leipold decided to sell the team. Poile had to cut payroll. He could have cut and run himself, but he decided to stay.
"Deep down," Poile said, "I just thought this was going to work here."
Had Poile left Nashville, would he have reached 3,000 games?
You don't know.
What you know is this: A group of local investors saved the team, and Poile rebuilt the roster.
Among his moves was acquiring Mike Fisher from the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 10, 2011. The center just so happened to be married to country singer Carrie Underwood, who just so happened to live in Nashville.
Nashville won a playoff series for the first time in 2011 and won another in 2012. When defenseman
Shea Weber
signed a 14-year, $110 million offer sheet with the Flyers as a restricted free agent on July 19, 2012, the Predators matched it, making a statement that they were serious about competing.
After missing the playoffs in 2012-13 and 2013-14, the Predators have made them each season since.
Poile has continued to swing big at times, like when he traded defenseman Seth Jones to the Columbus Blue Jackets for center Ryan Johansen on Jan. 6, 2016, and Weber to the Canadiens for defenseman
P.K. Subban
on June 29, 2016.
This offseason, he acquired defenseman Ryan McDonagh in a trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning on July 3 and signed forward Nino Niederreiter as an unrestricted free agent July 21.

It has been a long time since the Predators have had to explain penalties on the scoreboard screens. Predators jerseys are everywhere. Nashville is now a honky-tonk hockeytown.
People packed Broadway for the 2016 NHL All-Star Game, the 2017 Stanley Cup Final and the 2022 Stadium Series, and they'll do it again for the 2023 NHL Awards on June 26 and the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft on June 28-29.
"Of course, we have not won the ultimate prize, which is disappointing, but we just keep trying," Poile said. "That's what we keep trying to do. But I think our teams have been very, very successful."
* * * * *
David likes to say "Poiles are planners."
He and Elizabeth have two children: Brian and their daughter, Lauren. Starting when they were little, David would buy a calendar for each of them. They would have meetings at the kitchen table during which he would have them fill in all their activities.
It's been the same at the office. The Predators have a family atmosphere and a 10-year business plan they revise each year. Henry said Poile always looks out for the health of the game first, and he thinks through each scenario in if/then fashion. If this goes well, it will mean this. If not, it will mean that.
"I think a lot of GMs make the mistake of worrying about that season only, where David is always looking ahead, always resetting," Henry said. "If you work with him and want to know what the team could look like in four years or six years or 10 years, all you have to do is ask him, and he'll show you."
Poile is patient, yet aggressive when the time is right. He's methodical, yet creative. On one hand, Henry said, "He knows everything about everything," and that's true in a sense. On the other, Brian said, "He doesn't pretend to know everything," and that's true too.
Think of how Poile has adapted and evolved over a half-century in hockey. He went from a staff of four in Atlanta to a staff of 50-plus in Nashville, from 16 teams in the NHL to 32, from paper to computers, landlines to smartphones, VHS tapes to digital video, basic stats to analytics.
"That's why he's been able to do it so long," Brian said. "If you don't evolve, you don't stay, and I think he's done an excellent job with evolving with the times and learning about things, being open-minded towards things."
Poile has three assistant GMs: Brian, the director of hockey operations; Jeff Kealty, the director of scouting; and Scott Nichol, the director of player development and GM of Milwaukee of the American Hockey League.
"One general manager said to me, 'What a great setup,'" Poile said, laughing. "'What do you do, David?'"
He leads, mentors and delegates in a collaborative culture.
"You have to say current," Poile said. "I'm doing the best I can to try to do that. I'm surrounding myself with really good people -- people, of course, that are a lot younger. I love that because they come in with a totally different view. They're more educated, more knowledgeable about all the current things. I rely heavily on staff to do things."
David relies heavily on Elizabeth too, always has, and appreciates the sacrifices she has made on the way to 3,000 games.
"Don't underestimate when I say sacrifice," he said.
It has been a long road, full of long road trips.
"The big numbers creep up on you," Elizabeth said. "You don't stop to think about it. You're just living it, you know? But we're so lucky. He's worked so hard for it, and I've been right there encouraging him and helping him along the way."
For the Poile family, hockey has been in their blood for four generations now. A 6-year-old named Wyatt Poile -- Bud's great-grandson, David's grandson, Brian's son -- plays for the Junior Preds.
"He loves hockey," Elizabeth said. "He comes over to our house and plays hockey in the driveway all time. It's been a fantastic journey."

When the journey took the Predators to Europe recently, Elizabeth was there with David and Brian. She wore a No. 98 Predators jersey, a reference to the year they joined the NHL, and had to laugh at an anecdote that sums up her husband.
David is known for his love of chocolate, like he is for his love of hockey. In Bern, Switzerland, where the Predators played an exhibition against SC Bern in the 2022 NHL Global Series Challenge on Oct. 3, he bought a bunch of the good Swiss stuff. On the plane to Prague, where the Predators opened the season against the Sharks in the 2022 NHL Global Series on Oct. 7-8, he gave it out to the players and staff.
"Sharing his joy," she said, "of something that he loves."