"It takes a lot of luck in this business," Poile said. "You have to be good, and hopefully we've had decent teams, but you also have to be lucky. You have to have people that believe in you and are on your side, and I've been pretty fortunate."
Poile, 68, has a record of 1,320-1,028-145 (192 ties) in 2,685 games in 34 seasons with the Predators and Washington Capitals. He is 726-574-145 (60 ties) in 1,505 games with Nashville and was 594-454-132 (ties) in 15 seasons with Washington from 1982-97.
"I think we're all just glad to be a part of it," said coach Peter Laviolette, who is 169-95-45 since Poile hired him as Predators coach May 6, 2014. "I have been here for 3 1/2 years, getting on four years, and watching him work, there is no question he deserves everything that he gets. He works incredibly hard at his job. He works incredibly hard at the human side of things, inside of an organization. He's just a terrific person, a terrific GM. It's very well deserved, I can tell you that."
The Predators reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time last season, losing in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Poile was named 2017 NHL General Manager of the Year and has been a finalist four times since the award's inception in 2010, the most of any GM.
"I'm in a great place. Coming to Nashville 20 years ago, I really had a vision, hope, dream that we can make it a hockey city, and it's turned out unbelievable," Poile said. "The last couple of years, and specifically last year was just fantastic how we played and the run we had in the playoffs. You all saw the support and the kind of hockey city Nashville has become.
"Today we have a waiting list for season tickets. Whoever thought that was going to happen?"
NHL.com correspondent Derek Van Diest contributed to this story.
