David Poile at the Deadline: In Nashville, the Future is Now

The only general manager in the history of the Nashville Predators, who announced earlier this week that he is going to retire from that position in June, posed a question to his fellow NHL GMs over the last few days:
"Who wants to make the last deal with David Poile?"

Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams would be the one to answer the bell in the final hours before the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline on Friday, agreeing to send forward
Rasmus Asplund
to Nashville in exchange for a seventh-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
That move capped off one of the busiest deadline weeks for the Predators in recent memory, which seemed only fitting for the last trade deadline with Poile at the helm. The week saw the difficult departures of fan favorites, the exciting debuts of rising stars, the amassment of more than two dozen draft picks and the arrivals of some promising new faces in the Preds locker room.
"It's a step backwards to take, hopefully, a couple of steps forward in the very near future," Poile said. "I'm very, very happy with where the organization is right now in terms of all the draft choices. We have 13 picks this year, 28 picks overall in the next three years, and I think it is a lot of opportunity. That's a lot of assets, a lot of currency that can be used in the draft or to be traded for players or what have you, but I think it puts us in a very advantageous position in relation to most other teams."
The Predators will have an opportunity to add some more important pieces to their future with 13 picks in the 2023 NHL Draft, which will be held at Bridgestone Arena on June 28-29.
"It's a deep draft," Poile said. "It was the right thing to do. And it's in Nashville - I think that's kind of important."
The future is indeed bright for the Predators, as evidenced not only by the club's wealth of picks in the next three NHL drafts, but also by the prospect depth of the club's AHL affiliate in Milwaukee.
"Our Milwaukee farm club is in terrific shape," Poile said. "Next year, I anticipate having either five or six first round picks in Milwaukee, which means if we've drafted correctly, and these are good prospects in the next couple of years, we will be having a lot of new and more young players in addition to some of the young players that we've already put on our team this year."
In addition to giving due credit to those young players - Juuso Parssinen, Cody Glass and Tommy Novak, among others - Poile was quick to give recognition to the veteran core that helped provide stability in the locker room during all the roster turnover that happened over the last week.
"I have been very pleased with how our team has performed and how we're playing right now with a lot of these new players in the hockey club and especially the younger guys," Poile said. "But I think it's important to point out the veteran players that we've retained and how they played Roman Josi, Matt] Duchene, [Ryan] McDonagh, for example, have really done a good job. So let's see what happens in the next 20-plus games."
The Preds are in fifth place in the Central Division with a 30-23-6 record and currently sit six points out of a Wild Card spot. But while playoffs are still a possibility, Poile emphasized the organization's focus on building a team that would be competitive in the very near future.
"Can we still make the playoffs this year?" Poile asked. "Maybe. Possibly. We're going to give it everything we can. But we want to be a team that's competing for the Cup like we were the previous few years. I think we've just lost that a little bit. So [again], it's a step backwards to take us a couple of steps forward. And we have set the table for doing that in the last couple of weeks. I don't think in terms of assets that we could have gotten any more assets than we got in return for the players that we've traded in draft choices and in players. I'm satisfied with what we did and I got my hopes up that we're going in the right direction."
Trading away veteran players may be, as Poile suggests, a temporary step backward. But the moves imply a quick eye on the future in terms of getting the team back to a competitive situation as soon as possible in the near future.
"Everybody wants to say rebuild," Poile said. "I want to use reset… We're in the middle. There's nothing to be ashamed of, being in the middle. I'm sure 20 other clubs would be happy to take our record in the last eight to 10 years. But my decision and our collective decision as an organization is that we don't want to just make the playoffs. We want to compete for the Cup. Right now, I just think that we're a club that just didn't have enough ammunition to do that. So we're making some changes that we hope are short term to make our long term future very, very bright."
The team's "reset" involved some difficult decisions, including the trades of veteran players like Mattias Ekholm and Mikael Granlund.
"It's never easy," Poile said. "That's why as I step away from my job here, that will be the thing I miss the least. You do form relationships with your players and sometimes their families… and then you turn their world upside down. I never take that lightly when I do that. And it kind of goes right through your team in terms of how you're building your team. I like stability. I like stability in my life, and I love that on the teams. I know you have to make changes, but I'd like to make two or three changes a year and just be rolling along in a winning culture. Sometimes it has to be done like this, but it's never easy. It's never fun, and it takes a little bit of time for everybody to get over that."
The silver linings of those tough decisions include more playing opportunities for newly acquired players like Cal Foote and Tyson Barrie, as well as younger players like Dante Fabbro, whom the Predators
[signed to a one-year, $2.5 million contract
for the 2023-24 season shortly before this year's trade deadline.
"Myself, Barry Trotz, all our management team and our scouts were in this together," Poile said. "We started this process back in January. We had a very philosophical meeting where I set out the direction of where we wanted to go and I took everybody's input as to what they thought, where we were, what the best course of action is, and the way it's turned out is pretty much what you see in this trading deadline."
Trotz, who was announced as Poile's successor effective July 1, 2023, has been involved in many of the decisions leading up to the trade deadline and will soon be joining the team on the road to spend time getting to know the players, coaches and staff, as well as ensuring that everyone has an understanding of the organization's goals and vision for the future.
"Before we had the official announcement, [Trotz] has been working with me on a regular basis and our management crew," Poile said. "So he's been part of the thought process, part of the philosophy. He totally believes in everything that I'm saying here… Barry's a former coach. [How] he can talk to [Head Coach John Hynes and his staff] is going to be different than the way I've talked to any of my coaches before, and I think this is going to be a good thing."
There is a delicate balance between undertaking a reset of this caliber while still remaining competitive, but Poile, Trotz and the Predators management are confident that the transactions made over the last week have allowed the organization to strike that balance perfectly.
So, when can fans expect to see the Predators making a push for a Stanley Cup again? When asked about a timeline for the reset, Poile's answer was simple:
"Now. It's already started."