Fletcher, Shero, Recall Time as Mentor, Mentee of Preds GM Poile

Cliff Fletcher was tasked with building a professional hockey franchise from scratch.
It was January of 1972 and Fletcher had just been hired to become general manager of the NHL's newest expansion club, the Atlanta Flames.
The beginnings were humble - a trailer in a parking lot in the middle of Georgia's capital city, hardly the ideal setting to conduct business - but Fletcher had a job to do and he needed good people. Hockey people.

Luckily for him, a young man by the name of David Poile had recently been cut from Vancouver Canucks training camp just a few months earlier - by his own father, no less. But Fletcher, a hockey man himself, knew of Poile, knew Poile's father had been an NHL player, coach and general manager, knew the job candidate had been around professional hockey his whole life.
So, Fletcher made a phone call.
"I interviewed him on the phone and I said, 'Well, you've got the job,' and my owner came to me and said, 'How come you're not interviewing him?'" Fletcher recalled of his talk with Poile.
He didn't need more than a single conversation.
"We were looking for a young guy to come in and learn the business, and I don't think anybody could be any better," Fletcher said of Poile's early days. "He did a terrific job. I didn't know him in advance, but he was so detailed and so structured and committed and we hit it off. He did one heck of a job."

Poile remained with Fletcher and the Flames for 10 seasons, eventually becoming assistant general manager, the whole time with Fletcher serving as his mentor, teaching him the ins and outs of what it took to be a successful GM in the top hockey league in the world.
In 1982, the Washington Capitals called and Poile landed his first gig as an NHL GM. Then, after a successful, 15-year run in the nation's capital, it was off to Nashville to build a franchise from the very beginning, just like Fletcher once did.
This time around, it was Poile picking up the phone looking for assistance. Ray Shero was on the other end of the line.
"I would hear David talk about Cliff a lot, and I know what a mentor is, but I never really knew what it meant until I had spent eight years with David," said Shero, who was Nashville's assistant general manager from the franchise's inception in 1998 until 2006. "David is my mentor, and if you're lucky enough to have that in your life like he is with Cliff, and me with him, to impact someone like that is amazing."
Now the general manager of the New Jersey Devils, Shero got his first GM job with Pittsburgh in May of 2006 and won a Stanley Cup with the team in 2009. When the Penguins came courting over 10 years ago, Shero felt he was ready to lead his own club, but another offer of the same title from a different franchise was already on the table. Once Pittsburgh called, Shero, after being unable to reach his wife to tell her the news, phoned his mentor.
"I called him, and I'm like, 'David, you're not going to believe this, I just got a call from [former Penguins CEO] Ken Sawyer and he offered me the job!' And David says, 'Congratulations, that's fantastic! What are you going to do?' And I said, 'What am I going to do? That's why I'm calling you, what should I do?'"
Highly skilled in the art of communication and dealing with people, Poile had the perfect response, although it didn't necessarily seem helpful in the moment.
"David's like, 'Listen, we've worked together for eight years and remember all the times I told you when you become a general manager, you're going to have to make that final decision?'" Shero recalled of the chat. "'Well, congratulations, you're going to be a general manager, so just let me know what you decide.' And then click. He hung up on me! And there went my lifeline.

"I thought he was supposed to tell me what you do, but his advice was absolutely the best ever because he said, 'You decide, it's your decision now.' I learned so much from him."
Forty-six years after Fletcher made his first phone call to Poile, he watched from the general manager's box in Nashville, high above the Bridgestone Arena ice, as the ceremony for his mentee commenced in recognition for becoming the NHL's winningest general manager of all time.
In front of more than 17,000 spectators, Poile lifted his gaze toward the rafters and pointed to Fletcher.
"There's a man by the name of Cliff Fletcher, he's my mentor," Poile told the crowd. "Cliff, I owe you so much. Thank you for everything."
Fletcher's expression welled with pride for the man he took a chance on all those years ago. Poile has come a long way since first stepping foot in that trailer in an Atlanta parking lot. And there may never be another quite like him.
"Look at him now, all these years later," Fletcher said. "The record he has, the wins he has; 90 percent of people who have been NHL general managers have never run a team for 1,320 games, never mind wins. It is remarkable, and he's still got years to go."