Poile Accomplishes Goals in Free Agency, Encouraged by Preds Roster

David Poile said there would be changes to his hockey club, and the last 10 days have proven that statement to be rather accurate.
With the NHL's Free Agency signing period beginning to wind down, and the 2020 NHL Draft in the rearview, Nashville's GM addressed the media to discuss exactly what the Predators have done with their personnel over the past week - and the additions and subtractions have been plentiful.
Nine players who were on Nashville's NHL roster during the Stanley Cup Qualifiers - forwards Nick Bonino, Kyle Turris, Craig Smith, Mikael Granlund, Colin Blackwell and Austin Watson, plus defensemen Yannick Weber, Korbinian Holzer and Dan Hamhuis - have all gone their separate ways through a combination of trades, buyouts, free agency and retirement.
In turn, the Predators have added at least four players through free agency - forwards Nick Cousins and Brad Richardson, plus defensemen Mark Borowiecki and Matt Benning - all of whom will be expected to contribute to the club during the 2021 season.

While a general manager's work is never over, Poile may have reached a point of satisfaction when it comes to welcoming free agents to the organization.
"Our objectives going into free agency were to retool our team a bit, specifically strengthen our forwards, be a harder group of forwards to play against and then also to improve our third defensive pair," Poile said. "I think by the signings that we've made that we've accomplished those goals.
"So, we're in a good position. We've created some flexibility in our lineup, but also with our salary cap. We are comfortably under the cap. I think that's a really good thing. I think that gives us that flexibility that every club would like at this time. There's not a lot of clubs that have that. I think we're open to opportunities, but it's not just signing a player for the sake of signing a player, if you will. I've got to find the right player at the right time, but I think we're positioned to improve our club when that opportunity presents itself… Again, just trying to change it up a little bit and try to set a new and higher standard here with our team in terms of our compete level. I think we've done that with the players we signed."
Poile uses words such as grit, physicality and leadership when describing most, if not all, of his new players, and they all bring different elements of what the Preds were searching for this offseason. Add forward Luke Kunin, who was acquired from Minnesota in a deal with Bonino, into the mix, and the Predators certainly have a different look about them than they did just a few months ago.
Those players are expected to be complemented on the roster by some younger talent too - prospects the Predators believe are ready for their time in the NHL.
"We also don't want to over-sign [in free agency], and we'd like to give some opportunities to some of our more highly touted prospects like [forward] Eeli Tolvanen," Poile said. "We've been watching him play on video in the KHL [during his current loan], and he looks really good. It looks like his game is maturing, as it was last year, and I think he's going to get an excellent chance at training camp. [Forward] Philip Tomasino, the young player that we took with the first pick a year ago, he's going to be playing in the World Juniors for Canada… If we have a training camp situation, he could come in at that time and who knows if he could win a spot? Also, [forward] Rem Pitlick is another guy with speed and some offensive abilities that we want to look at. Guys that have the elements, a little bit of the physicality and grit that we've talked about - [forwards] Michael McCarron, [Mathieu] Olivier, [Tanner] Jeannot - they also should get a good look at the training camp."

There's no doubt Predators Head Coach John Hynes will have plenty of options to choose from when the puck does drop again, especially up front. The lineup is essentially set from the crease on up to the blue line, but the forward lines could see a number of combinations tested in the early going.
For example, Nashville's top line of Ryan Johansen centering Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson was reunited for the postseason - and had an impressive showing - but even they could see some movement. Poile mentioned the pairing of Forsberg and Matt Duchene who clicked in the early going last season with some instant chemistry as a potential to be reunited.
The GM also sees Kunin as someone who is likely to get a chance with Duchene, along with Tolvanen, who Poile called, "the obvious choice [to play with Duchene], at least in the long run."
Poile also believes players like Cousins, Richardson, Colton Sissons and Calle Jarnkrok could move up and down the lineup on any given night, and prospects like Yakov Trenin, Pitlick, McCarron, Olivier and Jeannot may be in and out as well.
The cap space Poile mentioned earlier has also been a strong consideration, but under the circumstances with a flat salary cap of $81.5 million for the upcoming season - and likely at least one more after that - the GM wants to have some flexibility when it comes to his roster.
"I have an appetite to improve our club whenever we have a chance to improve our club, and my appetite is to sign the right player, not just for the sake of signing a player," Poile said. "There's still some players out there, there's also teams that are calling because they want to make a hockey deal, there are other teams calling because they have cap problems and they're not compliant, so there's still a lot of things out there. But maybe we've done enough. Maybe we get off to a good start, we play well, and maybe we're a buyer at the trade deadline this year. All I know is, I have the flexibility and space available so when the opportunity presents itself, we have a chance to do a good thing to improve our hockey club."
There is still work to be done in the days and weeks to come - Poile says he's engaged daily on contracts for restricted free agents Kunin and Pitlick - and there may still be some small additions to fill out the roster in Milwaukee and beyond, but this might be it for the next little while.
Anything is possible, as Poile has proven over the years, but if this is the collection of players the Predators have to work with come Opening Night, they're more than satisfied with the starting point.
"It feels like we're getting to the end of it," Poile said of adding and subtracting from his roster. "We've made a lot of changes, and I hope we haven't made too many changes, but this is what we've done. As a staff, we talked yesterday and we went over things, not only with our scouts but our coaches, in terms of what we think we did… and we feel like we're in a good place."