Poile Keeping Options Open as Preds Prepare for Draft, Free Agency

Being busy at this time of year is nothing new for David Poile, he's just used to preparing for a regular season as opposed to a draft and free agency.
Such is life in 2020, however, and the Predators general manager is hard at work with his staff discussing every possibility that could come over the next two weeks in relation to the NHL Draft, signings, trades and the like.
Poile gave updates on a number of situations on Tuesday afternoon, most notably confirming forwards Craig Smith and Mikael Granlund will go to free agency when the market opens on Oct. 9 at 11 a.m. CT. The GM also stated defenseman Korbinian Holzer will not return to Nashville, and fellow blueliner Yannick Weber is also likely to test free agency.

Drafted by the Predators in 2009, Smith has spent his entire career with Nashville, appearing in 661 regular-season games. Granlund was acquired by the Preds at the 2019 Trade Deadline, and Weber had been with Nashville the past four seasons.
Poile also added he has had some negotiations with forward Colin Blackwell's representatives, but the general manager says he doesn't "want to take anything off the table" with any of his players as the offseason truly begins.
"I don't have a lot of flexibility when you look at the balance sheet," Poile said Tuesday via video call. "We've signed a lot of players to longer-term contracts, to significant money. The fact that in this new CBA, and because of the pandemic, the cap is going to be flat [at $81.5 million], arguably for the next couple of years, we've got to be very careful, very disciplined in any signings that we might make, any trades that we might make, any dollars that we will expense."
As Poile stated back in August following Nashville's postseason loss to Arizona in the Edmonton bubble, the Predators are looking for a bit of a youth movement from within. With Smith and Granlund not expected to return up front, and Weber, Holzer and the recently retired Dan Hamhuis departing from the backend, there will be spots to fill.
Names like forwards Philip Tomasino, Rem Pitlick, Eeli Tolvanen and Yakov Trenin, defensemen Jarred Tinordi, Alexandre Carrier and Jeremy Davies and goaltender Connor Ingram were all mentioned by Poile as individuals who could get extended opportunities in the NHL next season.
"He looks like he's going to be a terrific player," Poile said of Tomasino in particular. "It's not a question of if, it's just a question of when… I would really like to keep some flexibility open to give him a really good chance at training camp, because he could be a player that could surprise. I'm very open minded to give him as good of a chance as anybody come this training camp."
Poile also brought up the names of forwards Mathieu Olivier, Michael McCarron and Tanner Jeannot - all gritty, physical players with size - as others who may also get their chance with the big club sooner than later.
"I want to keep all of my options open from free agency to trades, but ideally I'd like to do a lot of our improvements and changes in house," Poile said. "And that's on defense with, say, an Alex Carrier and a Tinordi playing on a more regular basis. Forwards that as I've mentioned a couple times already like Tolvanen and say Pitlick; maybe it's some of these 'element' guys like McCarron or Jeannot or Olivier.
"We're in the same boat as a lot of clubs right now in terms of where they are in relation to the cap. I think you're going to see this next week or so a really different offseason. I predict that you're going to see a lot of players that normally would be qualified and re-signed that are just going to be let go, and probably some other situations and players being available that you wouldn't necessarily anticipate. But the cap not going up is probably going to force some of these things to actually happen."
An official start date for the 2020-21 season has not been announced, but Poile believes no matter what it may look like, the schedule is likely to be condensed with a number of back-to-back situations or instances where teams play three games in four nights.
Because of that, Poile says, good goaltending is likely going to be more crucial than ever before, and he believes Nashville remains set up for success in the crease.
"With a possibly condensed season and not knowing exactly when we're going to start, it's going to be important to have two top goaltenders, and I think we do," Poile said of netminders Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros. "That's going to be a key to our success, or maybe even anybody's success, that they're going to have to have two goaltenders play really well, and play not necessarily an equal number of games, but maybe close to that in this next season."
Regarding the loans of Tolvanen and Trenin to their respective teams in the KHL, Poile says the forwards would be recalled 14 days prior to the start of Nashville's 2020 training camp, whenever that may be. In the meantime, he expects them to gain more experience while playing overseas and to be ready when they get back to Nashville.
The Predators are also looking for an additional assistant coach to join John Hynes, Dan Lambert and Dan Hinote on the staff. Poile says interviews for the position are ongoing, and a decision will be made at some point during the offseason.
What Nashville's Opening Night roster will look like - and when it will actually take to the ice - remains to be seen, but the next few weeks should provide some further clarity as to who might receive their next chance with the Preds.
And in these times, just about anything is possible.
"Just like trades, like buyouts or what have you, I don't want to take anything off the table as a possibility," Poile said. "I'm talking to many general managers every day, and the landscape changes, ideas come up differently, and what we do next week and at the draft could affect different things. There's a lot of balls up in the air right now, so I'm open to anything. I just want to improve our club, and whatever means that we can do that with, whichever options are there that I have available to me, I don't want to take any of that off the table right now."