Nashville Predators: GM David Poile Ascends to Top of the Mountain

The Nashville Predators know only one general manager in franchise history, and it’s David Poile. He now has the most wins by a GM in league history.

What an amazing milestone and accomplishment for David Poile. The mastermind of building the expansion Nashville Predators from a team full of blue collar guys into a perennial playoff team.

In last night’s shootout win over the New Jersey Devils, Poile notched his 1,507th career win as a GM. That’s the most in NHL history:

This milestone comes in the midst of a season that hasn’t been a smooth one up to this point. The Predators have struggled and fallen very short of preseason expectations, and Poile hasn’t escaped some of the scrutiny.

Poile has some difficult decisions to make in the coming weeks leading up to the trade deadline. He has to decide if he wants the Predators to be full-on sellers or look to add a piece or two to put them back into the conversation as a team that can go deep.

Most would agree that the Predators don’t have what it takes with the current roster, and selling off a player or two is inevitable.

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Looking back on his Preds career

Poile took over in 1997 with the tall challenge of building an expansion team roster. A time when the rules weren’t as favorable as they are now with the Vegas Golden Knights and the new Seattle franchise.

It’s pretty phenomenal to think how quickly Poile built a team that competed and got into the playoffs. It took the Predators five seasons under Poile for them to qualify for their first postseason in 2004. They took the stacked Detroit Red Wings to six games.

That was the turning point for this franchise that got them to being a regular in the playoffs. Poile began amassing talent and bringing in big players like Paul Kariya, Steve Sullivan, Jason Arnott and Mike Fisher.

He also started growing talent within with guys like David Legwant, Martin Erat, Scott Hartnell, Shea Weber and Roman Josi, That’s just naming a few, and Legwand was of course his first pick as GM, and Legwand delivered by becoming the franchise’s all-time leader in goals.

Then Poile built the ultimate roster in 2016-17 that got the Predators to the cusp of winning it all in the Stanley Cup Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins. They came up two wins short, but united a city and is something I’ll never forget as a fan.

This franchise is very fortunate to have began with Poile in charge. Who knows what will happen in the near future as all great things come to an end, but Poile’s legacy will live on forever for the Nashville Predators franchise that has enjoyed a lot of good times over the past decade.

Congratulations to Poile on this outstanding milestone. Now all that’s left is a Stanley Cup. I’d bet money he’s got a couple gutsy moves up his sleeve to turn this season around.