Another high-end player purloined by Preds’ Poile
General manager’s roster magic is almost becoming routine, Michael Traikos writes.
If you’re looking for a winner in the blockbuster trade involving Matt Duchene, Kyle Turris and so many prospects and draft picks, don’t look at the Ottawa Senators or the Colorado Avalanche. While both those teams made the most out of ugly situations, it was the Nashville Predators that came out of nowhere and made themselves significantly better.
Yes, David Poile won another one. It wasn’t even close this time.
By now, it’s starting to sound like a broken record about the Predators general manager, who has made a reputation out of fleecing teams of their best players. In the last four years, Poile has acquired Filip Forsberg, Ryan Johansen, P.K. Subban and now Turris in stop-what-you’re-doing-type deals. That’s a top-line winger, a No. 1 centre, a Norris Trophy-winning defenceman and a No. 2 centre.
And they say you can’t make trades in today’s NHL.
Poile not only makes them, he makes them in November, often with players carrying complicated cap hits.
Take note, Toronto and Edmonton: This is how you go from playoff contender to challenging for a Stanley Cup. You don’t sit on depth, you use it to fill voids in other areas.
Had Poile been running the Maple Leafs — a position he was once offered before starting with the expansion Predators — he likely would have used the plethora of forwards at the team’s disposal to acquire a top-four defenceman. Had he been the GM of the Oilers, he would have swapped prospects or draft picks for someone who could play with Connor McDavid by now.
Patience isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It keeps general managers from making mistakes. But at the same time, it can prevent teams from taking steps forward. Poile is not a gambler. He’s just doing what every GM in the NHL says they’re doing — going out and trying to make his team better.
When the Predators had more defencemen than there were minutes to go around, they traded Seth Jones to the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2015-16 for Johansen, who had a team-high 61 points last season. When the Predators needed to get faster and more mobile on the back end, they moved Shea Weber before the start of last season to Montreal for Subban, who is four years younger.
The Turris trade is a continuation of this. It addressed a glaring need. The Predators reached the final last year because of their all-star defence corps, but they became exposed at the centre position after losing Johansen to injury. According to reports, Nashville initially sought Duchene. But when the price became too high, the team joined forces with Ottawa and sent a combination of assets to Colorado in a three-way deal that resulted in the Senators getting Duchene and the Predators ending up with the next best option.
In Turris, the Predators landed a centre who scored 27 goals and 55 points last season and who has nine points in 11 games this year. He slots in behind Johansen, giving Nashville a one-two punch down the middle.
You can argue the Senators also improved by swapping Duchene for Turris, but it cost them firstand a third-round picks in 2018, as well as 18-year-old Shane Bowers, selected 28th overall in this year’s draft. That’s a steep price for a player who might be a two-year rental.
The Predators, meanwhile, sent a second-round pick and two minor-league prospects to Colorado — Vladislav Kamenev and Samuel Girard, who were both drafted in the second round — for someone who is only two years older than Duchene, who had a far better season last year and is off to a better start this year.
At any rate, it was a bold move by everyone involved. The hope here is that it spurs others to make similar moves. With 10 teams that were in the playoffs last year currently on the outside looking in, there should be plenty of takers.