After 26 years as the general manager of the Nashville Predators, David Poile will retire on June 30 and be replaced by former Predators head coach Barry Trotz, the team announced on Sunday.
Poile, 73, has served as the general manager of the Predators since their inception in 1997, and he has become the winningest general manager in NHL history with 1,519 regular season victories to his name.
Starting with the team’s inaugural season in 1998-99, Poile steadily built the Predators up from being an expansion franchise. In the 2016-17 season, Nashville reached the Stanley Cup Final under Poile’s watch, and the team won the President’s Trophy the following year.
However, since that President’s Trophy season in 2017-18, the Predators have not won a playoff series and have recorded just five postseason wins in total. With Nashville in jeopardy of missing the playoffs entirely for the first time since the 2013-14 season, Poile will be stepping down this summer.
“This is a decision that is best for me personally and best for the Nashville Predators,” Poile said in a statement. “For the Predators, I believe it is time for a new voice and a new direction. I am proud of the foundation we have put in place in our hockey operations, investing in and improving every area of the department. This is the right time for someone else to move our franchise forward.”
This change will be a bit of a homecoming for Trotz, whom Poile hired to be the first head coach in Predators history. Trotz spent 15 seasons as the head coach in Nashville and took the team to the postseason seven times, compiling a record of 557-479-60-100.
Poile will remain with the Predators in an advisory role, and he will immediately being the process of helping Trotz transition into his new role. Trotz said working under Poile in Nashville prepared him to be a general manager, and his goal is to take the franchise to new heights.
“I can’t thank David enough, not only for turning over the job to me, but for teaching me so much over the past 40 years,” Trotz said in his statement. “I believe I am prepared to succeed as an NHL general manager, and I have David to thank for that. I will work hard as a member of David’s team for the next four months, and when I become GM on July 1, I pledge to do everything I can in leading our franchise to its first-ever Stanley Cup.”
Trotz was fired by Nashville in 2014 and became the head coach of the Washington Capitals the following season. Trotz coached the Capitals for four seasons and led the franchise to its first Stanley Cup in 2018 before leaving to coach the New York Islanders.
In his four seasons with the Islanders, Trotz went 205-89-34 and took the team to back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals appearances in 2020 and 2021. Trotz was fired by the Islanders after the 2021-22 season, when the team finished fifth in the Metropolitan Division and missed the playoffs.
