Postmedia is running profiles this week of the 2024 Hall of Fame inductees. Today, in the builder category, David Poile.
Like father, like son, like Hockey Hall of Famers.
Thirty-four years after his dad, Norman ‘Bud’ Poile was elected, David joins him in the Hall’s builder category on Monday.
Between them, the Poiles had a hand in launching five National Hockey League expansion teams, Bud as the first general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers and Vancouver Canucks, David as one of Cliff Fletcher’s assistants with the Atlanta (now Calgary) Flames, then long-time GM of Washington and Nashville.
Where Bud’s travels also led him to be chief executive of the past Central and International Leagues as well as time with the World Hockey Association, David never ceased a heavy NHL workload and became its longest-serving GM with 3,075 games and its wins leader until stepping aside as GM of the Predators last year for hand-picked successor Barry Trotz.
“I wish I could have a little conversation with my dad today,” David said when his Hall nomination came in the summer. “He was one of my mentors, for sure. I learned a lot about life, people and the game of hockey, things that I try to emulate.
“He always said that the game is always bigger than any individual and I try to always remember that.”
The cities David chose to work in were all non-traditional markets and, while Atlanta failed twice under different owners, the Capitals eventually got a downtown D.C. arena and turned the corner, while ‘Smashville’ has evolved into a deep team and top destination city for players and fans. Poile’s Predators made the 2017 Cup final when he was voted GM of the year.
He’ll go into the Hall with his prized 2003 pick, Shea Weber, in the players category.
Though few recall Poile picked Russian forward Konstantin Glazachev ahead of Weber, getting the latter 49th overall helped set up the Nashville defence for the next decade.
“He did so much for the game,” Weber said of Poile. “In Nashville, he built our teams up and gave us a chance to win every year. With my relationship with him and everything we went through, it definitely means a lot (to be in the same Hall class).”
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy Bill Daly credited Poile with building the franchise “from scratch.”
“We moved into a portion of North America that was not familiar with hockey,” Daly said. “But you look at Nashville now and it’s a hockey town.”
So popular for players in fact the Preds were able to lure talent such as Steven Stamkos this past off-season.
“Now that my career is pretty well over, I’m just so happy with the growth of hockey all over the world and specifically in the United States,” said Poile, who won the league’s 2001 Lester Patrick Trophy for those contributions in his adopted country. “And women’s hockey, in my time it had really grown a lot and I’m proud to be a little part of that.”
While assisting the Caps and Preds, Poile did some work with the U.S. national team to help it challenge his home and native land on the world stage after NHLers were allowed in the Olympics. And all those youth tournament teams that now travel north from the Sunbelt have a connection to Poile.
“Many people have said you never get into hockey thinking that someday you’ll be in the Hall of Fame,” he said. “You just love the game so much. But this is like the icing on the cake. I’ve loved the game in every facet that I’ve ever been in it and this is just a fantastic honour and recognition.”
Poile keeps in touch with Nashville’s hierarchy and his former players, still serving as senior advisor while son Brian continues as assistant GM. But in retirement he finally has time for long-awaited pursuits with wife Elizabeth, such as travel overseas.
“(But) I miss it,” he told The Tennessean. “There’s no question about that.”
DAVID POILE (BUILDER)
Born: Feb. 14, 1950, Toronto, Ont.
HALL CALL
Won the 2001 Lester Patrick Trophy for service to hockey in the United States as part of assisting three expansion teams in Atlanta, Washington and Nashville … Was general manager of the 1998 and ‘99 U.S. national teams at the world championships, a prelude to GM of their 2014 Olympic team … In 2017, with Nashville reaching the Stanley Cup final for the first time, he was named GM of the year. The next year, he passed Glen Sather for most wins by an NHL GM with 1,320 of his record 3,075 games.
DID YOU KNOW
While his father Bud played for every Original Six team except the Montreal Canadiens, David made it to just three AHL games — though he excelled with 91 points in 46 games as a forward for Northeastern University.
X: @sunhornby