How good was Dave Poile as a caps GM?

[Chukcha]

How do you appreciate his tenure in D.C.? What could he have done to win the cup but hasn't?

Click to read more...

 

[BobRouse]

Our drafting was pretty poor under him. He made some very key trades however.

Never got the goalie we needed until it was too late. He didn't draft Kolzig until after the debacle in 89 when Peters crapped the bed vs the Flyers.

Overall he was pretty good based on what he had to work with in ownership and not having the $$ some other teams had.

He came aboard after Stevens was just drafted. He traded for Murphy, Langway, Galley, Cote, Iafrate, Tinordi, Rouse and Johansson. He did draft Hatcher so I'll give him that. He did draft Gonchar and Witt but at that point we had a million 1st rounders after the Stevens departure and its shocking we didn't get more contributing NHL players in those years.

Trades are great. He made a ton of good ones especially for young players (Ridley/Miller for example).

But its my firm belief this was the flaw...you don't build teams through great trades. You build through the draft especially with a budget team.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Trades are great. He made a ton of good ones especially for young players (Ridley/Miller for example).

The Stevens Trade and Limo incident sabotaged any chance he had at winning a cup in Washington.

 

[BobRouse]

The Stevens Trade and Limo incident sabotaged any chance he had at winning a cup in Washington.

Stevens technically departed due to RFA contract offersheet and doubt Pollin would have let him match it without jettisoning a bunch of other guys to offset the salary.

They kept Dino after the incident only to trade him a couple years later due to $$.

Limo incident cost us Kypreos (meh), Sheehy (meh) and Courtnall (ouch). Courtnall asked for a trade.

Even then one of our best teams came about in 91-92 about year after that incident. Bowman went to the trap and Lemieux took over after we had a 3-1 series lead. We beat the Pens there and we steamroll our way to a SC.

Pitt didn't lose another game that playoff I don't think. Maybe 1. The Rangers were reeling at that point, Boston wasn't as good as they had been in the cup run years and the Hawks had flaws of their own. It was mostly suspected that we were the best team in the league that year.

Detroit and NYR finished ahead of us in points. Detroit was an upstart team really and very young. The Rangers were rolling up until the end of the season if I could remember. They weren't playing nearly as well then as they were earlier on.

 

[Marshall]

Reasonably good considering he had an owner that didn't give him much to work with. And the guy can build a defensive corps like few others.

 

[txpd]

the truth is that if the caps had mike liut for the run during Langway's prime, they would have won a couple of cups. they got liut right at the end of his career and made the conference finals. with him or someone of that caliber instead of riggin and Jensen and those sorts, they would have won.

 

[HunterSThompson]

I believe the Caps made the playoffs every year under him until his last. That's not too shabby. Only got to the conference finals once, and never the Stanley cup finals, so McPhee like in that. Opposite of McPhee in building a team though.

 

[BobRouse]

I believe the Caps made the playoffs every year under him until his last. That's not too shabby. Only got to the conference finals once, and never the Stanley cup finals, so McPhee like in that. Opposite of McPhee in building a team though.

True but the number of teams in the league for the majority of his tenure were 21 and of those 16 made the playoffs.

Poile tenure was riddled with poor draft choices and a mostly subpar farm system in terms of quality NHL prospects. He hit a couple home runs (like Bondra) but for the most part was awful past the 1st round.

 

[txpd]

drafting costs money. my take is that poile didn't have the budget for a large and quality scouting staff. therefore crappy drafting

 

[Atlas]

Reasonably good considering he had an owner that didn't give him much to work with. And the guy can build a defensive corps like few others.

^ Agree.

David Poile was a huge part and very possibly an essential part of keeping the Capitals in D.C. He turned the franchise into a perennial regular season winner. So I will always praise Mr. Poile for the positive.

For various reasons, he couldn't quite build a Stanley Cup champion. Ownership was tight. For example, Poile had a deal for Teemu Selanne in place with Jason Allison and Nolan Baumgarter (I believe) going to Winnipeg. Abe killed the deal. I believe it was Abe who refused to pay Scott Stevens over a million dollars per year. <facepalm>

Poile struggled to acquire great goalies and great centers. Those are bad weaknesses to have. He might well have built a Cup winner if he had a little more support. I would buy the guy a steak dinner any day.

 

[Bananas]

Not good enough...

 

[stanleycaps18]

B+, but as others have noted, it may have been higher with more supportive ownership.

 

[Chokingdogs]

poile, with teddy's checkbook, and its my belief they have at least one cup.

 

[Chukcha]

was he better than George McPhee?

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

poile, with teddy's checkbook, and its my belief they have at least one cup.

Bingo. I hope he gets one in Nashville soon.

 

[BobRouse]

was he better than George McPhee?

Defintiely. Despite his flaws.

 

[Langway]

drafting costs money. my take is that poile didn't have the budget for a large and quality scouting staff. therefore crappy drafting

Was it really that crappy? Sure, he didn't end up with enough from the Stevens compensation towards the end and there were some barren drafts in the 80's but they did draft Kolzig, Bondra, Pivonka, Hatcher, Khristich and Gonchar under him and Jack Button. He did have 18 first round picks over 15 years so, yeah, early maybe not enough. Later, though, thanks to Button and his European pulls they compensated for that a bit. I don't think it was crappy so much as inadequate in the sense of positioning them better at key times to put them over the top.

You can really go back through the entire history of the franchise and question their ability to scout Canadian players, particularly up front. They drafted Mike Gartner but beyond that they haven't drafted an impact Canadian forward in 40 years. That's hard to do. Poile was blueline heavy of course but he didn't improve that area either. Neither did McPhee and that carries on now. It's kind of weird.

 

[BiPolar Caps]

was he better than George McPhee?

Yes!

At one time the Caps had 3 future Hall of Famers together in their defensive corps, Langway, Stevens, Murphy.

Two of them he acquired by trades and one via the draft.

 

[RandyHolt]

I would say Meh Minus ™

Sucked at drafting, great at roster trades... the big fat minus was not understanding Econ 101 and inflation. Having the vision that the 4th and 5th year of his contract would be dirt cheap.

That Stevens contract scared him back to the draft table, where he was not that good.

 

[usiel]

I would say Meh Minus â„¢

Sucked at drafting, great at roster trades... the big fat minus was not understanding Econ 101 and inflation. Having the vision that the 4th and 5th year of his contract would be dirt cheap.

That Stevens contract scared him back to the draft table, where he was not that good.

This for me basically. Pollen was a cheap s.o.b especially with hockey. And the sucking at drafting for me, being a draftnik, was especially painful.

 

[troyerlaw]

Trading Ryan Walter and Rick Green to Habs for Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Craig Laughlin and Doug Jarvis was an absolute franchise-saver.

We had some very strong teams in the 1980s, just never could muster enough scoring, especially in postseason.

If you view Poile on the totality of his work in both D.C. and Nashville, I think he is leagues ahead of McPhee. He certainly pulled off an epic heist in the Forsberg deal. And he picked better head coaches than McPhee did.

 

[BobRouse]

Trading Ryan Walter and Rick Green to Habs for Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Craig Laughlin and Doug Jarvis was an absolute franchise-saver.

We had some very strong teams in the 1980s, just never could muster enough scoring, especially in postseason.

If you view Poile on the totality of his work in both D.C. and Nashville, I think he is leagues ahead of McPhee. He certainly pulled off an epic heist in the Forsberg deal. And he picked better head coaches than McPhee did.

Not only that but Poile always valued physical D and team toughness. Maybe he couldn't pick out the skill players in the draft all the time but he understood the need for finishing checks and having stabilizing D.

McPhee scoffed at the notion for years in his everlasting quest to build the softest mobile puck moving D he could. The guy for years despised toughness.

 

[Chukcha]

Defintiely. Despite his flaws.

but... but McPhee has reached SCF

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

IMO just like McFailure. Good GM for a rebuilding team. Good eye for defensive talent, likely not ever going to build a Cup winner.

 

[BobRouse]

but... but McPhee has reached SCF

In hindsight it may have been the worst thing to happen to McPhee...

He took Poile's team and added a couple dumpster dive/low risk/budget maneuvers that paid off big time (Bellows and Tikkanen) and said "HEY! I GOT THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS!"

His tenure here was littered with the dumpster dive low risk type moves. Maybe that was the root of it?