Poiles best and worst move in the last 5 years

[GoldOnGold]

I'd probably divide it between best/worse moves in hindsight and best/worse moves at the time

In Hindsight
Best Move - Trading Subban to NJ right before he implodes
Worst Move - Probably tie between Turris and Granlund trades. We could really use both Fiala and Girard right now, and while the Turris trade left us with $2 million on the books and nothing else, Fiala is better than Girard.

At the Time
Best Move - Dunno, maybe Jones/Johansen? It made a lot of sense at the time, and we were getting back a proven guy for someone who was still mostly unproven.
Worst Move - Hiring Hynes. He sucked in NJ and he sucks here, and he was hired immediately after Lavi was fired. Really?

 

[ILikeItILoveIt]

At the time, Granlund was billed as what we hoped Fiala would develop into, except Granlund was there now and Fiala kept failing to live up to expectations.

If we kept Jones, then were going to have to pay him as a Top 2 D-Man when we had 4 Top-2 D-men. You can argue that we should have kept him and moved one of the other 4 not named Josi but no way we go on this 4 year run since the trade without Joey and with Seth.

To a lessor degree, that's why we moved Girard. He would have been playing Bottom-2 minutes and therefor wasted. We traded for position need (Center) and for the first 40 games after the trade, it was genius. Turris-Smith-Fiala was our best line. Turris was a poor man's Duchene. Then we paid him and then he wasn't.

The moral of all these stories is, don't trade young developing stars for here-and-now positional needs to "win-now". That said, everyone of those trades looked good when they happened, knowing full well we were giving up young potential. We felt like we were one player away and that's what teams do when they have a shot. If we had won Games 5 and 6 against the Pens, it would have been all worth it. Sometimes you go-for-it-now, and if you don't get it, it bites you down the line.

No one's brought this up, but I still think Poile/Trotz screwed up on Rads. Not the first time, that was him going back to Mother Russia. The 2nd time, with the JV-way they handled him missing curfew, followed by making him persona-non-grata. Rads plays harder than anyone on our team, and is the prototypical Power Forward we never had. If Rads was on our 2017and 2018 teams, we'd have 2 Cups by now. He kills us every time we play Dallas. He was a good citizen in Montreal and then Dallas, but somehow we couldn't figure out a way to make him work in Nashville. Most Canadian and American coaches/GMs don't culturally get Russian players, especially high profile players in Russia like Rads. Dude had Putin on his speed dial. Yea he was brash. So was Broadway Joe Namath 50 years ago. Jets figured it out, won a Super Bowl, and cause the NFL to merge with the AFL. Preds just let him walk and got nothing. Guess it's because we're loaded with young scoring forwards so why put up with brash kid who doesn't say "yes sir" all the time like to good Canadian kids. Grrrrrrr

 

[NoNecksCurse]

I think the key to see here is really do your homework on players. Johansen, Duchene, and Turris all had character questions. Warranted or not, I could give 2 shits. But they all 3 got paid and have done nothing but got worse since their payday. Surprises me absolutely zero. I know people on here hate when I say they have “no heart” but I guess I don’t have the correct vernacular for that.

 

[Armourboy]

I think the key to see here is really do your homework on players. Johansen, Duchene, and Turris all had character questions. Warranted or not, I could give 2 shits. But they all 3 got paid and have done nothing but got worse since their payday. Surprises me absolutely zero. I know people on here hate when I say they have “no heart” but I guess I don’t have the correct vernacular for that.

I'll give Duchene a little credit, seen the dude mostly put the effort in this season, it just ain't gone his way.

I also think Joey was playing better, although once again snake bit, and then he got hurt.

 

[Scoresberg]

The Girard trade will not sting as much if Farrance can jump in and be an effective NHL defender.

The Fiala trade also doesn't hurt as much if Kunin is able to break through, I've liked what I've seen from him but he's been underwhelming so far like the rest of the forwards, not named Forsberg.

 

[Dadof5boys]

At the time, Granlund was billed as what we hoped Fiala would develop into, except Granlund was there now and Fiala kept failing to live up to expectations.

If we kept Jones, then were going to have to pay him as a Top 2 D-Man when we had 4 Top-2 D-men. You can argue that we should have kept him and moved one of the other 4 not named Josi but no way we go on this 4 year run since the trade without Joey and with Seth.

To a lessor degree, that's why we moved Girard. He would have been playing Bottom-2 minutes and therefor wasted. We traded for position need (Center) and for the first 40 games after the trade, it was genius. Turris-Smith-Fiala was our best line. Turris was a poor man's Duchene. Then we paid him and then he wasn't.

The moral of all these stories is, don't trade young developing stars for here-and-now positional needs to "win-now". That said, everyone of those trades looked good when they happened, knowing full well we were giving up young potential. We felt like we were one player away and that's what teams do when they have a shot. If we had won Games 5 and 6 against the Pens, it would have been all worth it. Sometimes you go-for-it-now, and if you don't get it, it bites you down the line.

No one's brought this up, but I still think Poile/Trotz screwed up on Rads. Not the first time, that was him going back to Mother Russia. The 2nd time, with the JV-way they handled him missing curfew, followed by making him persona-non-grata. Rads plays harder than anyone on our team, and is the prototypical Power Forward we never had. If Rads was on our 2017and 2018 teams, we'd have 2 Cups by now. He kills us every time we play Dallas. He was a good citizen in Montreal and then Dallas, but somehow we couldn't figure out a way to make him work in Nashville. Most Canadian and American coaches/GMs don't culturally get Russian players, especially high profile players in Russia like Rads. Dude had Putin on his speed dial. Yea he was brash. So was Broadway Joe Namath 50 years ago. Jets figured it out, won a Super Bowl, and cause the NFL to merge with the AFL. Preds just let him walk and got nothing. Guess it's because we're loaded with young scoring forwards so why put up with brash kid who doesn't say "yes sir" all the time like to good Canadian kids. Grrrrrrr

I guess the team was hoping Craig Smithson would turn into a 1st line forward. I agree that we handled the Rads situation poorly. 1st by the playoff game suspension; then compounding it by keeping him out of the 2nd game "because we won the last game". Ugh.

 

[Dadof5boys]

Best Poile move: Moving PK for positive value.
Worst: A lot of hind site failures for Poile. Unfortunately, a lot of the moves he has made hasn't panned out like we the fans would have hoped. Turris move looked good; we were getting a legit 20 goal center who scored in the performed pretty decently in the playoffs for futures to play our second line C position. Unfortunately, he didn't pan out. Hynes has been abysmal, and handing out contracts to players for big money and big years has been a weakness.

 

[Kat Predator]

Best Poile move: Moving PK for positive value.

Not sure about this.

Subban was traded for:

• Santini - a bust, no longer with the team
• Davies - so far stuck in the AHL
• The pick the Flyers used to take Bobby Brink (Boyle deal?)
• The pick the Wild used to take Marat Khusnutdinov (Kunin deal)

So far, that's not impressive.

 

[Armourboy]

Not sure about this.

Subban was traded for:

• Santini - a bust, no longer with the team
• Davies - so far stuck in the AHL
• The pick the Flyers used to take Bobby Brink (Boyle deal?)
• The pick the Wild used to take Marat Khusnutdinov (Kunin deal)

So far, that's not impressive.

Well Santini was a dump so at least on that one there was no surprise.

 

[Kat Predator]

Well Santini was a dump so at least on that one there was no surprise.

Yeah. Still, it's not what one should call positive value.

The only value is Kunin. And maybe Davies, who looks like more hype than a lock objectively.

 

[Armourboy]

Yeah. Still, it's not what one should call positive value.

The only value is Kunin. And maybe Davies, who looks like more hype than a lock objectively.

Santini wasn't meant to be positive value. He was a dump we took back instead of retaining on Subban.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Yeah. Still, it's not what one should call positive value.

The only value is Kunin. And maybe Davies, who looks like more hype than a lock objectively.

To be fair, the Brink pick was traded for the picks who turned out to be Afanaseyev and Campbell, and they're both progressing very well.

And the cap space was basically what allowed us to sign Duchene. So um, that is probably a "bad thing" now. But it didn't seem so bad at the time.

 

[Kat Predator]

To be fair, the Brink pick was traded for the picks who turned out to be Afanaseyev and Campbell, and they're both progressing very well.

And the cap space was basically what allowed us to sign Duchene. So um, that is probably a "bad thing" now. But it didn't seem so bad at the time.

Sure. I didn't chase the ripple effects of further trades, and that's not unreasonable. The point here was that to some significant degree, we know what the Subban "haul" was and can evaluate it.

I fully understand and understood that Santini was a part of a cap dump and that Subban's cap space was cleared to entice Duchene. But as you have already said, in hindsight that move, coupled with the total lack of interest in Turris, has been net negative. This team is significantly worse now than it was.

 

[Legionnaire11]

If we had kept Subban, the same people would be bitching that we didn't trade him while he still had value.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

If we had kept Subban, the same people would be bitching that we didn't trade him while he still had value.

I would have been the main one. I will go ahead and tell you that

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

If we had kept Subban, the same people would be bitching that we didn't trade him while he still had value.

You can't really have a cap hit out of whack with your performance as a player in the modern NHL and not get bitched about.

But I guess Subban at $3-4M per would probably still be at least as good as Fabbro. And in that make-believe world we might not bitch about him quite as much. At least we wouldn't have the Duchene-albatross contract to worry about either, although we would have been oblivious to the perils of that.

Anyway, if any of Davies or Afanaseyev or Campbell ever make our team, that's a win. Duchene has been a disaster, and Subban mysteriously imploded to something far below his cap price, so either way, those two factors are a bit of a wash. But if we get even one of the prospects making a dent for us down the road, that'll be a win.