Blowing up a team to get picks and prospects is a risky proposition. Say you got 3 1st round picks in the next 2 years to go with your own 2, that's great if 3 or 4 of them pan out the way you hope. If only 2 pan out, why did you make the trades in the first place, to have a better chance of throwing something at the wall and hoping it sticks?
Here are a few examples of Poile's drafts.
2008 has two 1st's, 7 and 15. Picks Wilson and then trades down to land Pickard at 18. Could've had Karlsson at 15 if he stayed put. 2nd round though he picks up Josi. So how do you grade that draft? Good, bad, man that was really weird? Wilson and Josi were key components for the Cup run so I can't be too unhappy but why did Wilson never blossom here? He had the tools, just never developed.
2003 we have one 1st and a bunch of 2nd round picks. Everyone knows that draft class was stacked and most teams in the first round did really well for themselves. The Ducks landed Getzlaf and Perry. We landed Suter in the first round, Klein and Weber in the second round. Really solid draft. FYI, we picked Klein at 37 and Bergeron was taken at 45, 4 picks ahead of Weber.
Weber was moved for Subban who helped us to the Cup but we lost Suter for nothing and Klein got moved for Delsaster, I mean Del Zotto. So we basically landed two HOF defensemen and didn't win with them. Funny how that works.
Gonna go back to 1991 before Poile got let go in Washington. He had 2 1sts and 2 2nds that year. 14 and 21 in the 1st round and 25 and 36 in the 2nd. These were his picks. Pat Peake, Trevor Halverson, Eric Lavigne and Jeff Nelson. He didn't hit on any of these guys. A few of the guys drafted between 14 and 36 that Poile could've had, Alexei Kovalev, Markus Naslund, Glen Murray, Martin Rucinsky, Dean McAmmond, Ray Whitney, Ziggy Palffy and Sandis Ozonlish. Kovalev and Naslund were taken right behind Peake and Murray was two behind Naslund. While that was a deep draft, Lindros number 1, Forsberg number 6, a lot of teams missed up high and the lower 1sts and high 2nds really panned out. Every other team did very well except the Caps that year. Oh wait, he did land Steve Konowalchuk in the third round so there's that.
So while I'm all for moving players to get some youth and talent in the pipeline, I don't want Poile making the moves to get the picks and I especially don't want him making the picks. Yeah, he's drafted some really great players on the back end in his day but the unfortunate truth it hasn't brought him the Cup. He cannot build a roster up front to take his teams to the promised land. If he hasn't done it yet, what makes anyone think he's going to be able to do it now? Great guy. Builds a competitive team, just not a championship team.