David Poile doesn’t have any big plans in mind for Friday.
That will be his last day of work as Nashville Predators general manager, a job he’s held since the franchise was born, the only person to hold such an employee. But by the time his last day of work arrives, all of his work will have been done.
Then what?
“What do I do on Friday?” Poile asked rhetorically and with a chuckle Monday inside the Bridgestone Arena offices. “Like, do I take my briefcase home? Do I just leave it to the organization?
“What do I do?”
The answer: “I don’t know,” he said.
Poile announced in February of last season that this would be his last as Predators general manager, a job he’ll have held for 9,487 days. He’s been a GM in the NHL for the last 41 years — the first 15 with the Washington Capitals and the last 25 with the Predators.
The curtain will come down on the farewell tour for the US Hockey Hall of Famer and the league’s winningest GM with this week’s NHL Draft, which fittingly is being held in Nashville, a place Poile will forever hold dear to his heart.
Incoming general manager Barry Trotz, the man Poile hired all those years ago to be the franchise’s first coach, the man Poile hand-picked to be the franchise’s second GM, reflected Monday on their 40-plus-year relationship. The two first met in 1979, Poile’s first year with the Capitals.
Trotz was, in his words, a “very bad defenseman” trying to impress whoever he could in training camp. He said Capitals scout Jack Button told Trotz the only reason he was there was that he “might be a good minor-league leader or coach someday.”
“That’s probably what I didn’t want to hear,” Trotz said. “Lo and behold, the guy sitting next to him hired me and I’m standing here next to him 40 years later.”
While Trotz has been a GM in training since he was hired in February, he’s been behind most of the big decisions, such as firing John Hynes, hiring Andrew Brunette, trading Ryan Johansen, Mattias Ekholm, Nino Niederretier, Mikael Granlund and Tanner Jeannot.
But this week, this draft, Trotz said, is all about Poile.
“I’m going to announce that this is the David Poile draft,” Trotz said. “David is going to run this draft. That’s the way it should be.”
The two have been working in tandem since late February. That won’t stop this week. There’s still work to be done. There’s been no time to think about Friday and beyond.
“This guy is a taskmaster,” Poile said, pointing to his right toward Trotz. “We’re here at 7 o’clock in the morning this morning. I’m the last guy to leave every day. This is going to be like a sudden ending.”
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Poile said trying to savor the moment and remain present in it “doesn’t work.” He said the future will be his best chance to reflect on the past.
“I was saying to my wife last night, all these things are coming up,” Poile said. “After the fact is when you sort of look back and go, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that happened or lasted this long.’
“At the moment it’s hard to be sitting around like, ‘OK, this will be my last press conference. You don’t think that way. But after the fact you can look back.'”
After the fact is fast approaching. In the meantime, there’s still work to be done.
Friday, for now, will have to wait.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: What Nashville Predators’ David Poile said about retirement week, NHL draft