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David Poile was sitting at a bar in a Montreal resort, sipping on his newest cocktail, questioning what sort of future he may need in hockey.
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That was 45 years in the past, give or take a day. Jimmy Devellano had simply been employed as GM of the Detroit Purple Wings. Bob MacMillan was the brand new GM of the Colorado Rockies. Each job Poile appeared to use for got here again with the identical reply. He ordered one other drink and saved speaking.
“If I don’t get a job within the subsequent 12 months,” he instructed me that night time. “I’m getting out of this sport. I’m going to search out one other profession.”
Not lengthy after that, Poile bought the decision that modified his life. He was employed as basic supervisor of the somewhat horrible Washington Capitals. You don’t get GM jobs with good groups. You get employed as a result of the staff wants change.
He spent 15 years operating the Capitals and operating them nicely and the 25 years after that as GM of the model new Nashville Predators.
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“Not a nasty run,” he joked on Friday, after being introduced along with his Hockey Corridor of Fame ring. “All the things however a Stanley Cup.”
His groups performed for the Cup in Washington and in Nashville. He gained extra video games than any GM in hockey historical past. Simply not the large one.
The massive one for him comes Monday night time when he will get inducted to affix his late father, Bud, who turned a Corridor of Famer 34 years in the past. The Poiles, the Corridor of Fame hockey household. And this weekend could be very a lot about household and hockey circumstance.
Poile drafed a whole lot of hockey gamers in his 40 years as a GM however solely considered one of them — Shea Weber — made it to the Corridor. Now they go in collectively, the primary Predators government alongside the the primary Nashville-grown participant to be so honoured.
“So many issues tie us collectively,” stated Poile, who drafted Weber within the second spherical in 2003, the type of decide that exceeds all expecations over time. The Predators wanted assistance on defence. They took Ryan Suter within the first spherical. They took one other defenceman, Kevin Klein, within the second spherical. With their fourth decide, their third D-man, they took Weber.
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“I’m not right here if it wasn’t for David Poile,” stated Weber.
Ken Hitchcock, the Corridor of Fame coach, calls Weber essentially the most underrated participant of his era. He was a defenceman who may do the whole lot.
“He by no means drained,” stated Hitchcock, who had him at two Olympics. “He’d come off, relaxation 15 seconds and be able to go once more. I don’t suppose I’ve ever seen anybody like him earlier than.
“What’s a particular defenceman? A particular defenceman performs in opposition to the perfect gamers on the opposite staff, he performs energy play, he performs penalty kill, he performs once you’re up or down a purpose. He’s not only a particular participant. He’s a particular man.
“And what a shot. That’s an Allan MacInnis shot. There haven’t been many like that one.”
Issues to find out about Weber: Whereas Poile was profitable extra video games than any GM earlier than him, all Weber did was rating extra objectives than any defenceman who performed throughout his 16 seasons.
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And when Canada gained gold medals on the Olympics in Vancouver and Sochi in 2010 and 2014 — the newest best-on-best Olympic hockey event — Sidney Crosby could have scored the time beyond regulation winner in Vancouver and a key purpose within the gold-medal sport in opposition to Sweden, nevertheless it was Weber who led Canada in scoring within the two Olympics mixed.
Weber’s Olympic numbers: 5 objectives, seven assists in 13 video games. The good Crosby’s Olympic numbers: 5 objectives, 5 assists in 13 video games.
Did Weber know that?
“No I didn’t,” he stated. “However subsequent time I see Sid, I’m going to have one on him.”
He may have one other story to inform as nicely. Whereas Poile lasted about so long as any GM can, Weber lasted in hockey till he had nothing left. Like, nothing left in any respect.
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He performed the 2021 Stanley Cup remaining taped along with the Montreal Canadiens and by no means performed one other sport after that. What was incorrect with Weber?
“What wasn’t harm is the query?” he stated.
He had a torn UCL in his thumb. He had a torn ankle tendon. He had a meniscus ligament harm in his knee. And he tore his groin within the playoffs.
“What else would you like me to inform you? I knew the 12 months earlier than it was coming. My physique wasn’t holding up prefer it used to. My physique wasn’t recovering. I couldn’t rise up and down the steps. I knew, this wasn’t going to be good. I bought checked out to see if the medical doctors may do something. Actually, they couldn’t.”
Weber can’t get on the ice and switch now on his skates when he takes his youngsters out to play.
“He’s badly overwhelmed up,” stated Hitchcock. “He’s a kind of guys who had farmer energy, the energy you possibly can’t clarify, he performed the sport and by no means bought drained.”
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Till he couldn’t play anymore.
It took loads to convey Weber to his knees in NHL video games, however the Corridor of Fame managed to do exactly that. He was on the golf course final June in Kelowna when he bought the decision informing him of his coming induction.
He fell to his knees, overcome with emotion, unable to play the subsequent gap, his arms in his hair: The Corridor of Fame name can do this to you.
It did the identical to David Poile, the hockey lifer. It took his breath away. It meant much more when he discovered Weber was a part of his Corridor of Fame class. The GM and his draft decide, collectively once more. Now and endlessly.
ssimmons@postmedia.com
ssimmons@postmedia.com
twitter.com/simmonssteve
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