Poile working to upgrade Preds' forwards

Nashville Predators GM David Poile was on TSN 1290 Tuesday morning.

On how to assess the timing of when to make moves like acquiring James Neal, and how to take that next step as a hockey club:

“Well, that is the key to our jobs – have the read on where we are and where we’re going. I think a manager’s job has always been more long-range than obviously a coach or players, but even more so in this cap era where you’re committing to players more long-term contracts than short-term contracts, if you will, and you have to have a clear vision of where you want to go.

“Having said that, we often - it’s a lot easier knowing what you need than to be able to get what you need. Trading has become more difficult because of the cap and the longer-term contracts. For managers, the two times for player transactions right now are July 1 for free agency in the summer, when players are free, and also the trading deadline is a big day.

“But the trading deadline for me the last two years has been to maybe to trade away a player because we weren’t a playoff team. The previous seven years we were trading draft picks and younger players. So it’s a different dynamic all the time.

“The trick is in this salary cap era, is once you get a good team, is to be able to keep it together. So, for example, on our team we certainly feel we have the goaltending with Pekka Rinne and the defense led by Shea Weber. We need to get a little bit better quality on our forwards, and at the same time, keep our goaltending and defense intact. That’s the trick and that’s what we’re working on on a daily basis.”

Source: TSN 1290/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey