Poile, Hynes Say Preds Need to Make Changes After Early Postseason Exit

As David Poile knows well, once play on the ice has been completed for a given season, the real work for a general manager begins.

That time has come once more for Poile and the Predators, and Nashville's GM sat down with Head Coach John Hynes and members of the media on Thursday to dissect what transpired with their hockey club over the past 11 months.

The 2019-20 season was "unique" to say the least, as Poile called it, but the general manager says the circumstances were no excuse to Nashville's season ending with a series loss to Arizona in the Stanley Cup Qualifying Round. That result, combined with early postseason exits in the past two years, has left Poile with a long to-do list in the months to come.

"Where I stand right now is the trends in the last two years in the regular season and playoffs have not been going in the right direction," Poile said via video conference. "I believe we have plenty of good players, but they have not come together to produce the results we all desire. It's very clear to me we need to make some changes.

"We need to get back to our identity. We need to start playing, as we used to call it, the 'Predator Way,' the 'Predator Culture.' We have to become the hardest-working team in the League. We have to play with more passion, more determination, urgency. We have to have that refuse-to-lose attitude. My job is to assess, evaluate and work with John [Hynes] to identify how we can get better and play the game the way he believes will lead to success. I've got to provide John with some players that fit into his beliefs and his system. I can't sit here today and tell you exactly what these changes are going to be in the next couple of months. All I can say and will say at this time is all options are on the table to make our team better for the 2020-21 season."

Hynes also evaluated his team's play from the time he took over in January through the Qualifying Round against the Coyotes, and while there were certainly improvements from individuals and as a team, the end result fell short of expectations.

"Moving forward with this team, it's those details, it's the consistency in play, it's the mental toughness to understand how to win close games, tight games and make sure that those things are at a higher level," Hynes said. "Every team goes through situations where they have to get over a hump before they can win… Our overall game was good, but it wasn't good enough. At the end of the day, it came down to not being yourself, mental toughness, emotional toughness, understanding momentum shifts in games, understanding if you're playing really well you can't take yourself out of it by making a mistake or taking a bad penalty. If the other team has momentum, it's how do we regain it back? The game within the game is going to be the biggest thing that we have to get this group to be able to be consistent in the regular season and also be able to win."

The challenge for Poile and his staff will be to evaluate all of those options for change, and there are a pair of players who may garner more attention than others. Craig Smith and Mikael Granlund are both unrestricted free agents, and Poile was asked for a status update on the forwards and whether they might be back with the Preds next season.

"The exit meetings that we've had is that we basically said that we would take a break for a couple of weeks, and then we'd circle back with them or their agents to see whether there was common interest in getting back together," Poile said of Smith and Granlund. "I don't have an answer for you on how that's going to play out this year yet."

While it's still too early to make some decisions, a theme of the call centered around some of Nashville's top prospects and whether they might be ready to make a full-time transition to the NHL. The names of forwards Eeli Tolvanen, Rem Pitlick and Yakov Trenin, as well as defensemen Alexandre Carrier and Jeremy Davies - all of whom predominantly helped the Milwaukee Admirals to the AHL's top record last season - are expected to compete for jobs with the Predators in 2020-21.

There's also Philip Tomasino, Nashville's first-round pick from the 2019 NHL Draft. The 19-year-old forward attended training camp last month, and the Predators remain high on Tomasino after he tallied 40 goals and 100 points in the OHL last season.

"Philip Tomasino, he's a highly talented player," Hynes said. "Very driven, very mature for his age, which is important… Tomasino is a guy who's got a high motor, high engine, loves the game, lots of things that surround the game, which is important for a young player if you're going to play the National Hockey League. [How] you practice, how you take care of yourself, [how you handle] meetings, it's a very demanding League to play in, and so it's encouraging from that standpoint… You need to have internal competition…you can't have complacency, you've got to have guys pushing for spots, guys looking to keep their job and guys looking to take jobs."

The Predators are hoping organizational depth will be just one of the elements to help to provide a different outcome the next time a postseason opportunity presents itself. Poile called the loss to Arizona "unacceptable," and while the sting of the loss is still fresh, the GM also knows it's not all doom and gloom.

Poile cited Nashville possessing the 11th overall selection in the upcoming NHL Draft, as well as a number of promising prospects in Milwaukee, as bright spots in the organization, but trust also still exists among a number of the current personnel on the Predators roster.

Nashville's top-four defensemen - Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, Mattias Ekholm and Dante Fabbro - goaltenders Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros, as well as the reunited top line of Ryan Johansen, Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson all received praise from the general manager, and it's that core Poile will look to for excellence as the club moves forward.

Hynes will also lean on that group as well, and not just for their tangible skills on the ice.

"When we came back after the pause, there was a different feel around the team," Hynes said. "It was more energy, more passion, in practices the guys worked, they were ready to go every day, you could see the belief in the identity and the belief in each other. It changed, and I think that was one of the things that is a positive moving forward - that it was a different group, it was a different atmosphere, a different culture, more work based and much more together. From that standpoint, that's a big step. You have to be able to win off the ice, as well as win on the ice. I think that's really going in a good direction."

For all the positives in this situation - and there are still some to be had - Poile, Hynes and the rest of the Preds never expect their offseason to begin this soon. Now, it's up to them to figure out what went wrong and how to correct it.

That's what will drive them through what continues to be an unprecedented time in the game, and in life. But no matter the situation, this current feeling never sits easy, and the work to avoid it again in the near future is well underway.

"We're going to look at our current roster, some players are not going to be brought back and we're going to consider all avenues to improve our team," Poile said. "Bottom line is we're not satisfied. We're going to make some changes. My mandate to myself and our management group is that we have to manage better, my mandate to John and his coaching staff is they have to coach better and my mandate to the players is they have to play better. All three groups have to do this to be where we want to be."