Poile Feeling Optimistic as Preds Prepare for NHL's Return To Play Plan

David Poile never expected to be on this roller coaster, but the ride may be finally pulling into the station.

One day after the NHL announced its Return To Play Plan, the proposal that would guide the Predators and 23 other teams back onto the ice this summer, Nashville's general manager sat down to discuss the potential new landscape he and his staff have to work with moving forward.

It's a welcome sight for Poile, who likened the uncertainty of the last two months to that of a twisting and turning amusement park ride that brought a new challenge each day. In a way, those tests are only going to continue, as the NHL does everything possible to play games once more, but at least now there is a roadmap to follow in the foreseeable future.

"At the end of the day, I think this is as good of a format as anybody could come up with," Poile said Wednesday afternoon via video chat. "It's not perfect, and I don't think you're going to find anything perfect into this situation, but I'm very pleased with the format… All in all, I think it's fair and I think it's a great starting point."

The end goal in all of this would be to award the Stanley Cup by year's end, but there has to be somewhere to begin. That could come as early as next week, Poile says, as the NHL looks to enter Phase 2 of the plan, which would allow teams to open their facilities in their local markets for voluntary, small-group workouts for players.

The NHL released a 20-plus page document on Monday outlining what that re-opening of facilities would look like, and it includes a myriad of details when it comes to testing, workouts and interactions within the team facility.

The GM says 11 Predators players have remained in Nashville, while others have retreated back to their hometowns during the quarantine. Poile confirmed the Preds cannot require those players to return to Tennessee for those voluntary workouts, and although he would prefer to have his entire roster in town, he understands everyone's situation is different at this point in time.

"I don't think there's any hurry here, so please don't take this as a negative, but if we were to open up our facilities next week, I wouldn't necessarily be surprised if not every one of our players attended because… they just maybe want to wait a few more days to see how it plays out and just try to make the correct decision," Poile said. "This is clearly taking into consideration the city's health… and even the mental health of everybody to make sure that our staff, our players, anybody that is going to be at the arena at a practice feel safe enough to attend and to participate. [We want our players] to be able to do their thing and get back into mental [shape] to be able to play hockey to the best of their ability."

If and when Phase 2 is completed, the NHL would then enter Phase 3, which would include full training camps. All players would be required to attend at that juncture with strict guidelines still in place when it comes to testing and social distancing. The League says Phase 3 would begin no sooner than the first half of July.

After that, Phase 4 would bring about the resumption of games in two hub cities. Those hub cities would host the 24 teams, 16 of which would face off in a Qualifying Round. The Predators would participate in that round as the sixth seed in the Western Conference, facing the 11th-seed Arizona Coyotes in a best-of-5 series.

It's a scenario Poile never imagined, but as he and everybody else in the game have realized, everything that's about to happen would be a "first" for the League.

"It's going to be like nothing we've done before. Let's call it like it is," Poile said. "When we last played, we were fighting for our lives to make the playoffs, [the Coyotes] are fighting for their lives to make the playoffs, and under no scenario had I ever thought that we'd be playing Arizona in a playoff series, but here we go.

"It's a great opportunity. There's such a thing as a silver lining in all this, at least for organizations that get to reset [their seasons]. I mean, we've had a good year, but not a great year. We've had some good individual performances, we've had some guys that have had what I would call down years; can this pause help them in that situation in terms of playing a little bit differently, maybe be a little bit more effective? … I am cautiously optimistic that this can be really good for the Predators."

From an injury standpoint, Poile says every player is 100 percent healthy and ready to play. The general manager also confirmed the League's critical dates calendar needs to be reworked, including the July 1 opening of free agency. Pending unrestricted free agents like Craig Smith and Mikael Granlund would see their current contracts extended, meaning they would be available to play for the Predators this summer until the 2020 postseason is finished.

The Predators have also discussed the potential to bring up players from the Milwaukee Admirals for the Return To Play Plan, as is typical during a normal postseason. Poile says those discussions have begun with Admirals General Manager Scott Nichol, and they will continue over the next couple of weeks as the Predators determine which additional players they might like to have on their roster this summer. Poile said Nashville could have a roster of 28 players with unlimited goaltenders, and they would be allowed to have six players added to their roster from Milwaukee.

No matter what the days, weeks and months ahead hold, the NHL now has a plan. That, in turn, allows Poile and the Predators to work on theirs. A meeting with the Coyotes, or any other teams beyond that, is not a guarantee, but the optimism that comes with the fresh discussion seems to triumph over any pessimistic views at the moment.

For someone who has seen just about everything over five decades in the NHL, not even Poile was ready for this. But just like all of us, he's learning to adapt to this new landscape, and the ride he's on might just turn out to be a very successful one.

"I'm excited, I'm hopeful… and I know there's a lot of work to be done," Poile said. "And I don't think we're going to do anything until we have much more certainty on the health and safety of everyone involved. But to me, I want to be positive, and I think we've got a chance to play this out. I think we have a chance to have a Stanley Cup champion this year."