Nashville Predators' David Poile nominated for inaugural NHL General Manager of the Year Award

From NHL.com:

Poile, also working under a tight budget, followed [Phoenix GM Don] Maloney's approach by staying steady for five months before making a pair of moves at the deadline, getting Dustin Boyd from Calgary and Denis Grebeshkov from Edmonton for only a pair of draft picks.

However, Poile's best attribute was his trust in the roster from the outset. The Predators struggled out of the gate and were miserable offensively, but instead of tinkering right away, Poile let coach Barry Trotz and the veterans on the team work it out.

Nashville went on a seven-game winning streak in November and won nine of 15 in December. They closed the regular season with 14 wins and 29 points over the final 21 games to make the playoffs as the seventh seed in the Western Conference.

It's interesting to have a "GM of the Year Award" in the NHL, considering that the results of a good general manager's work after often realized years after the crucial decisions are made (drafting, contract signing, etc.), but David Poile should be a regular contender for this new award. There's no question that he squeezes more out of his available dollars than any GM in the league, consistently.

Poile will presumably head to Las Vegas this summer with Barry Trotz, who is a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top head coach.

The other nominees are Don Maloney from Phoenix and George McPhee of Washington.

UPDATE: It turns out that this award will be announced during the Stanley Cup Finals, so perhaps there's no Vegas time for Mr. Poile, after all.