Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Video: Poile likes Lavy’s ‘fun way to play’

Poile

Nashville general manager David Poile met with reporters today after naming Peter Laviolette the Predators’ new head coach. Here are some highlights from the presser:

--- Poile wanted four things in a new coach:
1. A good person.
2. Someone that brought a “little bit different style of play” compared to longtime predecessor Barry Trotz (translation: more up-tempo, offensive-oriented).
3. Someone with a track record of winning in the regular season and playoffs.
4. Someone that had won a Stanley Cup, which Laviolette did in Carolina (2006).

--- The hiring process was sped up after other coaching vacancies sprung up around the league. (Florida, Washington, Vancouver, and Carolina all need new head coaches still.)

--- Poile liked that Laviolette’s teams have generally been high-scoring, and he credited the coach for the development of young forwards like Eric Staal, Justin Williams, Matt Cullen, Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Matt Read, and Wayne Simmonds.

--- With the Preds’ already-strong goaltending and blue line, plus Laviolette’s more offensive system (that’s also a more “fun way to play”), Poile thinks Nashville can be a “lot better” next season.

--- Poile admitted the Preds still need a “big-time forward,” so expect them to take a center or winger with the 11th pick in the upcoming draft.