Preds' GM is a gambler by own account.

Before this year's deep run, David Poile's was not a household name at all. The long time Preds' GM has been at the helm for so long in Nashville, with lukewarm lineups most often than not, that people tend to forget about him. However, after a few block busting trades in the last few years, Poile is now a model of team renaissance architect that attracts a lot of praises. 

In an interesting piece, Sportsnet's Chris Johnston spoke with Poile about a few things but the obvious topic was the Weber/Subban trade. Poile opened up about how the trade came in the work almost randomly, by a pure stroke of luck. Rumors were going around the league that Canadiens' GM Marc Bergevin was shopping P.K. Subban around. Poile didn't even call Bergevin, but both sat close to each other at last year's draft. You see, Montreal and Nashville come close in the alphabetical order. Then, things took a serious turn when Poile told Bergevin he might be interested after all. 

'‘Look, I never called you but I’m just reading all this stuff, are you trading this guy or not trading this guy?''

And then the rest is history. Such a huge trade obviously come with risks. Shea Weber was a hero for Nashville, a true father figure for his teammate and an all around superstar. Trading him for a larger-than-life character such as P.K. Subban was, by Poile's own account, a huge gamble. 

"But there comes a time and a place where you need to improve your club and you’ve got to take chances and risks. I think this job is a big-time gamble. I don’t have any risk in my life, I’m as conservative as you can get. So this might be the risky side of my life.", he said. 

Pretty surprising coming from a guy who traded for Ryan Johansen by giving away Seth Jones, one of the most promising young defenseman in the league. The 67 years old GM had seen the tough and humble beginnings of the Predators and now reaps the fruits of his effort. 

In the end, his reign as GM may be considered the blue print for other teams looking to rebuild without setting the house of fire first. Years after years, the team has grown and became better and today, it will be taking its first Stanley Cup final faceoff.