The Nashville Predators are a team that always seems to be around the playoff picture and more often than not, they make it to the dance. If they hold onto their current spot in the Western Conference Wild Card standings, they’ll have qualified for the playoffs 16 times in the last 20 seasons.
If they make it to the post-season this year, it’ll be special for the Predators since it’ll be their first playoff berth without David Poile as their General Manager. Poile stepped down at the end of last season and was replaced by Barry Trotz, who was Nashville’s first-ever Head Coach back in 1998.
Now, Blittner’s Blue Line caught up with Trotz to talk about his transition from behind the bench to the front office.
*Editor’s Note: questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: What has the transition from Head Coach to General Manager been like?
Barry Trotz: “It’s been good. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve got three outstanding Assistant GMs. Jeff Kealty, Brian Poile, and Scott Nichol all have different divisions; from scouting to development to hockey ops. So, I’ve been very fortunate to have them. There are parts of me that miss the bench ’cause it is way different. It’s the closest thing to being a player. The adrenaline, the speed of the game, the emotion, all of that. You get a much better feel for it on the bench. I do miss that, ‘cause I’ve done that for roughly 40 years.
“Moving upstairs it’s been a little bit different. I’m used to the game day rituals, all that type of stuff. One of the differences, obviously as a coach, you feel the pressure and the strain, but you’re married to the schedule. As a General Manager, you’re married to the situation. Your timelines are different. As a coach you’re ramped up from the middle of August until whenever you’re done at the end of the year; hopefully in June in The Stanley Cup Final. But, as a General Manager, it’s sort of all year round. There are pockets where, obviously, the draft, the trade deadline, your meetings with your scouts, and all that. Then there’s free agency and things.
“So you have different pockets where you’re really, really intense and have to do your homework. And then you have a few pockets where it’s maybe not as demanding. But, at the same time, there are other demands regarding your staff and other areas of the business versus just hockey.”
Q: Do you reach out to your predecessor, David Poile for advice?
Barry Trotz: “Oh yeah. David’s been a really good mentor. David is still on our organizational chain. Anything that I send to the Assistant GMs, David’s on that chain too. We sit down when he comes into town, or if I have a pressing need where I maybe need a little bit of an answer in terms of not having a clear direction. In the coaching area, I’ve probably been in almost every situation that you can think of, but on this side of the ledger, I haven’t yet. So, I’d like to back that up with 40 or 50 years of knowledge and just ask a few questions.”
Q: How do you feel you’ve been received by the other GMs in The League?
Barry Trotz: “I think fairly well. I’ve had relationships with a lot of them, be it through being former players or just happening to be in some of the coach and GM meetings and being in The League for a long time. You get to meet a lot of different people. I’ve met a lot of General Managers over the years because I’ve worked with Hockey Canada. I’d be at the World Championships early in my career. The World Cup of Hockey. I was supposed to be on the Olympic staff the year we didn’t go.
“So I’ve had a lot of interactions with different General Managers. It’s just like anything else. Being a young player in this league or a young/new GM, I think I have to earn my stripes, earn the respect of other General Managers.”
Q: Your relationship with Predators Head Coach Andrew Brunette?
Barry Trotz: “I’ve gotten to know Andrew as a player, as an executive in The League, and now as a coach; a really good coach. I think our relationship is good. I try to be very supportive of everything. I try to keep in mind all the things that I didn’t like GMs doing during, before games or after games, or whatever. I try to have a little bit of respect for those things and remember what I didn’t like. And I let Andrew coach the team that we put together with his stamp on it. He’ll lean on me sometimes, ask some questions, and sometimes I try to give him just some fatherly advice versus maybe just coaching advice.”
Q: What didn’t you like GMs doing when you were a coach?
Barry Trotz: “Sometimes, after a very difficult game or a loss, I don’t need to pile on. You’re gonna have the fans, the media, whoever piling on. The last thing the team and the coach need is a General Manager coming down and making a statement that is counterproductive. Coaches are sharp, they understand the pressures, and they understand the situations. They watch more tape than any of us involved. They are right there. So that’s probably the one thing (I try to avoid, which is) saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. It’s just very flippant and that type of thing really angered me when I was a coach. So, I try not to do it (with my coaches now that I’m a GM).”
Q: Your favorite Kenny Albert story
Barry Trotz: “The one he told in his book where he sort of tried to make fun of me (back in our Baltimore days). I messed up on a presentation or an interview and he was sort of trying to make fun of me a little bit. So I turned around and got him thrown in jail in Canada, just as a little payback. That’s always a good story. But he’s such a class-act and high-quality guy; not only a good roommate but a clean roommate too. He is very tidy.”
