David Poile Admits Mistake By Waiving Eeli Tolvanen
Eyebrows were raised when Eeli Tolvanen was placed on waivers by Nashville. Predators general manager David Poile has already admitted his mistake just one month after cutting ties with the former 30th overall in the 2017 NHL Draft.
“Did we give him enough opportunities? Should we have played him higher? Time will tell,” Poile said Tuesday during an appearance on 102.5 The Game. “Seattle’s a team that plays a little bit differently than us. They really rotate almost their four lines equally, and offensively they put him in a position higher than we have.
“This could be a mistake on our part. That’s on me if he turns out to be really successful, but we thought we tried him in a lot of different areas, different places.”
Putting Tolvanen on waivers just never made any sense. Especially on a Predators team that could have went in so many other ways to try to reconfigure their core. The player card tells a lot of the story. There was always some hidden offense here. Nashville just couldn’t figure out how to get it out of him.
Tolvanen carries a cheap cap hit ($1.5 million AAV over the next year and a half carrying a RFA tag) and has a shot the Predators shouldn’t have given up on. Tolvanen made his debut with the Kraken on January first. His ice time is up to 12:32 and has five points in five games. Three of which are goals. He’s been a great fit thus far on that third line with Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand. That’s while playing for a Kraken team on the verge of clinching their first ever postseason appearance.
I talked about this in the Juuse Saros post but it’s time for Nashville to tear it down. When you have a roster incapable of developing young talents like this because you’re overboard with egregious contracts, it’s time to start over. The Eeli Tolvanen situation should only be further proof of that.
