With bitter 2016 blockbuster behind them, Weber and Poile ready to enter HHOF together
Published
Shea Weber and David Poile will enter the Hockey Hall of Fame together on Monday night, eight years after Poile made the shocking decision to trade the then-Nashville Predators captain.
In June of 2016, Poile decided as general manager that the Predators were in need of a shakeup and sent shockwaves across the NHL when he dealt Weber to the Montreal Canadiens in a one-for-one trade to acquire fellow defenceman P.K. Subban.
Weber reiterated to TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun in The Athletic that he was blindsided by the trade, which came in the weeks that followed a second-round playoff exit.
“It was a tough situation, to be honest, being there for 11 years and being the captain of the team and pouring my heart and soul into that organization … and kind of getting flipped without even a head’s up,” Weber said. “It was pretty hard. It stuck with me for a long time.”
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Poile says he was looking to shake up the Predators, who had failed to make the Western Conference final in any of of their nine postseason trips in the previous 12 seasons. He told LeBrun that dealing Weber was not his first thought, but he took the opportunity to make the major move when it presented itself.
“Sometimes it happens, when you’re trying to chase higher levels to win playoff rounds to compete for the Stanley Cup, you have to make some changes,” Poile said of the trade with Montreal. “I think it worked out for both sides. But it’s still … part of me felt he should have never left. I’m the one who did it, but I still felt that.”
There was sour taste on both sides following the trade. Weber had burned the Poile and the Predators in 2012 when he signed a 14-year, $110 million offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers. Nashville matched the deal, but the relationship was damaged, opening the door for the team to shock Weber back with the 2016 trade.
The 14-year contract, with an annual $7.86 million cap hit, runs through next season and now sits on the books of the Utah Hockey Club.
Weber, Poile bury the hatchet
In hindsight, the 2016 blockbuster worked out for both sides. The Predators reached the Stanley Cup Final in Subban's first season with the team, falling in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Subban was later traded by the Predators in 2019 to the New Jersey Devils for a haul of draft picks and prospects.
Weber was named captain of the Canadiens in 2018 and led the team to a surprising run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021, in what proved to be the final games of his NHL career.
The 39-year-old Weber has moved past the stunning trade and now looks back with a grateful attitude towards Poile, who made the call to draft him 49th overall in 2003.
“We are at a point now, especially with both of us going in [the HHOF] together, I’m appreciative of everything he did for me,” Weber said. “As much as the trade happened, I would have never had a chance without them. They drafted me. They believed in me. They gave me a chance to play and play a lot.
“Without [Poile] and Barry Trotz and the Nashville Predators, like I don’t know what I would have been, and I definitely don’t think we’d be where we are today. I definitely am very, very grateful, not just to play for their team but going to a city when I was 20 years old when I got there and spent 11 years there and it became like a second home. Just an amazing city with great fans.”