AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

When Nashville Predators general manager David Poile got his first NHL managerial job as an administrative assistant with the Atlanta Flames in 1972 Richard Nixon was president and gas was 36 cents per gallon.

Forty-two years later Poile, 64, is now in his 31th season as a NHL GM, and his 16th with the Predators.

He’s the only GM the Predators have ever had.

“He is a very patient man, someone who builds through the draft,” said Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland. “He’s done a fabulous job building the Predators. He took an expansion franchise and built a team that averaged 100 points for a good period of time.”

If Poile’s Predators defeat the Boston Bruins tonight, he reaches another milestone when he passes former Bruins GM Harry Sinden to move into second place on the all-time GM wins list with 1,171.

New York Rangers GM Glen Sather ranks first all-time with 1,280.

“David should be on the FBI’s Most Wanted List instead of chasing records as a GM,” joked Calgary Flames president Brian Burke. “Great lopsided trades going back decades. Add to that, his legendary patience and great drafting and you have a guy eating up milestones. And he’s a gentleman in an industry full of hard, crude people.”

Burke was fishing buddies with Sinden and Sather for years and knows them equally well.

“(Sather) is a genius, an overused term in sports, but appropriate here,” Burke said. “I was also nervous making deals with Slats. We made a deal for a player that was hurt, unknown to Slats. We didn’t make it subject to a physical, so we (Toronto Maple Leafs) were screwed under league rules. Slats offered immediately to take the player back.”

Burke said Sinden was always misunderstood: “He was perceived as crusty and old-fashioned. But he is progressive and unbelievably funny. He is the deepest hockey thinker I ever met.”

Poile said Sinden was one of the GMs he idolized. He was the Bruins’ general manager when Poile was playing college hockey at Northeastern in Boston.

Before coming to Nashville, Poile made the playoffs 14 out of 15 seasons with the Washington Capitals.