FUN VOTE! HFNHL's top GM's (please join in!)

[Chuzwazza]

As we gear up for the season to start, I thought we could get some interaction going by voting on who are the top Gm's in the league! Of course its all subject to opinion, so I thought we'd just rank them based on averages from those who choose to vote.

Those of you who are inexperienced may not know the league to know what has happened 3 or 4 years ago, so I'd encourage Gm's to start campaigning their achievements. If you're not confortable giving me a complete list, a top 10 will do. but feel free to take a swing, because there is no right or wrong. its all in the name of fun!

Everyone will of course see things differently...does the Blues continual lack of progress to the cup finals hurt Nick Quain's standing after compiling arguably the most talented team of the HFNHL Cap Era and continually posting dominant regular season performances? Does Rob Kreuger's HFNHL points record place him above those that have won stanley cups with lesser talented teams? (eg. yours truly) .....Does Douglas Emerson's rise from the depths of despair with the Jackets to a losing cup finalist over a number of years deserve more credit than Cohen Simpson's most unlikely cup win as a 1 year wonder? Do their recent off-season moves change that despite not a single game being played yet? Does Drew Niece's continual shrewd drafting and top 4 finishes out west place him amongst the games elite?

How does a young rebuilder who is on the brink of shaking up the West (Sean keogh) rank against the big boys who have been in the league for years? How much credit does Matt Kershaw get for finally breaking the Flames HFNHL playoff jinx despite seeing names like Luongo, Iginla, Kovalchuk, Datsyuk, Hejduk etc. come and go (and sometimes come again!)

so start your campaigning! have fun guys! and let the lists roll in. You can send them to [email protected] or PM me on here!

Just title them... HFNHL GM LIST

Thanks guys!

Click to read more...

 

[Armchair_Critic]

My vote goes to the GM that died... hehe...

 

[ThrashersGM]

Well, I've only been here one season but soon you will see what I can do. I will rebuild the Thrashers to their former glory, while dressing a competitive team. I can't really vote for anybody yet because I don't know the acheivments of the other gm's.

 

[SPG]

My vote goes to the GM that died... hehe...

I hope you're talking about yourself, Dion... we actually had a GM that passed away while in the league.

 

[Wildman]

My vote goes for Martin of Tampa Bay Lightning. He has done wonderful in aquiring UFA and signing RFA when required. Always done well with the line combination and his teams playoff track record is unbelievable. Better than Western Division power house Blues

The newcomer GM that I would consider to vote is Pasi of San Jose. The trades he has made hopefully will keep San Jose in the top tier and if Niedermayer returns than the team can do some serious damage to Western Division teams.

 

[MatthewFlames]

How much credit does Matt Kershaw get for finally breaking the Flames HFNHL playoff jinx despite seeing names like Luongo, Iginla, Kovalchuk, Datsyuk, Hejduk etc. come and go (and sometimes come again!)

Seriously. Thanks. Tho there are a ton of GM's who deserve more credit. I'm also voting for Dion

 

[Brent Burns Beard]

Seriously. Thanks. Tho there are a ton of GM's who deserve more credit. I'm also voting for Dion

i know i have Drew's vote. right? lol.

Just kidding!

 

[Tampa GM]

My vote goes for Martin of Tampa Bay Lightning. He has done wonderful in aquiring UFA and signing RFA when required. Always done well with the line combination and his teams playoff track record is unbelievable. Better than Western Division power house Blues

The newcomer GM that I would consider to vote is Pasi of San Jose. The trades he has made hopefully will keep San Jose in the top tier and if Niedermayer returns than the team can do some serious damage to Western Division teams.

Thanx for the vote, its been a pure pleasure to be part of this league for almost 10! years now.

 

[Default101]

Phoenix Coyotes
Dispite finishing 10th last year and drafting a player at #16 that fell to th e 3rd round, i have done quite well, here's a few of the possitives throughout my first year..

- Took over who was ranked worst in the west and 2nd worst in the league, and brought them into the playoff race, just missing out and finishing 10th dispite going into the all-star break in last in the conference.
- Went on a 11 game winning streak streak which included going 16-4 during the 2nd half of the season
- Drafted Josh Godfrey late in the 4th round, who in 3 months has emerged into a star defenceman in the OHL and in international play.
Thats all i can think of right now, thanks.

 

[Armchair_Critic]

I hope you're talking about yourself, Dion... we actually had a GM that passed away while in the league.

I totally forgot about Steve. My bad... I should have known... In that case, Steve gets my top vote. Coz without him, Josh would never have had the base to get the Sabres to the Cup.

 

[SPG]

I totally forgot about Steve. My bad... I should have known... In that case, Steve gets my top vote. Coz without him, Josh would never have had the base to get the Sabres to the Cup.

I figured it was just a bad coincidence. That being said, I think Dion and Josh have done great jobs... Sean K and Rich as well.

 

[Dempsey]

Kings' GM Mike McEwan here. I don't consider myself a top GM because I admit that I am not as publically active as many of the league's great GM's, but I have been here since day 1 and have some accomplishments over the years.

- Record after first six HFNHL seasons: 266-171-48.
- Acquired Bertuzzi cheap before his big breakout season.
- Acquired Darcy Tucker from Martin Sedin for Russ Courtnall back in the late 90's
- Held onto and didn't give up on Olli Jokinen and Glen Murray from original lineup to still have them during their big breakout years.
- Mid-round draft picks from the last couple drafts alone include: Josh Hennessy, Troy Brouwer, Brad Marchand, Sergei Kostitsyn, Jeremy Williams, Kari Ramo.
- Almost 50 million in the bank make the Kings the league's 3rd richest team.

Unfortunately, the Kings' playing roster is now amongst the league's worst as it was apparent that the club needed to re-build. But over the first six seasons the club was in regular season winning mode and I'm not sure another team had a better record in the league's first half-decade than the LA Kings had.

That's my case, but my actual vote goes to Dion.

 

[kasper11]

Ok, here is why I should get it.....

In 2002-3 my team was dead last. Just three season later I have won my division back to back years. I have a young team with top young players at every position...Vanek, Semin, Gaborik, Horton, Getzlaf upfront, Weber and Regehr on the blueline and Fleury in goal. I signed Jason Blake as a UFA when nobody wanted him, then signed him to a new contract right before his breakout season. I don't think that I have made a single trade that has been one sided. When I was rebuilding I helped teams win, now I help teams rebuild.

 

[Fan.At]

I have not had much success in the 2 seasons since joining.

I believe though, that i have moved my team into a position where it has solid depth, low salary and most important hopefully a bright future.

So maybe somebody will consider me a top gm in a few years

 

[Ville Isopaa]

Here's my short resume so far in the HFNHL:
- AGM for Colorado 99-01. Responsible for picking Pasi Nurminen with the 271st OV pick in 2000 and Christian Ehroff 172nd in 2001.
- GM since the start of the 01-02 season.

- When I took over, the team was comming off a 109 point season scoring 325 goals, and the players that were on the team had Edmonton like scoring that year with 400 goals and 1073 points. Colorado was an offensive powerhouse in the west. Same can't be said of the defense, goaltending, prospects nor finances. So I had a lot of work when I took over the team.

- 01-02: Added a goalie and some defense at the cost of a little scoring depth, and reached 103 points and home ice in the regular season, won the first matchup against Vancouver 4-1, just to be swept away against San Jose. Drafted Sean Bergenheim, Gregory Campbell and Christoph Schubert, Lasse Kukkonen(later ruled inegliable).

- 02-03: Gave the playoffs a last shot with downgrading the offense a bit more and adding Martin Brodeur and a little more to the defense. Result: 96 points, 4th place and home ice for the playoffs. Lost in the first round against Detroit in game 7 overtime. Budget was down at 2,5m and payroll was close to 50m.. Time to re-build. I drafted MA Pouliot in the first round and went very finnish after that.

- 03-04: Re-build in full force. ended up with 49 points and started re-stocking prospects and younger players. Payroll was down under 15m and I even made a few 100k that season. Draft picks feature Rostislav Olesz, Blake Comeau, Marc Mancari and potential future NHLers Sergei Shirokov, Jeff Glass, Mike Lundin, Chris Zarb, Stanislav Lascek and Chad Kolarik.

- 04-05: No season, kept the rebuild going in the draft with Crosby, Ryan, Parent, Lee, Pavelec, Juraj Mikus, Kiril Starkov, Kris Russell, Vladimir Sobotka, Mathias Ritola, Phil Oreskovic, Nathan Gerbe, Marek Kvapil and Igor Volkov. Most are in the NHL-camps looking for a shot at the NHL.

- 05-06: Last season of total re-build. Dead last with 16 wins, 44 points and 156 goals scored. Payroll down at 13m, it even went down as low as under 10m entering the free agency. Drafted Niklas Bäckström, Riku Helenius, Nigel Williams in the first round, Leland Irving in the 3rd and added John DeGray in the 4th round. Added key forwards in Pavel Demitra, Jochen Hecht, PJ Axelsson and star defenseman Phillippe Boucher in the offseason.

- 06-07: Picking up key players like Mark Recchi, Slava Kozlov, Samuel PÃ¥hlsson, Mathieu Schneider, Derian Hatcher, etc. over the season, the Avalanche are back!
Winning the division, finishing 3rd in the conference with home ice after a 97 point season. Yes, that's 53 points more than the previous season. I guess that was a new HFNHL record. 46 wins were also 30 more than last season. Still, the team wasn't ready to go from last to first and ended up falling 4-2 against Detroit. Imrpoved the team prior to FA's by picking up Giguere, Morrow, Kotalik and Osgood to take the team to the next level.
Currently +23m in the bank.

 

[spintheblackcircle]

I've been in the league for 5 years now and have won 2 playoff series.

Hmmm...nevermind.

 

[Chuzwazza]

Going well so far. got 5 lists already. a couple of complete 30 name lists (well 29) and a couple of top 10. one went into detail about the reasons why he made each pick in the top 10. keep them coming guys! probably looking to keep it going until the weekend, so get those votes in!

Good to see Gm's pushing themselves. might have to enter myself to keep up with all the good arguments!

 

[Brock]

While my Panthers have yet to make the playoffs in my 5 or so years in the league, it's been a very slow process rebuilding this team from when I originally inherited it. My best player was Shawn MacEachern and I had no prospects and little draft picks. This team was completely gutted. So I've had to be patient and slowly build up. Coming into my 6th season in this league, I think I've built a team that can win the division. With finally a strong goalie (Emery has an 80 rating), a forward crop that wont see a forward dressed under 73 OV (including a top line of Elias - Modano - Doan) and a defense that wont see anyone dressed under 74OV, I think this year is finally my year.

 

[Hossa]

I don't know how to pimp myself for this. I'd like to think I've done a good job since taking over my team. The Canucks when I had them were old, overpaid, in financial ruin and the best prospect was literally Kyle Freadrich at the time.

I've drafted a number of guys, like Staal, Malkin, Stafford, Meszaros, Eaves and Price...and tons of mid round guys who will contribute too, like Kris Letang for example.

I've made some great trades, like dealing Anthony Stewart when he had value, Pavel Vorobiev for the pick to take Meszaros, an aging Luc Robitaille for Ilya Bryzgalov (signing Robitaille a year later), and signing Francois Beauchemin then turning him into Dan Boyle.

But I've also made some mistakes...some of my first trades weren't great, dealing Mikko Koivu for Jeff Taffe and believing Maxime Ouellet would pan out.

But I've completely built my team from the ground up, and heading in to this year I think I've got one of the better teams on paper in the league. Brodeur will be backed up by Bryzgalov or Legace, with Carey Price in the wings. Kaberle, Ohlund, Boyle, Meszaros are my top four on the blueline, and Malkin, Staal, Huselius and Sillinger are supported by other veterans (Cullen, McAmmond, Ribeiro, O'Neill), and kids like Stafford and Eaves. Not perfect, but hopefully I can move up the standings.

I'm kind of at the end of my rebuilding phase though. Most of my kids have graduated, with my last wave being this year (Price, Letang, Callahan, Krejci, Andy Greene....maybe a few more like Quincey and Andrew Ebbett too). But I guess my challenge is not to turn a top team on paper into a winner.

But I'd put my vote out to the guys that take strong teams on paper and are successful year after year. Nick and Drew are the two that stand out. They're battling for the Western Conference every year, and staying at the top, in a cap world, is a hell of a challenge.

 

[Dr.Sens(e)]

The fact I have been derided more than applauded in this thread leads me to believe I have an overinflated view of my GM abilities, and such, will hold off rhyming off my resume, until such time I can hand it over with a Stanley Cup ring firmly on finger.

Indeed, given the Blues have become so synonymous with being overrated regular season specialists and consistent only in their playoff collapses, perhaps this is my moment to look into the abyss.

And my moment to rally the troops to make this our “raison d’etre” for this season.

Cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war!!

 

[TorontoGM]

Cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war!!

You get my vote for using Shakespeare in this context.

 

[Toronto_AGM_Adil]

Cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war!!

You had me at "Cry Havoc"

 

[Wildman]

Ok, here is why I should get it.....

In 2002-3 my team was dead last. Just three season later I have won my division back to back years. I have a young team with top young players at every position...Vanek, Semin, Gaborik, Horton, Getzlaf upfront, Weber and Regehr on the blueline and Fleury in goal. I signed Jason Blake as a UFA when nobody wanted him, then signed him to a new contract right before his breakout season. I don't think that I have made a single trade that has been one sided. When I was rebuilding I helped teams win, now I help teams rebuild.

You forgot to mention Ilya Kavulchuk lucrative $20M signing bonus and the fact that Bank roll went down from $56M to $35M and losing in the first round with all the talent in the hand

 

[Wildman]

While my Panthers have yet to make the playoffs in my 5 or so years in the league, it's been a very slow process rebuilding this team from when I originally inherited it. My best player was Shawn MacEachern and I had no prospects and little draft picks. This team was completely gutted. So I've had to be patient and slowly build up. Coming into my 6th season in this league, I think I've built a team that can win the division. With finally a strong goalie (Emery has an 80 rating), a forward crop that wont see a forward dressed under 73 OV (including a top line of Elias - Modano - Doan) and a defense that wont see anyone dressed under 74OV, I think this year is finally my year.

Nice job Brock, 6th season in the league and haven't seen playoffs. I must vote for you.

 

[Wildman]

I don't know how to pimp myself for this. I'd like to think I've done a good job since taking over my team. The Canucks when I had them were old, overpaid, in financial ruin and the best prospect was literally Kyle Freadrich at the time.

I've drafted a number of guys, like Staal, Malkin, Stafford, Meszaros, Eaves and Price...and tons of mid round guys who will contribute too, like Kris Letang for example.

I think it is rude to take credit for back to back lottery draft picks