Who is the worst GM in NHL history?

[Kamaya Painters]

What about Eddie Johnston at Hartford?

 

[Sempiternal]

Dipietro might be the only reason Milbury might possibly edge out Chiarelli, but I still vote Chia. F him

 

[Blitzkrug]

I'd argue Don Waddell is the worst GM ever, even ahead of duncelords like Milbury. He is a major factor in how the Thrashers moved to begin with;

He was the first (and only) GM of the Thrashers. In that time span they made a grand total of 1 playoff appearance and only finished above 3rd twice (both of which were because the Southeast division was brutal)

in 2007, they won the Southeast division and gearing up for a playoff run, Waddell shipped away significant future assets. The most notable getting an already declining Alexei Zhitnik for Brayden Coburn. Coburn would go on to be a staple on the Flyers blueline during their last run of contention (2009-2012) while Zhitnik was largely ineffective for Atlanta

Perhaps even worse, he shipped away an entire draft for multiple picks. The result? Atlanta gets blown away in the first round by the older, but much better constructed Rangers

He lost several key players for what amounted to nothing; Marc Savard was allowed to walk in free agency, Dany Heatley was so fed up he demanded out and got shipped for Marian Hossa, who also was traded for nothing not even 2 years later. Ilya Kovalchuk was traded after he rejected a hilarious 12-year, $101 million contract (somehow not the most insane deal Kovy would be offered and a deal that would have also killed the team long after they left had it been signed)

Another staple of Waddell's time as GM was his fetish for rushing draft picks to the NHL. most of which blew up in their faces In his last 3 years alone:

2008: Drafts noted IR regular Zach Bogosian 3rd overall. He plays in his first season and looks okay at times due to restricted minutes. Come the next two years he's assumed to be a top pairing guy and his play takes a nosedive from the extra responsibility, going a -45 (i know lol +/- but still) in the next two seasons. Rest of career is just missed potential and injuries. The guy that went after him? Future stud Alex Pietrangelo

2009: Selects Evander Kane 4th overall and throws him into the deep end right away. To Kane's credit, he looked like he belonged, posting a respectable 26 point season as an 18 year old, and would then better his goal total for each of the following two seasons. Also became a fan favorite to everyone outside of Atlanta after he utterly dumpstered Matt Cooke in a fight.

2010: Probably the worst all; picked Alex Burmistrov 8th overall and had him penciled in from the getgo. Burmi being a small 18 year old looked lost in the show at times, especially in his own end. Never really had the chance to develop properly to the point he's barely a KHL player at this point.

Those are just a smidgen of Waddell's draft record...the rest? Not very pretty. First round picks:

1999: Patrick Stefan (massive bust, but that whole draft sucked)
2000: Dany Heatley (successful, then decided to wrap his ferrari around a tree and was traded)
2001: Ilya Kovalchuk (obvious #1 pick, no credit here)
2002: Kari Lethonen (decent goalie but hardly worth 2nd overall pick)
2003: Brayden Coburn (good, but never suited up for Atlanta)
2004: Boris Valabik (bust)
2005: Alex Bourret (bust, never played a single game in the show)
2006: Bryan Little (decent, but also had a long period in ATL where he was ineffective because he was bounced around the lineup/had no talent around him)
2007: No first round pick because Keith Tkachuk presumably ate it.
2008-2010 already mentioned

His drafting outside of the first round is also pretty poor. The only major gems he found in his 10+ year tenure were Tobais Enstrom in the 8th round of 2003. Literally no other players he drafted became significant contributors.

It was that combination that resulted in the Thrashers being garbage for 85% of their time in ATL, and making all the more easy for True North to swoop in and move them. The Thrashers system was so bad it took even the new blood in the Jets FO years to bring their farm system and actual roster to respectability

 

[Hivemind]

This thread needs more Ned Harkness of the "Darkness with Harkness" era of the Detroit Red Wings:
Ned Harkness – The Winged Wheeler

 

[McFlash97]

Chiarelli has been a disaster in Edmonton, but he's very clearly not the worst GM in NHL history.

There are countless GMs in NHL history who squandered away talent and never got to sniff the cup.

Stop gloating Chiaturds cup with the Bruins. He was handed the cup on a silver platter by players bought in by other members of the Bruins front staff. He is in my opinion the worst judge of hockey talent in history. The guy is an absolute farce. His track record is beyond futile in trades.

 

[Marcobruin]

Chiarelli Houle Dorion(is making his way on this list)

 

[Marcobruin]

Stop gloating Chiaturds cup with the Bruins. He was handed the cup on a silver platter by players bought in by other members of the Bruins front staff. He is in my opinion the worst judge of hockey talent in history. The guy is an absolute farce. His track record is beyond futile in trades.

Very well said

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Chiarelli built a team that:

won a Cup
made a 2nd Finals
4 100 point seasons and 1 President's Trophy
4x won their division
made the playoffs 7 out of 9 seasons

yeah, he was brutally bad in Edmonton (even if he gave them their best season in a decade), but he doesn't warrant consideration for this list outside of recency bias

 

[Andrei79]

Bob Murray's incompetence is underrated.

 

[McFlash97]

Chiarelli built a team that:

won a Cup
made a 2nd Finals
4 100 point seasons and 1 President's Trophy
4x won their division
made the playoffs 7 out of 9 seasons

yeah, he was brutally bad in Edmonton (even if he gave them their best season in a decade), but he doesn't warrant consideration for this list outside of recency bias

there is no bias. He has a terrible trade track record in Boston too. Bruins probably win 2 plus cups easy if he doesn't f*** with the team.

 

[Meeqs]

It was Milbury for a long long time, but I think PC has indeed successfully surpassed him.

 

[Trap Jesus]

As terrible as Chiarelli was in Edmonton, he was a huge part of building Boston's Cup winning team, so I think that has to take him out of the conversation. There's debate over the 2006 offseason (absolutely massive year for Boston in both the draft and free agency) when he was hired in May but couldn't officially start until mid-July. Gorton was serving as the interim GM but apparently still taking advice from Chiarelli. So many monumental decisions made in that offseason that I doubt they would have entrusted it to an interim GM. After all, Chara going from Ottawa to Boston along with Chiarelli would seem like a pretty big coincidence if Chiarelli had no say in it.

Regardless, he was responsible for bringing in a lot of key pieces, even if most were of the short-sited nature (ie. Peverley/Wheeler trade).

2011 Cup winning players already on the roster/drafted:

Bergeron, Krejci
Thomas

Acquired/drafted in 2006:

Marchand, Lucic, Savard (huge acquisition but was injured before the Cup run)
Chara
Rask (back-up for 2011 team)

Acquired/drafted by Chiarelli:

Horton. Recchi, Peverley, Kelly, Ryder, Seguin, Campbell, S. Thornton, Paille
Seidenberg, Boychuk, McQuaid, Ference, Kaberle

 

[Hivemind]

In general this list is heavily biased by recent events, not just with Chiarelli (although he may be the most blatant example). It may be shocking to some, but not every "worst GM in history" has been employed by a franchise in the past two decades. The NHL did, surprisingly, exist before the year 1999.

Ned Harkness, Russ Farwell, and Al Coates are all far worse GMs than Chiarelli or Bergevin.

 

[Pilky01]

Why is Kyle Dubas not on the list?

 

[PuckSeparator]

Millbury is to this thread what Wayne Gretzky is to hockey players.

 

[lawrence]

I'd argue Don Waddell is the worst GM ever, even ahead of duncelords like Milbury. He is a major factor in how the Thrashers moved to begin with;

He was the first (and only) GM of the Thrashers. In that time span they made a grand total of 1 playoff appearance and only finished above 3rd twice (both of which were because the Southeast division was brutal)

in 2007, they won the Southeast division and gearing up for a playoff run, Waddell shipped away significant future assets. The most notable getting an already declining Alexei Zhitnik for Brayden Coburn. Coburn would go on to be a staple on the Flyers blueline during their last run of contention (2009-2012) while Zhitnik was largely ineffective for Atlanta

Perhaps even worse, he shipped away an entire draft for multiple picks. The result? Atlanta gets blown away in the first round by the older, but much better constructed Rangers

He lost several key players for what amounted to nothing; Marc Savard was allowed to walk in free agency, Dany Heatley was so fed up he demanded out and got shipped for Marian Hossa, who also was traded for nothing not even 2 years later. Ilya Kovalchuk was traded after he rejected a hilarious 12-year, $101 million contract (somehow not the most insane deal Kovy would be offered and a deal that would have also killed the team long after they left had it been signed)

Another staple of Waddell's time as GM was his fetish for rushing draft picks to the NHL. most of which blew up in their faces In his last 3 years alone:

2008: Drafts noted IR regular Zach Bogosian 3rd overall. He plays in his first season and looks okay at times due to restricted minutes. Come the next two years he's assumed to be a top pairing guy and his play takes a nosedive from the extra responsibility, going a -45 (i know lol +/- but still) in the next two seasons. Rest of career is just missed potential and injuries. The guy that went after him? Future stud Alex Pietrangelo

2009: Selects Evander Kane 4th overall and throws him into the deep end right away. To Kane's credit, he looked like he belonged, posting a respectable 26 point season as an 18 year old, and would then better his goal total for each of the following two seasons. Also became a fan favorite to everyone outside of Atlanta after he utterly dumpstered Matt Cooke in a fight.

2010: Probably the worst all; picked Alex Burmistrov 8th overall and had him penciled in from the getgo. Burmi being a small 18 year old looked lost in the show at times, especially in his own end. Never really had the chance to develop properly to the point he's barely a KHL player at this point.

Those are just a smidgen of Waddell's draft record...the rest? Not very pretty. First round picks:

1999: Patrick Stefan (massive bust, but that whole draft sucked)
2000: Dany Heatley (successful, then decided to wrap his ferrari around a tree and was traded)
2001: Ilya Kovalchuk (obvious #1 pick, no credit here)
2002: Kari Lethonen (decent goalie but hardly worth 2nd overall pick)
2003: Brayden Coburn (good, but never suited up for Atlanta)
2004: Boris Valabik (bust)
2005: Alex Bourret (bust, never played a single game in the show)
2006: Bryan Little (decent, but also had a long period in ATL where he was ineffective because he was bounced around the lineup/had no talent around him)
2007: No first round pick because Keith Tkachuk presumably ate it.
2008-2010 already mentioned

His drafting outside of the first round is also pretty poor. The only major gems he found in his 10+ year tenure were Tobais Enstrom in the 8th round of 2003. Literally no other players he drafted became significant contributors.

It was that combination that resulted in the Thrashers being garbage for 85% of their time in ATL, and making all the more easy for True North to swoop in and move them. The Thrashers system was so bad it took even the new blood in the Jets FO years to bring their farm system and actual roster to respectability

the irony is that don Waddell's team is in the conference finals!

also huge disagreement on Jim Benning being the worst in NHL history and I'm a guy that wants him gone. anyways Milbury takes this, honorable mention is Dave Nonis, and Mike O'Connell.

 

[I Hate Blake Coleman]

Don Waddell killed the Thrashers.

 

[Chuck Feathers]

1999: Patrick Stefan (massive bust, but that whole draft sucked)

Hmmm, #2 & 3 were both Scoring champs and League MVP..

 

[Dr Salt]

Why is Bergi Boi on this list??? Yes he's had bad trades but he has also had good ones. In his time in Montreal only 2016 and 2017 seem like bad off-seasons (though the latter was near disastrous) yet he redeemed it in the 2018 off-season. Even if you see him as bad he does not even come close to the other options.

 

[RalphKing]

People used to complain a lot about how bad Mike Keenan was as GM. Is he in contention?

 

[Hawkaholic]

Mike Smith(Jets early 90's and Hawks late 90's early 2000's) was just as bad as MAD MIKE. Maybe worse. Difference being that Mike somehow kept his job for like a decade and Mike Smith was canned both times after 3ish years.

Put it this way. He more or less runs Hawerchuk out of town. Team captain, best player for a decade ect. Trades him for Phil Housley, who he then picks a fight with at a christmas party a few years later and runs him out of town aswell. Not going to go into his obsession with crappy .European players, specifically Russian because he knew they would play for cheap.


Also No, I'm not talking about your Larianov's and Fedorovs. I'm taking about Sergei Bautin(among others), a 24 year old first round pick who couldn't skate, shoot, pass, defend, ect.

With the Hawks, Smith drafted Seabrook, Keith, Crawford, Buff, Wiesniewsky, and Tuomu Ruutu. That alone disqualifies him from this list.

 

[NORiculous]

Way worse then Bergevin. Although that had a lot to do with the money stuff.

It had nothing to do with money stuff. He just sent talent out and brought garbage in, not even potential.

 

[Braunbaer]

Why is Kyle Dubas not on the list?

People wait until he's signed Marner to 12M per.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Dorion should be on this list

 

[ScaredStreit]

Easily Milbury...if not for his many boneheaded moves and if he was more patient the Islanders would have easily been a cup contender.