Award Finalists: General Manager of the Year

[DFF]

To be the GM of the Year for me, that year can’t really have any **** ups. Signing the worst contract of UFA that previous offseason is an automatic disqualification for me.

Then you should vote for a GM that did nothing


Who gives a crap about one move, the overall effect is he revamped the roster and hired the right coach to get his team from way outside the playoff to the number 1 seed in the conference

 

[Ted Hoffman]

although i dont think dubas is even top 5 maybe top 10 he still deserves credit.

its not all on Dubas on the nylander front, it takes two to tango, considering nylander wanted 8-8.5 long term and wasnt budging much he did great.

He still signed tavares and acquired muzzin and got rid of other bad contracts and made great minor deals all year round.

I'm not saying he's terrible by any stretch, I'm just saying that based on regular season work I don't see him having done top-3 work this season. There's other guys out there who did better work, who drove their teams to success where little to none was expected, and did it by making moves that others either criticized heavily and it worked in their favor or got acclaimed as "damn, that's one hell of a shrewd move, great work there."

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Can we make an avatar bet on him not finishing top 3 please? I'll give you odds.

To clarify this: are you saying Yzerman will or will not be in the top-3 in voting for this award for 2019?

 

[Albus Dumbledore]

I'm not saying he's terrible by any stretch, I'm just saying that based on regular season work I don't see him having done top-3 work this season. There's other guys out there who did better work, who drove their teams to success where little to none was expected, and did it by making moves that others either criticized heavily and it worked in their favor or got acclaimed as "damn, that's one hell of a shrewd move, great work there."

Well you need poll options what's the sense of having 4-5 guys in a poll.

Id say dubas is somewhere between 5-10 not a tragic pick to put him here.

 

[Sergei Shirokov]

Only voted for Treliving. Clear winner IMO, took his team to another level with a trade & coaching hire.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Back-to-back playoffs, one of the youngest teams in the league and an outstanding cap situation. A decent prospect pool with Makar leading the way. A guaranteed top 4 pick at the draft and another 1st as well.

Sakic almost never gets any credit, I don't get it.

 

[Hostile Offer]

Treliving seems to have turned out the corner in Calgary for the foreseeable future. Most of the pieces were in there before this year but hiring Peters and getting him his guys from Carolina looks like a home run move. Yes he had that Neal misstep too but in the big picture he's easily done the best job this year to improve his team by making several beneficial moves that all go well along with each other.

 

[Snakepit]

Pleasently surprised to see Treliving get so many votes, but he really nailed his coaching hire (granted he needed a second go at it) and frankly that trade with Carolina should win this award on its own.

But underated is the way he addressed the teams low key needs. Depth. The Flames have 10 NHL quality dmen, and arguably the best 4th line in the NH. Taking the money that was used on Matt Stajan and spending it on Derek Ryan is another underrated move that has paid off big time

His UFA signings aren't exactly home runs though. Raymond, Brouwer, and now Neal. But Neal's looking very good again after he came back from injury, that's a storyline that's going to be interesting to follow in the playoffs.

But he can afford to try and go big with UFA signings because of how well he's handled RFA signings. Monahan, Gaudreau, Lindholm and Hanifin are among the best contracts in the league. It will be interesting to see what Tkachuk gets this year

 

[tony d]

Treliving, Armstrong, Brisebois

 

[780il]

It's clearly Treliving...

He turned a playoff missing team into a cup contender in a single summer

 

[Aladyyn]

How is Lou Lamoriello not on this list????

Because he isn't a good GM?

 

[MattMartin]

Because he isn't a good GM?

 

[TCB]

Don Sweeney deserves a Little attention for the General Manager of the Year Award, I believe this upcoming week the NHL will announce its finalist. Sweeney deadline acquisitions of Coyle and Johansson have proved to be just the fix the Bruins needed to make a run at the Cup and one needs to look no further than the first game of the Conference finals.

Bruins win 5-2

Coyle has a goal-Deadline transaction, was the Bruins best forward in the opening round
Johansson has a goal- Deadline transaction
kampfer has a goal-Off Season transaction
Wagner has a goal- off season FA signing


On top of that Tuukka Rask has been playing like a Conn Smythe candidate and a lot of the credit can be towards Jarslov Halak who split games with Tuukka helping him keep fresh and pushing him to become his best by fighting for the #1 spot all season and Halak was off-season FA signing.

 

[Fugazy]

Treliving.

 

[North Cole]

In that case, I vote Peter Chiarelli, Bob Murray, Jason Botterill.





Oh, wait - this is "best GM?" Sorry, I misread that. Let me try this again.

1. Marc Bergevin, Montreal. Folks, where did you really have the Canadiens penciled in to finish this season? It certainly wasn't 9th in the East at 96 points, 2 out of a playoff spot, and battling into the final day of the season. Bergevin caught all kinds of hell, but his moves panned out so much better than expected. He took a couple big risks, caught hell from everyone for it, and nearly got the Habs into a playoff spot. I don't know how you don't have him high on the list.

2. Don Waddell, Carolina. Again, where did you all have the Hurricanes placing after cutting loose Bill Peters as HC, Ron Francis from the organization, and turning to Rod Brind'Amour as the new HC and making some of the moves they did? Probably safe to say it wasn't "1st wild card in the East, with 99 points, and making a serious run for the division title as they end their 10-year playoff drought." Yeah, Waddell was a giant ****-up in Atlanta, but this season's work goes down right alongside Bergevin - but the Canes were almost certainly picked to finish higher in the standings.

3. Brad Treveling, Calgary. Yeah, the Flames won the Pacific and were 1st in the West. But it's not like some of the pieces weren't there already. Calgary has put up 97 and 94 points in two of the last 4 seasons to make the playoffs, then followed up each season with a downer that saw them miss and not be terribly close. If I look at the Flames roster, yeah there's Lindholm and Ryan and arguably Hanifin but James Neal had a lousy year and Alan Quine spent much of the season in the AHL. And yes, adding Bill Peters from Carolina didn't hurt by any stretch. The question for me: is adding a HC and a couple players more noteworthy than what the guys above did? IMO, no. Worth mentioning, yes - but not more impressive.

Others noted:

• McPhee, Vegas: since this is a regular season award, it would have been difficult to top last season's work. The playoffs may cause some to want to revisit it, but with the rash of big-name signings the Golden Knights were 16 points off last year's pace. Partly expected, but partly not.
• Dubas, Toronto: um, no. From the unnecessary drawout of the Nylander situation to putting together a team that purportedly is complete but had mind-numbing stretches of indifference and bad losses, hard to give him consideration for being among the best GMs in the league for what happened this season. [Again, the playoffs are his chance to redeem himself and maybe we revisit it after.]
• Armstrong, St. Louis: made big trades and big signings in the offseason, and it nearly backfired spectacularly. If not for a rookie goalie coming in and steadying the ship in net - a guy Armstrong had zero trust in - DA's name could be dropping into the list of worst GMs.
• Kekalainen, Columbus. Guy has guts, went for broke at the trade deadline, nearly failed spectacularly too. See "possible redemption in the playoffs" but I can't reward a guy whose team was at the top of the Metro in December and then nearly failed to get into the postseason despite major acquisitions.
• Brisebois, Tampa Bay. The guts of this franchise was set by Yzerman, and Cooper has steered it to one of the greatest seasons in NHL history. If he can keep this group together and supplement it and keep it going, then we can discuss.
• Wilson, San Jose. Um ..... no. In fact, I don't know that I've ever put him into the top half of GMs in the league.
• Not mentioned, but worthy of discussion: Lou Lamoriello, NY Islanders. Again, who had the Islaes fighting for 2nd in the Metro with the loss of Tavares after they didn't make the playoffs last season? Lou arrived, got Trotz to come over, and put trust into his team and brought a steady hand to the S.S. Islanders. I'd arguably put him into the top-3 over Treliving - and it's not a slight to the Calgary GM, it's just a recognition that other guys did more starting with arguably less and/or lower expectations.

I gotta ask. Why is your damn font always different?

It's so weird.... am I the only one? I dont even need to see the username anymore.

 

[ricky0034]

Don Sweeney deserves a Little attention for the General Manager of the Year Award, I believe this upcoming week the NHL will announce its finalist. Sweeney deadline acquisitions of Coyle and Johansson have proved to be just the fix the Bruins needed to make a run at the Cup and one needs to look no further than the first game of the Conference finals.

Bruins win 5-2

Coyle has a goal-Deadline transaction, was the Bruins best forward in the opening round
Johansson has a goal- Deadline transaction
kampfer has a goal-Off Season transaction
Wagner has a goal- off season FA signing


On top of that Tuukka Rask has been playing like a Conn Smythe candidate and a lot of the credit can be towards Jarslov Halak who split games with Tuukka helping him keep fresh and pushing him to become his best by fighting for the #1 spot all season and Halak was off-season FA signing.

the award is voted on before the Playoffs start

 

[itwasaforwardpass]

No GM improved a team's roster and salary cap more this past off season than Jason Botterill.

It just wasn't his own team.

 

[kthx]

Jarmo. Did some ALFA moves and Columbus lost to Stanley Cup champions so it's not that bad.

 

[Hostile Offer]

Jarmo. Did some ALFA moves and Columbus lost to Stanley Cup champions so it's not that bad.

Jinx of the year.

 

[bert]

McPhee has had multiple massive ****-ups recently. St. Louis signed Bozak to a weirdly big contract and had made up their mind at the beginning of the year that Allen/Johnson was a good goalie tandem, nearly pissing away the season. San Jose failed to address the goaltending issue and as such has by-far-and-away the worst goaltending in the entire NHL.

No GM is without fault.

Your posts arent aging well.

 

[bert]

Jarmo. Did some ALFA moves and Columbus lost to Stanley Cup champions so it's not that bad.

Thank you!

 

[Wayne Primeau]

Your posts arent aging well.

ok

 

[Gravity]

Armstrong

 

[Ivo]

Its a very weird thing to have a trophy for the best GM of the year. Many moves will only bear fruit years down the line, so its very difficult to assess GMs work on the basis of a single season. Ultimately, the Stanley Cup is the trophy which indicates who the best GMs are.

 

[North Cole]

Well, I didn't get any of them right