bill zito single handledly turned the panthers into contenders. when he traded for tkachuk and picked up montour he was laughed at, but they both worked out. has a great hit rate as a GM.
The only real miss I can think of is the Ben Chiarot trade but even that one is somewhat justifiable if you remember the context of the team at the time and how badly they needed bodies on defense, plus that pick ended up being #32 overall anyways
Yep. Zito was not afraid to trade what looked like top scoring forward and a top pair defenceman to get playoff necessary thoughness (and younger) Chuckie. Not all of the story nearly but another pretty neat move was getting Forsling who really turned the page. Good eye for constructing a sound roster to say the least.
@@heathclark318 Dubas is actually doing the right moves with the Pens right now. I think Shanahan might have been the real problem with the Leafs. And still is.
@@vipeholmskolan6052 Well last off seasons moves didnt pay off as they missed the playoffs. This off seasons is yet to be determined. And with the Crosby signing not done, it can all be undone with that alone. It will be interesting to see what happens. I dont disagree that Shanahan was the problem in Toronto, but Dubas was surely a part, but so is the fact its in Toronto and they havent won in nearly 60 years.
Kyle Dubas was trying to build the Leafs on skill and finesse. History shows time and time again that you can only overcome the other team with pure finesse if you have loads more of it than your opponent. Teams that win with toughness have enough finesse such that the toughness is sufficient to overcome the shortfall in skill. It is impossible to build a team with duchess overwhelming skill and finesse in the CAP era. Even before the Cap era, Stanley Cup champions had their share of tough guys. Contenders also need experience; Dubas signed aging veterans (it would worked better if Matthews and Marner had shown up for the 2020 playoffs). Not sure if Dubas will build a winner - if his analytics work🤔.
As owner/GM of the Brandon Wheat Kings Kelly McCrimmon kept them competitive and in the hunt for years so not really a surprise he's carried that over to the NHL
Winnipeg has the richest owner in the league. That should be a massive benefit, meaning Winnipeg could easily have the best facilities, pay their coaches the highest, invest heavily into amateur scouting, etc, etc, but instead David Thomson is a complete cheapskate and the team is a result of that
The anger level of Bill Zito when they lost those 3 consecutive games in the Final was something else. Wonder if some of that trickled down to the players? Anyway, definitely well deserved for Zito and Nill.
I’d put Yzerman above Brisebois, he built the Tampa Bay and kept the core players together before the left. Brisebois is just riding on Yzerman’s success, though his lowball offer to Stamkos this off season, is he really a top 10 GM?
@@Chaosmite Yzerman hired BriseBois one month into his tenure in Tampa. They built that team together. That's a fact. I have no opinion as to which one is better than the other though.
@Chaosmite i gotta laugh when there's all these people insisting that "tAmPa wOn OnLy BeCaUsE oF YzErMaN." yzerman built the 2019 team that got swept by columbus. except yzerman left the team in 2019 after TBL got swept by CBJ lol. and stepped down in 2018 (year 8 ) as the gm. it took 10 years after the rebuild for TBL to win the stanley cup. yzerman certainly built the tampa team that got swept by columbus in the 1st round in 2019. he did build the foundation for tampa, however it was JBB who finished the stanley cup structure with risk-taking trades. yzerman's tampa teams had all talent and no grit; JBB fixed that and boom 2 cups. any steve yzerman fans need to be reminded that steve as the GM didn’t win a cup with tampa, JBB did, twice. steve built a team for regular season success, JBB created a playoff team. steve hasn’t been able to deliver on either (as of yet, after year 5) in DET. this is just the facts. gotta love the internet, it makes people appear smarter than they really are. 🤡
Brisebois doesn't deserve much praise for his work, he inherited Yserman's masterpiece and has made several mistakes that have limited some of Tampa's potential. I think of what happened with the Jeannot and Sergachev trades as prime examples of why he should be lower ranked on this list, if not on this list at all.
Hurt the team to two cups? Let's not forget the trades before those two cups. And how can you rate the Sergachev trade after 1 month. He opened cap space to sign Guentzel, acquired a top 4 dman back, and a top prospect.... Not a fan of the Jeannot and Stamkos moves, but he worked with what he could during a no cap increase period.
@seanweatherson534 @jeffhembd9471 @grantp4022 yah, stevie got the core together, but it isn’t the core that wins cups, it’s the additions in today and tomorrow's NHL . look at the penguins when they won back to back; when damn near everyone got axed on the mgmt and coaching level, then the FO made trades to win back to back.look at STL where they were dead last midway through the 2019 season. depth is what wins championships. depth is what wins championships. JBB acquired maroon, bogosian, coleman, goodrow, shattenkirk, savard, schenn... as well as bellemare and perry and resigning bogosian this year.extended brayden point also. and yah's can’t forget to credit al murray. huge, underrated reason stevie's picks were on his radar in the 1st place. and by the way, JBB was the AGM the whole damned time from the get-go in 2010 when yzerman was brought on by owner jeff vinik. in tampa, JBB is more disliked than the commissioner gary. reality is , it's only by fairweather casuals who have no idea how roster construction and salary cap management works.
Kent Hughes is a very methodical GM. You can easily see how each moves or non-moves he makes are really smart. Being an agent is also very valuable for signing our players too. Top 3 GM in 3-4 years if Habs are successful in the upcoming years.
Armstrong has been god awful the past few years, Blues haven't done anything and it starts with their GM not changing up the roster when it needed one last year.
@@HarryRiceHockeyToo many NMCs, but thats his own fault, but id still take him over almost all of them. If covid wasnt a thing, and we happened to repeat, curious how that timeline would have looked.
@@HarryRiceHockey He's done incredibly well given that the Blues don't tank, and don't have top picks to work with. Their window is about to open again and then everyone will see why he's so good at his job.
I suspect that 1-2 years from now Utah GM Bill Armstrong will be on your list. Under horrible franchise circumstances he did a good job building up the team’s talent base. Now in a stable situation he’ll be able to do even better.
Great minds think alike, Bill Armstrong has done a super job considering the extreme difficulty he has faced in dealing with the worst owner in the NHL, along with all the arena questions.
2 месяца назад
Letting Stammer go, is a very bad look for Brisbois. Nashville, is going to be a force to be reckoned with, in the Central.
As a Capitals fan, I feel that Brian MacLellan should have been in the bottom half of the top 10. I'm not happy with the Wilson contract, and the Kuemper contract wasn't good. But the Capitals have so many more younger players than the Penguins who are going through a similar process to the Capitals of trying to remain competitive with an aging all time great on the team. And their moves this offseason were quite impressive. He's won a Stanley Cup, and he's handled having to give contracts to hometown favorites that contributed to that win. I don't fault him for overpaying for Kuznetsov and Backstrom to stay. He's done a really good job keeping the Capitals competitive after winning the Stanley Cup, and retooling them for the future without doing a full tear down rebuild. Other teams have the luxury of tearing everything down to rebuild, but he doesn't get to do that with Ovechkin around, and his ability to put a good Capitals team out there around an aging core is pretty impressive.
With how much the salary cap is projected to go up for the next few years, I really don't see how Wilson's contract will be a problem in any shape or form. If anything, the more I think about it, the more I fell like PLD's contract is not THAT big of a problem either. But maybe it's just me coping hard.
Agree with you. I am pretty impressed with how Mac has turned out. He was criticized by some of the long-timer Capitals hockey ops staff that got let go when Mac replaced McPhee and I was really worried, but things have turned out quite well. (As a for instance, I think Shawn Simpson called MacLellan one of the laziest guys working in hockey). Also, different front offices have different GM roles; some have POHO that do more work than others so the GM has to get less credit in their ranking here-Vancouver and Rutherford/Allvin is a prime example of that
Mac in his time in charge won the team a few presidents trophy a good amount of division titles and you could argue had the caps just had one or two more lucky bounces that they'd have more than One Stanley Cup. MacLellan deserves a lot more recognition for the job he did then people give credit for
Okay. Total oversight of Kevin Cheveldayoff of the Jets. He has made incredible trades. The Jets are always in the mix , year after year. Signed multiple team friendly deals. All this while operating out of the most undesirable market in the league according the NHLPA. He clearly deserves the #1 spot.
I am sorry but no Kevin Cheveldayoff? Rarely overpays players, is able to find some diamonds in the rough and most importantly is able to keep WPG a PO / fringe PO team even though it is basically impossible to sign big FA's there. Definitely give me Chevy over Yzerman
Carolina Hurricanes with a current league best 6 season post season series win streak (if including lockdown play-in series) including a few division championships and second or third best season records in the league seems top 10 worthy. A counter-argument of not having a conference finals win is valid however I'd have counterarguments it wasn't anything to discredit the Canes GM.
@@klompsauce With Carolina the combination of Rod as coach and drafting Svech at #2 helped setup the current 6 season playoffs streak. I don't know anything really about Columbus so I don't know what problems need to be fixed so I can't guess how long it would take. I'd bet a small sum that Don could get two playoff series wins at Columbus within 5 years.
Maybe Chevy should be on the 10th spot. He kept the Jets to be contenders for a while, and that's a very tough market to keep free agents or pending free agents. Lately he's made some very good trades.
@@jeffhembd9471 My only thing with him is he hasn't been able to put together a Stanley Cup favourite team, not since 2018. And I fear that we're not going to be as good this year as last year. But I'm talking all the times that he's been here.
@@jetswhiteout961 From afar he is impressive. He navigated through all those d hits ya'll took a few years ago. I loved the PLD trade to LA, he was right to move on from Wheeler. Only criticism I might have is how they seem to frustrate the young guys and don't incorporate them a touch faster. Overall, though, he is a high caliber GM IMHO.
I think Ken Holland with what he did in Edmonton, should be # 1 or 2. Agree that Jim Nill is in the top 2, with what he did in Dallas. I don't at all agree with where you have Brisbois, he's made some bad deals. I would replace Brisbois with Kevin Cheveldayoff, who has a very tough job, in a small market, and always has a very competitive team. He also hired Paul Maurice who was an underrated Coach, who just went to the last 2 Cup finals. List needs to be adjusted by the Hockey Guy to include Chevy. Comments below agree with me.
Kyle Davidson is highly underrated he inherited a terrible team with a terrible prospect pool. He has made the Blackhawks prospect pool top in the NHL. He has made trades that has worked out great. Jason Dickinson and a 2nd for Reilly Stillman, Lafferty for Alex Nylander, Lafferty and McCabe for a 1st and 2nd, Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno for Ian Mitchell, Mikheyev Lafferty signing rights for a 2nd DeBrincat for 1st turn to Korchinski a 2nd and a 3rd. Davidson has yes put to together last the worst team in Blackhawks history but honestly all those injuries were a big problem. This season youll see a massive upgrade of the Blackhawks scoring and defense and moving to Brossoit from Söderblom is massive upgrade.
This video made me think of and appreciate aspects of being a GM beyond team success, immediate gratification, and good or bad trades ("good" or "bad" being based on fan bias and immediate effects). Could you please do one on how a GM becomes qualified? Maybe you can go as far back as Toe Blake, Sam Pollock, Punch Imlach, and go into how Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic became GMs and what qualified them. I have seen players become coaches and then GMs (Bob Gainey). I have seen I have seen guys who hardly or never played become GMs (John Ferguson Jr). I saw Nobby Clarke and *Serge Savard IMMEDIATELY after hanging up the skates be appointed GM; what made them qualified? * John Ferguson coaxed Serge Savard out of retirement to be a stabilizing presence on a young Winnipeg Jets 1.1 defence (WHA Winnipeg Jets were 1.0 and today's Winnipeg Jets are 2.0 and I dream of them purchasing WHA history and becoming Winnipeg Jets 1.2)
Vegas fan here, obviously hoping Holtz will have a good season. Vegas has a pretty good track record with picking up low cost guys and getting the best out of them.
I think it’s only a matter of time before we see Davidson on here. Stepped into a messy situation with little future pieces and quickly shipped off the pieces he didn’t want and drafted the right players accompanied by the right signings. Not to mention the Hagel trade was such a win win
I was 100% against the move Zito made to trade Huberdeau and bring on Maurice. I was 150% wrong, and that cup this year is the icing on the cake. Zito knows what he's doing, at least for now.
@@leinbajr in the meantime, i’d rather have a potential #1 D than a 1 way sniper that camps the blue line. Gonna be funny looking at the Flyers in the next few years, had to give Gauthier for an underwhelming D prospect 😂
@@marcbabineau6001 Understood, but its still potential vs potential (the unknown, ib other words) and with the ownership change, the available cap in Utah can now be utilized. With all those picks as well, they are the ones one big trade away fro contending next yr, while Montreal has pretty much committed to another yr of mediocracy outside the playoffs.
@@saabviggen00 not really, they said they’re aiming for the playoffs, also they will have Dach back. Not to mention they will have around 30m available next off season if you count Prices LTIR
@@marcbabineau6001 n the East, p/o is unrealistic. Even if the NYI FALL OUT, THE njd WOULD BE FAVORED TO CLIMB IN AS WELL AS det. You can make a case for Bufto improve as well. In the West, with more have-nots, If they did swing a deal, Utah would face considerably less competition for the 8 seed. Thats why I'm not sure about THG citing Montreal, but omittin Utah. Next off season I might feel differently, just not right mpw. I think adding Sergachev really adds something there
I think you are underestimating Vancouver's new (since 2 years?) GM Alvin. He came into a hopeless situation with no cap space and many bad contracts while Vancouver at the same time was far from being a contender, and together they managed to turn Vancouver around completely in less than 2 years, which includes not just the players but also their new and great Coach Rich Tocchet (spelling?), the organisation and all of the coaching staff (many whom are former great players, and both in defense and offense) as well.
Thank you for giving credit where do, being a southern team and non Canadian we get overlooked by the be a genius n building the team over the last five years 😊
to me both him and Brian MacLellan deserved honorable mentions, Both of them are fairly solid in the moves they made, or should I say was with MacLellan making way for Chris Patrick
@@staffan144which team and GM are you referring to when you say 2nd to worst in the NHL? Chevy and the Jets finished 2nd in the entire West and had the fewest goals against in the entire league.
Although it’s self inflicted with the buyouts Bill Guerin having a team that’s 15m in dead cap still compete for playoffs and division titles (previous year got absolutely derailed by insane injuries) should say a lot. Trading for Faber’s rights, getting Kaprizov to the NHL, etc. History will be written by the outcome but he’s put that franchise in a place for the future to compete.
Kent Hughes has 1 more year of we’re finishing not quite at the bottom expectations, fans wouldn’t like the habs to finish bottom 5 again, but they would accept bottom 6-10, Montreal finishing just outside the playoffs would be surprising, only the fanatical ones are thinking this lineup has a shot to making the playoffs as a wildcard. Next season is when Montreal really need to step it up, you can’t voluntarily present a bad product indefinitely in this city.
I agree. When you take into consideration the condition the team and its horrible contracts/ IR issues when he took over to where they are now... they are on a great trajectory. When you rebuild primarily through the draft it takes longer to come to fruition, but it is a better formula for lasting success. His work offloading terrible contracts has been masterful.
I agree with you that the 2025-26 season is where the Habs should start making moves and get a UFA to fill a top 6 forward spot. As for the draft, don't forget that the Habs have Calgary's 1st round pick... and I wouldn't be surprised that Calgary ends up in the bottom 5. Great move by Hugues!
Armia, Dvorak and Savard are on their last year of contract thats 11.35 off the books, there is also 4.27 in retention ending in 24-25 for a grand total of 15.62 mil freed. If he can get rid of either Gallagher’s or Anderson’s contract (both would be dreaming) Hughes would have some serious cap space to build a contender.
@@EricGuevremont those conditions are quite complicated, but if I'm not mistaken, according to Puckpedia, it seems that Calgary's pick is only 1st overall protected: "If Calgary's own 2025 first (1st) round choice is a top-10 selection (following the determination of the 2025 NHL Draft lottery results), Montreal shall receive Calgary's 2025 first (1st) round choice, subject to the following condition below: 1) In the event Calgary's 2025 first (1st) round choice is the first (1st) selection overall in the 2025 NHL Draft (following the determination of the 2025 NHL Draft lottery results), Calgary will retain its own 2025 first (1st) round choice and Montreal shall instead receive Calgary's own 2025 third (3rd) round choice and a conditional 2026 first (1st) round choice."
I remember Ottawa hiring Jim Nill as an amateur scout one year before the Senators played their first game back in the fall of 1991. I wonder if he would have been a better GM than Mel Bridgman or Randy Sexton if he stayed with the Senators.
McFarland has been awesome, not his fault we are basically playing with a 13 mill handicap with Nukes off ice issues and Landeskogs injury. Hes added good depth but there is no way you can offset missing 2 top 6 forwards while still paying them
I know nobody cares about the Winnipeg Jets but Kevin Chevaldayoff has drafted really well for the most part and done about all you can do with -40 free agent interest. Cant think of many GMs I'd take over him in Winnipeg.
If (big if) the Sabres can make the playoffs this coming season, then I think that Kevyn Adams has a serious argument for 10th or perhaps higher. Going from bottom of the league in 2020 to pushing for a wildcard spot in 4-5 years is pretty significant, especially when it is tough to get players to come to Buffalo because of how long the team has been out of the playoffs.
With the seasons Kucherov and Hedman had, TB only needs Vasi to have a good season and they have a legit shot at another Cup. As much as it might hurt Lightning fans to admit it, Stamkos was no longer the driving force on this team.
@TopNic21 JBB is an excellent GM. tampa fans overall aren't exactly the brightest lightbulbs lol. during the best of times they are borderline braindead.
I think there has been quite a few smart gms recently I think Ken Holland should get an honorable mention too because if you at where the oilers were to now he's really built up the depth and going through the flat cap era it couldn't have been easy
I agree, looking at his resume in Edmonton as a whole, outside of the Jack Campbell and Darnell Nurse contracts and some sketchy drafting he did a good job, made some stellar moves. A lot of Oilers fans hated him, but they hate every executive lmao. Now it's all gone to hell with the Bowman hire, who knows what will come of that.
He is so boom and bust. Eckholm was a great trade, Hyman contract is one of the best in the league but Campbell was the most avoidable massive mistake in the history of the NHL.
@@jeffhembd9471 Tbf, horrible contracts (specifically for goalies) like that are signed all time time in this league. The Korpisalo contract Ottawa gave him last year was nearly as bad, the Elvis Merzlikens contract is similar in how bad it is and so on. Big ticket goalie contracts come with so much risk, I'm not sure why any organization would think they are a good idea.
@@devackroyd Those bad goalie contracts were all signed by bad GMs. Good GMs that didn't make this list like Sweeney, & Armstrong manage their goaltending contracts a lot more intelligently.
Chris Drury at 4th best because the team was good when he got here and he's done nothing since -- Nepo baby silver spoon stuff continues for Drury, falls backwards into a high rating
Thanks for Chris Drury. Even if he does Rentals Only at The Trade Deadline, which drives me crazy, LOL, I think that you have to Grade him on A Curve, given that Jeff Gorton left him in A Pickle with Jacob Trouba (which made him trade Pavel Buchnievich). Let me know what you think
Weird not seeing anyone talk about Jim Nill in the comments. Ill agree he has some questionable signings (Dumba) but i still believe hes cooking something great. Gotta see it all in that Stars off season review video, right?
Sweeney probably deserved a mention too Sometimes puzzling moves but they almost always work out Yeah the Mitchell miller stuff was embarrassing and his first draft gets memed to no end (thanks Chiarelli 🤦♀️) (apparently the stories go he wanted to keep Cassidy too but someone above him told him Cassidy was done)
I think Barry Trotz was a good coach and an even better GM, we’ll see if the moves they made this offseason will payoff for Nashville, sure these guys are older, but I’m sure that Trotz has a plan to keep the Predators competitive year in year out, kind of like Vegas.
I agree not top 10… yet. But he is on his way! He has proven to be a master already at moving large contracts and setting up a rebuild, his scouting staff and player development team has been very good so far (jury is still Out on our AHL coaching staff) Now it’s a wait and see how he develops the talent he’s acquired, how he builds his team and roster, and how he manages the cap. You cannot be top 10 GM till you have min 5 years in the seat IMO.
@@harlemsfinest I always thought Doug Wilson was overrated. He got handed a pretty good set up by Lumbardy made a couple really lucky moves and kind of rode that for almost 20 years Greer got a dumpster fire and he’s turning it into something quality and that takes more skill.
The Tyler Toffoli contract is a train wreck. 6 mill per year and he can't be traded unless he agrees to it. That is the type of contract a team who just won 2 rounds or more in the playoffs should give. It is not realistic the sharks will win the cup in the next 4 years so it is just wasted cap. Wennberg cant be traded either his first season. Grier has made some good moves but these 2 moves look silly.
Big fan of how Steen reinvented himself as a player, big part of 2019. Was thinking about the refusal of NTC for Pietro and then being fast and loose w NTC, does this put Armie in the bottom 10?
I think Armstrong is probably between 12-16. The defense situation is not great but the ntc was part of doing business in the lead up to the Seattle expansion and he was course correcting after making a mistake with Petrangelo and losing Bouwmeester unexpectedly. Drafting has been good.
@@yoholmes273not a Rangers fan, but for someone who has only been there for 3 years, and the teams relatively good performance, why so much negativity?
@@csolivais1979 Missed expectations partially, but also the core that got them so far isn't even his doing for the most part. Panarin, Zib, Fox, Shesty were all already there. I give him Trochek, but his deadline trades the past couple of years have mostly missed and not made the team better. I don't think he's bad mind you, but I wouldn't rank him 4th best GM in the NHL either.
why is colorado here they have like the least deep team ever 1 line of offense and the powerplay and the nhl gives them powerplays they don't actually deserve them as shown in R2 vs dallas with the no biasy at all by the NHL and TNT.
I’ve got to give props to Utah’s Bill Armstrong. Looking at the salary space the team has as well as their saved up future draft choices and the future is bright. Given the difficulty of dealing with the jackass former owner of the Coyotes Armstrong did the best he could have done. Now with Ryan Smith’s support the team should be fine.
No GM has a better record since 2015. His .667 is surely one of the best GM records in history 378-174-66 and during the salary cap era! To pretend like he’s a bottom half GM is crazy to me
@@quanchi371 His fate and legacy rely on what happens with swayman at this point. If he doesnt get a deal done with sway the fans will want his head on a pike.
@@quanchi371 Now do his playoff record. And his free agent signings. He has not had a single home run free agent signing in his entire tenure. His trades are half good, half bad. His drafting from 2015-2019 was horrific. He has one Eastern Conference Final appearance in his entire 10 year tenure. At some point you gotta say enough is enough
@Killerbeast-hx5qp LOL Speaking of playoffs: Kent Hughes - who's on this list - have literally never been to playoffs as a GM, and Barry Trotz - who's on this list too - never won a series as a GM, so... By post-season stats alone, Sweeney is still a Top 10 GM
