NHL: Ranking Each Team’s General Manager

To be fair to George McPhee, fans won’t be able to judge how he did until a few years from now. Grading him was extremely difficult because as a GM for an expansion team, he needs to be graded on a completely different scale than anyone else. Consider this more of an “incomplete” grade than a condemning of the job he’s done so far.

That said, McPhee had the chance to build a competitive team at the NHL expansion draft. And judging by his team’s record, he did. Although McPhee did get future assets for not putting together the best team he could, only time will tell if he made the right decisions.

Of all the new general managers, it’s perhaps hardest to judge Rob Blake of the Los Angeles Kings. This is because outside of a Tyler Toffoli extension, signing Mike Cammalleri and signing Darcy Keumper, he hasn’t done anything. But from the very limited sample size, Blake has been noticeably better at getting value from his contracts than Dean Lombardi. Of course, that’s like saying you’re a better analyst than Mike Milbury. But still, it’s something Kings fans can hang their hats on.

Jason Botterill perhaps came into the toughest situation of all the rookie general managers. Though he’s only been in charge for a little over a month, his work so far should be applauded. Botterill has improved the Buffalo Sabres blue line while not overpaying for anyone. The Marco Scandella trade was a thing of beauty.

Not only did he get a quality defenseman, he also got Jason Pominville, who, as Buffalo fans will tell you, can still carry a team while he’s hot. And all he gave up was Tyler Ennis and Marcus Foligno.

So far, John Chayka’s tenure as the Arizona Coyotes general manager has been a roller coaster ride. It’s had its ups and downs. Most of last season was part of the “downs” category, though Chayka should take a bow for the Martin Hanzal trade. So far, this offseason looks to be much better.

Credit him for taking advantage of his cap space to acquire Niklas Hjalmarsson from the Chicago Blackhawks, Derek Stepan from the New York Rangers and Antti Raanta from the Rangers. Moving on from Shane Doan was never going to be easy, and perhaps Chayka could have handled it better, but now’s the time to do it. And to be fair, there might not have been a “right” way to get rid of him.

Pierre Dorion’s first season as the Ottawa Senators’ general manager couldn’t have gone much better. He took a bold risk in hiring Guy Boucher and boy did it pay off. The Derick Brassard for Mika Zibanejad trade has been pretty much equal thus far. Ottawa made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals, nearly upsetting the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

But let’s pump the brakes a little bit. Dorion did do some bad things. Giving up a top prospect for Alexandre Burrows (and proceeding to extend him) wasn’t a smart move. Dorion might have overpaid Mike Condon, though that’s something only time will tell. He has yet to improve the Senators this offseason.

Congratulations Joe Sakic, you are the worst general manager in the NHL! Let’s see how he got this low. First of all, the Colorado Avalanche are almost completely devoid of talent and skill. When Nail Yakupov has a pretty good shot at making your team, that’s not a good sign. Sven Andrighetto is an exciting player, but he shouldn’t be playing first line minutes. With the Avalanche, he has.

Secondly, Sakic seems afraid to completely rebuild despite his team needing it. The Avalanche are going to stink until they do a fire sale. Sakic has yet to trade Matt Duchene and his trade market seems to be dying off. Maybe he’s guilty of valuing his center way too highly. But whatever the reason, keeping Duchene around is just going to make things awkward.

Sakic could be the next NHL general manager to be let go. At the very least, he probably deserves to be.

Ken Holland of the Detroit Red Wings is the second longest tenured general manager in the NHL. That might not be true for much longer. For a while, Holland has evaded criticism by having a very long leash. You tend to get those when your team consistently makes the playoffs. But now that the Red Wings aren’t a perennial playoff team, Holland’s errors are starting to become incredibly obvious.

Detroit has a number of awful contracts on their team. Jimmy Howard, Justin Abdelkader, Danny DeKeyser and Darren Helm are just a few of them. Holland is to blame for those contracts. One could justify Howard’s deal because he was good when he signed it. But the final three? There’s no justifying signing those guys. In today’s “what have you done for me lately” NHL, Holland’s future isn’t looking too good.

Dale Tallon has won a Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks, so it might be a bit surprising to see him this low. But this has more to do with what he has done with the Florida Panthers. Thus far, the team has made the playoffs once under him. For a while, despite not making the postseason, Tallon was doing a solid job by drafting very well. Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau come to mind.

But the past season was a farce for the Panthers. And Tallon has no one to blame for it but himself. Florida failed miserably with him in an executive position. Granted, it’s not his fault Barkov, Huberdeau and Nick Bjugstad each missed significant time with injuries. But the organization seemed to be in completely disarray and it’s hard to blame anyone but Tallon for that. He can redeem himself, as he was recently reinstated as the general manager. But so far, his moves aren’t looking good.

Jim Benning of the Vancouver Canucks is the punching bag of hockey twitter. He has a reputation of being one of the worst NHL general managers out there. For the most part, it’s a well deserved reputation. Trading Nick Bonino, Adam Clendening and a second round pick for Brandon Sutter didn’t work out too well. Canucks fans already want a mulligan on the Loui Eriksson contract and the ink on it only recently became dry.

As one of Benning’s biggest haters, allow me to say he’s been doing a much better job as of late. He seems to have finally committed to a rebuild. Benning has done a particularly good job in trades, getting his prospect pipeline full of some exciting players. He needs to keep doing smart things that rebuilding teams do in order to keep rising on this list. Next up on his to do list: Bo Horvat’s extension and sweet talking the Sedin twins into accepting a trade.

Kevin Cheveldayoff of the Winnipeg Jets might have been the hardest general manager to judge. One could make an argument that he’s above average and one could also make the argument he’s among the league’s worst. Let’s take a look at both sides.

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Working in his favor is how much talent the Jets have. Patrik Laine, Mark Scheifele, Jacob Trouba, Dustin Byfuglien, Blake Wheeler, Nikolaj Ehlers and Bryan Little is a core most general managers would be jealous of. Cheveldayoff deserves a ton of credit for putting this core together.

On the other hand, there are some very obvious problems with the Jets. The biggest ones are goaltending and coaching.

For a while, Cheveldayoff didn’t do anything to fix either. This offseason, he has signed Steve Mason, who is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. It’s baffling why Cheveldayoff hasn’t fired Paul Maurice yet. Better coaches have been fired for much less.

Don Sweeney‘s tenure with the Boston Bruins has basically been a continuation of Peter Chiarelli. He has drafted quite well, but it’s worth noting the scouts are probably more responsible for this than Sweeney. Under Sweeney, the Bruins have missed the playoffs once and had a first round exit.

The biggest issue with him is asset management. Sweeney doesn’t effectively value players, whether it be in trades or free agency. Signing David Backes was a baffling move at the time, and it’s even more baffling now. This is hindsight, but why the heck didn’t he trade Loui Eriksson? Get something for your (at the time) very good forward rather than lose him for nothing.

Sweeney’s fate will rely heavily on the young players the Bruins have drafted. Why? Because Boston has several huge roster spots to fill this offseason and the best player he has signed so far was in the AHL for most of last season.

Marc Bergevin immediately gets points deducted because the Montreal Canadiens are still following their outdated “must speak French” requirement for their head coaches. Habs fans will point out the team has generally been very competitive under Bergevin. And they’re right. But Bergevin’s moves lately have been awful.

No matter what you think of the P.K. Subban for Shea Weber trade, the Canadiens gave up a younger, more skilled defenseman for an older one. While Weber is still very good, it’s reasonable to question how much longer this will remain true. I’ll defend the Jonathan Drouin trade until the day I die, but giving up Mikhail Sergachev, the only other playmaking blue liner in the system, really hurts.

The Canadiens have about a two-year window to win a Stanley Cup. Bergevin sure isn’t acting like it, other than the inevitable Carey Price extension.

Jarmo Kekalainen of the Columbus Blue Jackets is an interesting guy to judge. Like many NHL general mangers, he has had his good moves and bad moves. But perhaps no one is more split down the middle in this category than Kekalainen. So let’s take a look at both sides.

Under “good moves”, Kekalainen has the Ryan Johansen for Seth Jones trade (and the latter’s subsequent extension). This is a rare trade which gave both teams precisely what they needed. Jones is a first pairing defenseman and looks to be a huge part of their team for years to come. Drafting Zach Werenski turned out to be a huge win (but let’s remember the scouts probably deserve more credit than Kekalainen).

Hiring John Tortorella (so far) has been a pretty big win. Fans of the Rangers and Canucks will remind everyone Torts looked good at first for their respective teams as well, but wound up being bad. Sergei Bobrovsky probably should have gotten a longer extension, but so far, so good.

Now his bad moves. Nathan Horton for David Clarkson was a terrible move. Jack Johnson’s contract looks awful (though at least there’s only a year left). Trading for Brandon Saad just to trade him again is weird. Jarmo has done more good than bad, but the bad is still pretty bad.

Ray Shero has been pretty darn good for the New Jersey Devils so far. During his tenure, they have drastically improved their skill, acquiring Kyle Palmieri, Taylor Hall and Marcus Johansson via trade. And Shero gave up a total of two second round picks, two third round picks and Adam Larsson to get them.

But here’s the problem. Shero has yet to address a blue line in desperate need of some help. Before Oilers fans start talking about Larsson, this was an issue even before the Hall trade. Losing out on Kevin Shattenkirk this offseason really hurt them. Shero needs to find a way to upgrade the blue line more than by adding one young defenseman.

Peter Chiarelli of the Edmonton Oilers gets trolled nonstop for trading away number one picks. He deserves to be, but he’s better than most people think. With the Oilers, Chiarelli turned the butt of all NHL jokes into a playoff team that nearly made it to the Western Conference Finals. Of course, it’s worth noting Connor McDavid is very responsible for this. And Chiarelli had nothing to do with getting him, other than being smart enough to draft a generational superstar.

Fans will get to see just how good he is in the next few years. Connor McDavid is worth every penny of what he got paid. But now Chiarelli has to built the right team around him. Oilers fans should be optimistic, as he’s managed to get Patrick Maroon, Zack Kassian and Cam Talbot, each for very reasonable prices.

But Chiarelli still has a major flaw. He just can’t get the big trades right. Small trades, Chiarelli is darn good at those. He’s proven this. But big trades? Yikes. And guess what? Most likely, these are the kinds of trades Chiarelli will have to make.

Garth Snow might be the most typical NHL general manager out there. He has his great moments and he has his bad ones. A lot of Islanders fans want him gone, but Snow is probably better than most of those who want him gone believe.

Whether you hate or love him, you have to admit he keeps things interesting. Snow pulls the trigger on trades quite a bit. His best one might have been getting Mathew Barzal and a second round pick, which he traded to get Anthony Beauvillier in the first round, for a failing defenseman in Griffin Reinhart. The Jordan Eberle trade was brilliant.

But ironically, Snow tends to not pull the trigger when he probably should. The Travis Hamonic trade only net the Islanders draft picks. That’s not what a team who’s hoping to persuade John Tavares to sign an extension needs. Maybe Snow uses those draft picks to get someone like Matt Duchene or James van Riemsdyk. But for now, he’s as frustrating as ever. Which makes him the most average and typical NHL general manager out there.

Doug Armstrong is like Baby Bear’s porridge in Goldilocks. He’s not too hot (good) or cold (bad). Armstrong is just right (average). He has his faults, but he has also done quite a bit of good things. Armstrong was perhaps a bit too loyal to Ken Hitchcock. And going into the 2016-17 NHL season with his inevitable replacement (Mike Yeo) lurking in the background had the outcome everyone (but Armstrong) saw coming.

The T.J. Oshie trade was a bad one for him. Yes, Troy Brouwer did very well in the NHL postseason for them. But ask any NHL general manager, if their contracts were equal, who they would rather have and 31 of them would say “Oshie”. The Brayden Schenn trade is one that time will have to judge, but right now, it’s looking fairly good.

Armstrong deserves credit for building up an impressive blue line. And getting Colton Parayko for five years at a cap hit of under $6 million is highway robbery. Jake Allen is under team control for a pretty nice price. But under Armstrong, the Blues have usually been on the fringe of greatness. And there might not be a more frustrating place to be.

Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers has done a very good job since taking over. He has minimized awful moves (signing Dale Weise remains his lone terrible decision) while purging the team of a majority of its awful contracts. Hextall became the general manager a month after the horrendous Andrew MacDonald extension, so you can’t blame him for that one.

His concept of having a goalie tandem is nice. Having one that is very inexpensive is even better. Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth should be a pretty competent duo. They could be even better than Steve Mason and Neuvirth in the 2015-16 NHL season. Of course, they could also be awful. But the Flyers won’t be paying them much money regardless, so it’s hard to hate the idea. Hextall has done a pretty good job, but needs to start doing more things that help the franchise directly.

Chuck Fletcher is a fairly polarizing figure among NHL general managers, but he has built a pretty consistent contender. Has he done it in the most efficient manner? No. But credit Fletcher for making his strategy of lots of expensive contracts and lots of inexpensive ones work. It might blow up in his face, but it’s hard to argue with results.

Fletcher’s worst deal might be a tie between Jason Pominville’s extension and trading for Martin Hanzal. Hanzal isn’t the kind of guy who’s going to turn you into Stanley Cup champions and the Wild gave up way too much for him. Even Fletcher admitted he didn’t like the deal.

Jeff Gorton took over the New York Rangers in 2015. Since being hired, he’s made some pretty good moves and some pretty awful ones. One of his worst moves is continuing to employ head coach Alain Vigneault. He’s clearly not the guy who’s going to maximize the Rangers roster as necessary to win a Stanley Cup. Repeatedly bringing back subpar players who Vigneault consistently played over better players has been bad for Gorton as well.

But he’s also made some very good moves. The Mika Zibanejad for Derrick Brassard trade seems to be at worst a break even trade. If you factor in the former is younger than the latter, the Rangers won the trade. Signing Kevin Shattenkirk was a brilliant move. Getting Nick Holden for a draft pick seems to be a win for the Rangers.

Whether it’s fair or not, Gorton will be judged by whether or not the Rangers win a Stanley Cup during his tenure. Such is life for NHL general managers.

Doug Wilson is the third longest tenured NHL general manager. He’s been in charge of the San Jose Sharks since 2003. Under Wilson’s guidance, the Sharks have made the postseason in each season except for the 2014-15 season. They have four Western Conference Finals appearances, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance during the 2015-16 NHL season.

He gets huge points for the Joe Thornton trade, which is still one of the best trades in recent memory. But Wilson does get docked points for nearly trading Thornton and Patrick Marleau. However, the Brent Burns trade probably washes out that farce.

Bonus points for Wilson trolling the Los Angeles Kings by trading for Martin Jones and using a third party (the Boston Bruins) to do it. That’s hilarious.

Brad Treliving has built an impressive core with the Calgary Flames. They now have one of the best blue lines in the NHL. While Treliving probably overpaid for Travis Hamonic, it’s justifiable because the Flames were always going to be a top four defenseman heavy team. So why not make the top four even better?

Treliving has the Johnny Gaudreau contract to be proud of. He has the Mark Giordano extension and Dougie Hamilton trade to be happy about as well. And Treliving gets points for solving the goaltending issue in a market devoid of quality ones. Mike Smith and Eddie Lack should be a good enough tandem for the Flames to be serious Stanley Cup contenders.

The biggest blemish on his record? Troy Brouwer.

Ron Francis of the Carolina Hurricanes is someone fans might be surprised to see in the top 10. But looking at his track record so far, it’s hard to argue there are 10 NHL general managers better than him. After taking over for Jim Rutherford, Francis has drastically improved the Hurricanes, turning them into a playoff contender.

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Francis has done this by doing an outstanding job with asset valuation. He gets his young guys signed to long-term deals, and he finds a way to pay them below market value prices. Jaccob Slavin is a terrific example of this. Quietly, the Hurricanes have built one heck of a defense. And with Scott Darling in goal, Carolina might finally have solved their goaltending issue which has plagued them for nearly a decade.

If you want to nitpick, you could argue Francis still hasn’t acquired a franchise center. But he has the assets necessary to get one if one becomes available. And to be fair, maybe the Hurricanes, the way they are built, don’t need a true number one center. They might just need a bunch of good ones. Not an awful strategy to use.

Stan Bowman of the Chicago Blackhawks is a very hard NHL general manager to judge. On one hand, he’s won three Stanley Cups. Hard to argue Bowman’s moves didn’t play a huge part in each of them. But on the other hand, since winning the Stanley Cup during the 2014-15 NHL season, all the Blackhawks have done are two first round exits.

To be fair to Bowman, he’s had to do some very tough moves because of the Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane contracts. And let’s be real, Bowman would have been blasted had he not gotten them re-signed. But all things considered, he does a mighty fine job of navigating the dark waters of the NHL salary cap.

Bob Murray took over for the Anaheim Ducks in November of 2008. Since then, he has turned them into perennial contenders. Murray has done very well despite often having to operate under a very strict budget. His list of good moves is far longer than his bad moves list.

While the Ryan Kesler extension will eventually look horrible, so far, it’s going better than expected. And that move has certainly made them more competitive. The Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry extensions both look excellent, even as both are slowly starting to show their respective ages.

Brian MacLellan was arguably a top five NHL general manager before briefly having a brain fart this offseason. First, he misjudged the NHL expansion draft and it cost him valuable young defenseman Nate Schmidt. That’s fine though, every GM makes mistakes.

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But he followed it up by re-signing 30 year old forward T.J. Oshie to an eight-year deal. Finally, MacLellan failed to assert his leverage over Evgeny Kuznetsov, which ended in the young star center getting more money than he expected. This led the Capitals to having to trade Marcus Johnasson for a second and third round pick.

Despite mishandling things in the 2017 NHL offseason, the Capitals have two President Trophies during his tenure. That’s really hard to argue with. It took MacLellan three years to make a crippling move, and that’s a lot longer than most general managers in his situation have taken to do so. He does quite well in trades, but the Brooks Orpik contract looks awful.

Jim Nill is arguably the best NHL general manager when it comes to trades. He’s won many more than he has lost. Let’s take a look at some of his best moves. Nill has gotten Tyler Seguin, Marc Methot, Ben Bishop, and Patrick Sharp in trades over the past few seasons. He paid below market value for each of them.

Another impressive thing about Nill is when he goes all in, he pushes in all of his chips. Most NHL general managers don’t. Signing Martin Hanzal and Alex Radulov should make their forward group among the best for the next two seasons. Nill’s greatest flaw? He tends to be bad at tinkering. But looking at his track record of success, it’s hard to argue against what he has accomplished.

The Toronto Maple Leafs finally have a competent front office. It took them about a decade to find one, but the Leafs are now in very good shape. A majority of their success has come from doing a perfect job tanking, acquiring assets and draft picks and using said draft picks wisely.

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They hit grand slams with their last four first round picks, netting William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews in the process. It’s too early to judge Timothy Liljegren, but if he didn’t have mono last season, he likely would have been a top five pick.

Of course, the Leafs front office is still flawed. They value guys like Matt Martin and Roman Polak a bit too much. But every front office has its flaws and the Leafs find a way to minimize theirs. Toronto gets bonus points for being really creative with their salary cap situation and contracts.

Steve Yzerman of the Tampa Bay Lightning should probably be the Detroit Red Wings general manager. But such is life. Instead of helping the same team he captained for so many years, Yzerman is working for a division rival. And he’s proven to be nearly as good of an NHL general manager as he was a player.

Yzerman is really good at utilizing leverage. He somehow gets players to sign pretty cheap contracts. And Yzerman gets a lot of bonus points for handling the Jonathan Drouin situation flawlessly. Most would have traded him for pennies on the dollar. Yzerman made it work and wound up getting a top defenseman prospect once he got too expensive.

However, he does have some bad moves on his resume. The Ryan Callahan extension looks terrible, and that’s being nice. Extending Braydon Coburn doesn’t look smart either. Tyler Johnson’s deal is a pretty big risk. But overall, Yzerman has done far more great things than bad things. Which is all you can ask for from an NHL general manager.

Jim Rutherford of the Pittsburgh Penguins has led his team to consecutive Stanley Cup championships. And he deserves a ton of credit for doing so. In particular, Rutherford’s moves during the 2015-16 season propelled them to become the first time in the post-2005 lockout era to repeat as champions. In two years of being the general manager, he’s done much more to help the Penguins than harm them.

Some of his best moves include trading for Phil Kessel, trading for Trevor Daley and trading for Carl Hagelin. Nick Bonino was also an excellent acquisition by the Penguins. They are clearing drafting well, getting contributions from their farm system courtesy of guys like Conor Sheary and Jake Guentzel.

However, even the second best NHL general manager is flawed. Rutherford believes the Penguins need to get “tougher”. Hence why the Penguins traded for Ryan Reaves, giving up a first round pick in the process. Why would he think this after seeing his team’s skill carry his team to consecutive Stanley Cup titles?

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That is the lone hiccup of Rutherford’s tenure with the Penguins. Their front office is excellent and is one of the first to include a position for hockey analytics. This should ensure the Penguins continue to be one step ahead of the rest of the NHL.

David Poile of the Nashville Predators is the longest tenured NHL general manager. He’s literally the only GM the Predators have ever known, as he’s been with them since they became a franchise in 1997. Poile has stuck with the team for so long because he hasn’t done anything to warrant being fired.

He rarely makes bad moves. In fact, the only terrible one in recent years was re-signing Mike Ribeiro. And even then, doing so didn’t really hurt the Predators much at all. The Shea Weber contract could have ended poorly, but Poile traded him for P.K. Subban, a much better fit for the team.

The Predators are extremely good at getting players to sign cheap long-term extensions. Poile is also great at trades, winning more often than he loses. His best trade? The Forsberg trade. Also worth noting – the Jones for Johansen trade gave Nashville a top center for the first time in franchise history.

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General managers in the NHL are very prone to making mistakes. That’s why Poile’s tendency to avoid mistakes is extremely impressive. To top it all off, he often has to work with a strict budget, though that’s changing thanks to the Predators’ success. No general manager does more to help his team than Poile.