San Jose Sharks GM Doug Wilson was snubbed of GM of the Year

The NHL has announced its three finalists for the general manager of the year award. San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson’s name was undeservedly absent.

Every season, the NHL gives out the General Manager Of The Year Award. Recently, the league announced the three finalists for the 2018-19 season – Don Sweeney of the Bruins, Doug Armstrong of the Blues, and Don Waddell of the Hurricanes. San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson‘s name was surprisingly absent on this list, as he should have been at least a finalist and arguably should have won.

Looking at the finalists, Waddell and Sweeney are deserving. The former changed the culture in Carolina and got the Hurricanes back to the postseason. Also, Waddell made two brilliant trades – Victor Rask for Nino Niederreiter, and Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm for Dougie Hamilton and Micheal Ferland (plus Adam Fox who was later traded for a draft pick). He warrants credit for hiring Rod Brind’Amour as head coach as well.

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Sweeney nailed the trade deadline. Charlie Coyle and Marcus Johansson have been perfect fits with the Bruins, giving them the depth required to make an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final. Jaroslav Halak was a terrific signing, as he helped Tuukka Rask stay fresh for the postseason. Sweeney has grown a lot since botching the 2015 NHL Draft.

However, Wilson should have been a finalist over Armstrong. The Blues general manager deserves credit for trading for Ryan O’Reilly and signing Pat Maroon, David Perron, and Tyler Bozak. He also deserves credit for catching lightning in a bottle by having Craig Berube replace Mike Yeo.

My issue with Armstrong is this – where would the Blues be without Jordan Binnington? How much credit does the general manager really deserve for their turnaround? I’d give Binnington and Berube more credit for the Blues turnaround than Armstrong.

Meanwhile, Wilson significantly improved the Sharks over the past year. During the summer, he nearly convinced John Tavares to come to San Jose. Next, Wilson showed his wit by getting a better return for Mike Hoffman than the Ottawa Senators did, facilitating a three-way trade with the Florida Panthers. He even managed to dump Mikkel Boedker‘s deal in the process.

Next, Wilson signed Tomas Hertl to a long-term deal. At the time, a $5.625 million cap hit seemed a bit pricey. But Hertl was a key player for the Sharks and keeping him around was necessary. He showed why by having a career season with 35 goals and 74 points. Even though Hertl’s production likely won’t be this good again, he’s at worst an extremely useful top-six forward.

Wilson also signed star center Logan Couture to an extension a year ahead of his potential free agency. Couture is one of the NHL’s most underrated players and might be the league’s best postseason performer.

Stars who consistently raise their game in the playoffs are hard to find. Couture’s one of them. The Sharks will likely regret Couture’s eight-year deal worth $8 million eventually. But that time isn’t coming any time soon.

Wilson’s best move, however, came in September. He traded for two-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson and the most valuable thing he parted with was a first-round pick. Wilson knew the Sharks had the depth to make up for the losses of Chris Tierney and Dylan DeMelo, who were included in the trade.

Next, Wilson added Gustav Nyquist at the trade deadline. At the time, this raised a few eyebrows. But Wilson’s looking pretty smart now for doing so. Nyquist helped the Sharks replace Joe Pavelski while he was injured in the postseason.

There are only three blemishes on Wilson’s resume over the past year, and they are relatively minor. The first is Evander Kane‘s long-term deal he signed in the summer. San Jose is going to regret the deal. But keep in mind, Wilson’s objective this season was to win. Signing Kane clearly helped them accomplish this objective, so he deserves a pass.

The second blemish is a move he didn’t make. I’ll never understand why Wilson didn’t make an effort to upgrade his goaltending at the trade deadline. Even trading for someone like Brian Elliott would have been better than sticking with Martin Jones and Aaron Dell.

To be fair, Jones has rewarded Wilson’s faith in him with a solid postseason. He hasn’t been as good as he has been in the past, but he’s made key saves and has been good enough for the Sharks to win.

San Jose wouldn’t be in the Western Conference Final right now if it wasn’t for Jones’ legendary effort in the double-overtime win against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 6, during which he stopped 58 of their 59 shots he saw.

Wilson deserves criticism for claiming Michael Haley on waivers. However, let’s be honest. Wilson’s far from the only GM who still values people whose best skills involve hitting and punching people. Maybe he needs to be a bit more of a jerk to head coach Peter DeBoer and take away the toy (Haley) he’s misusing. But if that’s the worst move Wilson has made, he must be doing a pretty good job. If you’re mad about Haley, the guy to be mad at is DeBoer, not Wilson.

So even if you nitpick his mistakes, they’re not even that bad. Don’t ask me how he still had any faith in Jones after he failed to stop 90% of the shots he saw in the regular season, but I suppose this is why he’s a general manager and I’m not.

It’s difficult to evaluate who should win the General Manager Of The Year award, mainly because often times, moves take more than a year to look good. But it’s hard to argue any general manager improved his team more than Wilson did. And if that isn’t good enough to be a finalist for an award given out to the best general manager, maybe it’s time to start re-evaluating how we evaluate general managers.