NHL power rankings: Ranking each general manager heading into 2019

The Good Tier

I don’t usually have a lot of good things to say about general managers, but these guys are easy to compliment.

10. Ray Shero (New Jersey Devils)

While it’s hard to ignore he only won one Stanley Cup with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Ray Shero has done a great job with the New Jersey Devils. Part of this is luck, but he’s taken advantage of opportunities when other general managers didn’t.

The Taylor Hall trade was simply brilliant, as was the Kyle Palmieri trade. While the Marcus Johansson trade didn’t work out, that was more due to Johansson’s health than anything else. I love the P.K. Subban trade.

Shero has also done a great job drafting, though it’s not hard to do that when you get two first overall picks. He’s made a lot of good moves recently. Now it’s time to see if they’ll pay off. Even if those moves don’t pay off, the Devils have a very bright future thanks to Shero.

9. George McPhee (Vegas Golden Knights)

Technically, he’s not the GM anymore. But I’ll count him since Kelly McCrimmon hasn’t really done too much yet and it’s clear to me McPhee is still the head honcho in the Golden Knights front office.

Last year, George McPhee would have been in the top five for me. His work so far this summer has knocked him down a few notches, but it’s hard to argue with his resume. McPhee turned an expansion team into a Stanley Cup contender in under 12 months.

He nailed the expansion draft, taking advantage of teams who overvalued certain players. The Mark Stone trade was brilliant, as was the subsequent extension. However, the Tomas Tatar trade doesn’t look good. Neither does the Nikita Gusev trade.

Still, McPhee has built a Stanley Cup contender from nothing. Despite his warts, he’s a very good general manager. It’s also worth noting McPhee acquired a good portion of the Washington Capitals roster that won the Stanley Cup in 2018. Speaking of which…

8. Brian MacLellan (Washington Capitals)

When Brian MacLellan got promoted to general manager after George McPhee got fired, I’ll admit I was skeptical as a Washington Capitals fan. I realize now those fears were not founded, as he has been great for the Caps.

MacLellan excels at trades. He’s made so many good ones, but the T.J. Oshie trade, Michal Kempny trade, and Nick Jensen trade stand out to me. MacLellan is perhaps a bit too trigger happy when it comes to signing players to extensions, but his objective right now is to win and worry about the long-term stuff after Alex Ovechkin is gone.

He stays the heck away from free agency most of the time, which is comforting. When MacLellan does dabble in free agency, he’s had success with guys like Matt Niskanen, Brett Connolly (twice), Nic Dowd, and Justin Williams. His drafting isn’t inspiring, but his strengths make up for his flaws.

7. Kyle Dubas (Toronto Maple Leafs)

So far, Kyle Dubas has been a great general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He’s done a great job drafting and has made impressive improvements to his roster. Dubas even talked John Tavares into taking a discount to come to Toronto last year. That’s a heck of a job.

Still, Dubas has a pretty clear weakness – negotiating. The Leafs haven’t gotten RFAs to take below market level deals to stay in Toronto. If you take a look around the league, other teams don’t have that issue. If I’m the Leafs, I’d toss money at the best negotiator I could find until they say yes. And let them run negotiations. Dubas is good at many things, negotiating isn’t one of them.

6. Don Sweeney (Boston Bruins)

Don Sweeney’s career with the Boston Bruins didn’t get off to a good start. The 2015 draft was abysmal for the Bruins, even though they still came away with Jake DeBrusk and Brandon Carlo. After that, Sweeney has settled in and has proven to be different than his precursor, Peter Chiarelli.

The Bruins are consistently among the league’s top teams. That said, how much of that is Sweeney and how much of that is Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak?