What I've never been able to understand is how almost every NHL team is committed to recycling old and tired GM's, no matter what there record is.
Surely there has to be some good young GM candidates out there just waiting for the chance to run an NHL team. But you look around the league and it's like deja vu all over again.
I guess the Canucks are fortunate that they went out and hired Jim Rutherford, who has the sense to pass to torch to younger people. He's installed Patrik Allvin as his everyday GM and hired some young, fresh aces in the hockey ops department.
And it shows.....according to the Athletic, the Canucks now have the fifth more efficient payroll in the entire NHL.
Let’s review the number of first time GMs current in the nhl:
Cal, Van, La, SJ, Ana, LV, Col, Dal, Nash, chi, Win, Min, Utah, Ott, Mon, Buf, Bos, TB, Fla, NYR, NJ, Philly, Was, Car.
The retreads are:
Det with Yzerman, Tor with Treliving, Pitt with Dubas, CBJ with Waddell, NYI with Lou, Edm with Bowman, Sea with Francis, StL with Armstrong (with a succession plan to hand over to first timer Steen).
So 1/4 are retreads. I think that’s a good ratio of retreads for the GM role. Of this 8, NYI needed the stability of Lou at the time, Yzerman had the TB glow, Waddell had a good run with Carolina.
Bowman has the resume but the baggage.
Dubas, Francis, Treliving, and Armstrong at the time you could make a case against them. Armstrong joined the blues after his Dallas stint and served under Pleau before taking over the job.