Top 5 best GMs currently

[PAZ]

Anyone who has GMDA in their top 5 should have GMBA in there instead. Has clearly shown that he's a major reason for the blues success and has done an excellent job with Arizona/Utah.

He was AGM for 2 seasons and the Blues drafting hasn't missed a beat since he's been gone.

Was he part of the success? Sure. Does he get the credit over D. Armstrong? Not even close.

 

[Rorschach]

I've never thought of GMs as simply great on their own. It's more about the GM and the owner's relationship.

 

[Haatley]

Thanks, we will! I'm sure you'll go into hiding if he does well.

Imagine going and laughing at every post a guy makes because you're mad at what he said about Laine.

 

[waitin425]

Kent Hughes is making deals that would put him in the top 5. Until we start seeing the fruits of that labor, by way of success, I will refrain from including him.

Nill
Chevy - That PLD trade was a masterclass
Zito
McCrimmon
Sweeney

These are my current top 5.

 

[banks]

No joke, I think getting Askarov puts Mike Grier in contention at the moment. Maybe not top 5, admittedly. But somewhere close.

Zito should be #1.

 

[Nogatco Rd]

Maybe just in general, we have an overly romanticized picture that being a GM is only making trades, signing players, and drafting prospects.

I remember reading an anecdote where some writer was interviewing the Washington Wizards GM and they were interrupted when his secretary showed up with some paperwork that needed his signature. The writer asked what the papers were for and the GM said it was something like authorization to pay for sports bras for the WNBA team.

Not sure if Ernie Grunfeld is the GM you're referencing, but I think he was at one point the longest tenured GM in the NBA, and that certainly wasn't for his drafting or personnel acumen.

Ted Leonsis owns the Wizards and the Caps, and is notorious in the DMV area for only really caring about the Caps being successful. He always seemed satisfied with the Wiz being a middling organization, who drew well enough to help pay the bills at his arena.

 

[Hins77]

I would say, this is not because a team is at the bottom of the standings, than this is easier for a GM. I mean Ottawa and Buffalo? Im still waiting. At one point, a GM need to build something. Ottawa getting chychrun, sanderson, chabot? For me this is 3 same kind of defensemen. Why?
Buffalo have a lot of tiny forward, why?
Montreal started their rebuild way after theirs and I consider them very close.
And good GM knows when make trades, bet when the values is at the highest (or lowest). the timming, the bluffing part.
Also, I don’t think it’s because your team make playoff, that your team has a good GM. I hated Marc Bergevin even if we were making playoff. He was not able to build a team, he was keeping 1st round pick when Price was the best goalie in the league, he was litterally a passive GM. I could continue the list. Anyway, a good GM to me is a good poker face, he knows when to buy, when to sell etc.
Don Waddell was a good GM in carolina. Losing many players (faulk, hamilton, trochek, niedereitter, etc. And still being competitive. Good GM takes best choice possible even tough one.

 

[bringbacktheskate604]

Zito, McCrimmon, Nill, Sweeney, Hughes

Sorry but Hughes belongs nowhere on that list, Allvin should tho.

Drafting and accumulatig picks is easy,every GM does it and it means absolutely nothing until all that work culminates into a winning team.

I mean all those lottery picks and trades of stalled former high picks might look good one day but as of right now every single pick from Slaf to Caufield and everything in between has yet to do anything of significance, Dach has been nothing but glass, Dvorak was a flop and Newhook was meh in his first season.

Personally missing out on Cooley and Matvei was a huge blunder and Reinbacher imo should have been the 3rd dman off the board after Willander and the guy the yotes picked.

Meanwhile in less time Allvin has catapulted Vancouver up the standings, completely rebuilt the culture, went from the team with one of the worse cap structures to arguably one of the teams with the most efficient cap structure in the league. Doing all of this while going from the worst prospect pool to an average one while improving the team and lowering the average age of the club.
Him, Zito and Nill right now are the top 3 imo

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Sorry but Hughes belongs nowhere on that list, Allvin should tho.

Drafting and accumulatig picks is easy,every GM does it and it means absolutely nothing until all that work culminates into a winning team.

I mean all those lottery picks and trades of stalled former high picks might look good one day but as of right now every single pick from Slaf to Caufield and everything in between has yet to do anything of significance, Dach has been nothing but glass, Dvorak was a flop and Newhook was meh in his first season.

Personally missing out on Cooley and Matvei was a huge blunder and Reinbacher imo should have been the 3rd dman off the board after Willander and the guy the yotes picked.

Meanwhile in less time Allvin has catapulted Vancouver up the standings, completely rebuilt the culture, went from the team with one of the worse cap structures to arguably one of the teams with the most efficient cap structure in the league. Doing all of this while going from the worst prospect pool to an average one while improving the team and lowering the average age of the club.
Him, Zito and Nill right now are the top 3 imo

“means absolutely nothing until all that work culminates into a winning team.”

Remind me what Vancouver has won again (you can go back 100 years if you want)

 

[DJJones]

Not sure if Craig Conroy exactly fits a best GM description but he's doing a fine job of dismantling the mediocre Flames and trading older assets for younger players, prospects, and picks. At best, he should garner some praise for his ability to talk ownership into letting him do it because if there ever was an ownership group more adverse to going ahead with a serious rebuild I'd be interested in knowing who they are.

He needs to complete the rebuild before he comes anywhere close to top 5. This was the easy part but he has shown great patience.

The focus on keying on depth prospects/RFAs on other teams that he thinks are undervalued is very much a sink or swim strategy. If he hits on more than he misses on those guys he's going to look like a genius. Bahl, Sharangovich, Miromanov, the long name guy from Vancouver.

Not sure if that would be him or our scouting staff but either way, if he can pull that off it's huge.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

Sorry but Hughes belongs nowhere on that list, Allvin should tho.

Drafting and accumulatig picks is easy,every GM does it and it means absolutely nothing until all that work culminates into a winning team.

I mean all those lottery picks and trades of stalled former high picks might look good one day but as of right now every single pick from Slaf to Caufield and everything in between has yet to do anything of significance, Dach has been nothing but glass, Dvorak was a flop and Newhook was meh in his first season.

Personally missing out on Cooley and Matvei was a huge blunder and Reinbacher imo should have been the 3rd dman off the board after Willander and the guy the yotes picked.

Meanwhile in less time Allvin has catapulted Vancouver up the standings, completely rebuilt the culture, went from the team with one of the worse cap structures to arguably one of the teams with the most efficient cap structure in the league. Doing all of this while going from the worst prospect pool to an average one while improving the team and lowering the average age of the club.
Him, Zito and Nill right now are the top 3 imo

Dvorak was a BargainBin blunder.

 

[Czechboy]

Remind me what Vancouver has won again (you can go back 100 years if you want)

Come on now. Be reasonable. They swept the oilers in the season series last year. Demolished us in fact.

If Demko had been healthy they also would have won the Cup. Everyone knows that!

 

[TheGroceryStick]

Dubas, duh

 

[Voight]

Zito, BriseBois, Nill, Trotz, McCrimmon, Francis

Really? Seattle had a good run last year but Francis hasn't been very good overall.

Allvin has basically just found ex Pens staff and players to sign which feels more like JR pulling strings. I don't put him in that group at all yet.

Zito, Nill, Armstrong (Blues), the last two are a toss up between 3-5 others I think. Hughes would be one but that pick of a pos that shouldn't have a career stops me from ever picking him as a top 5.

Sure hes overseeing a rebuild, but IMO Hughes shouldn't be in the top 5. You can collect as many picks or prospects as you want, but if none of them work out then it's really not that impressive.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Hughes would be one but that pick of a pos that shouldn't have a career stops me from ever picking him as a top 5.

Who are you talking about?

 

[Xirik]

Who are you talking about?

Mailloux

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Who are you talking about?

A Habs poster already cleared it up. Bergevin drafted the little pos. Hughes should have cut him loose though.

 

[Xirik]

A Habs poster already cleared it up. Bergevin drafted the little pos. Hughes should have cut him loose though.

Some would take offense to that.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

A Habs poster already cleared it up. Bergevin drafted the little pos. Hughes should have cut him loose though.

That is very very dramatic

 

[FoxYou727]

1. McCrimmon
2. Zito
3. Chevy
4. Armstrong
5. Sweeney

 

[PajamaBoy]

Damn u would think everyone had a good gm lol. Useless thread

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

The fact that the Oilers were looking at Zito then got all wet when Holland became available irritates me to no end. That some of these jokers are still employed really highlights everything.

 

[TheNewEra]

1. Zito
2. McCrimmon

gap

3/4. Nill/Sweeney

gap

the rest is just recency bias

 

[CTHabsfan]

Sorry but Hughes belongs nowhere on that list, Allvin should tho.

Drafting and accumulatig picks is easy,every GM does it and it means absolutely nothing until all that work culminates into a winning team.

I mean all those lottery picks and trades of stalled former high picks might look good one day but as of right now every single pick from Slaf to Caufield and everything in between has yet to do anything of significance, Dach has been nothing but glass, Dvorak was a flop and Newhook was meh in his first season.

Personally missing out on Cooley and Matvei was a huge blunder and Reinbacher imo should have been the 3rd dman off the board after Willander and the guy the yotes picked.

Meanwhile in less time Allvin has catapulted Vancouver up the standings, completely rebuilt the culture, went from the team with one of the worse cap structures to arguably one of the teams with the most efficient cap structure in the league. Doing all of this while going from the worst prospect pool to an average one while improving the team and lowering the average age of the club.
Him, Zito and Nill right now are the top 3 imo

Valid point about trades and draft picks meaning nothing until you win, which is why Kent Hughes shouldn't be listed as a top-five GM at this time. Too bad you then state missing out on Cooley and Matvei (or at least not drafting Simashev or Wilander) was a huge blunder when Cooley outscored by Slafkovsky and none of the four mentioned 2023 draftees has played a single NHL game. If it's too soon to say Kent Hughes is a great GM, isn't also too soon to say he made huge mistakes with his 2022 and 2023 first-round picks?

Oh, I see that someone has already corrected you about Christian Dvorak, but it should also be noted Cole Caufield was not a Hughes pick. Caufield did play a lot better once Marc Bergevin's coach was fired and replaced by a Kent Hughes/Jeff Gorton hire.

 

[bossram]

Any GM of a rebuilding team should pretty much be disqualified. It's easy to tear down a team. That's the easy part of the competitive cycle. Until teams like MTL, SJ, etc. actually make the playoffs, they haven't really accomplished anything.

Also LOL to Chevy. They need to win a round this decade before he's upgraded from mediocre.

Number 1 is Zito with a bullet. After that I would probably go some combo of Nill, Brisebois, Sakic/MacFarland, McCrimmon, and Allvin.