Which GM hire was most damaging for their team?

[Colt.45Orr]

Don Sweeney. Inherited an insane core and somehow has left the pipeline worst than when he started. 2015 draft will haunt Boston for 15 years. He traded away pre-prine Dougie Hamilton to get those picks too.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

The fact that Milbury has only been named twice is disappointing. That man had better be grateful that social media didn’t exist back then.

I’m reasonably certain that Milbury is not capable of exercising gratitude

The best anecdote in Terry Ryan’s biography (1995 8oa, ten career games, now plays Hitch in Shoresy) is that he was aggressively badgered by Milbury at draft interviews, with Mike laying into him without the Isles even being interested in taking him. Milbury asks him if it was 10 minutes to curfew and Ryan was trying to make it with a girl, would he do the deed and be late or take the 10 minutes drive back home? Ryan said he’d take 5 minutes to f*** the girl and then speed back as fast as he could.

 

[CBJx614]

It's Milbury, absolutely without question.

...but I'm convinced that Doug "I Drafted Rick Nash" MacLean is a strong contender for runner-up. Hired as team president, and insisted on appointing himself as GM and at one point even as coach (yes, all three jobs simultaneously). Good at sales pitches and occasionally spotting front office talent (when he wasn't hiring yes-men), but such a massive egotist that he overruled and micromanaged them all the time. Columbus exists as a franchise in spite of him.

Came here to post this. Overriding scouts picks in the draft as well.

 

[Ace]

Kevyn Adams first action was to gut the hockey department and after five offseasons sits in last place.

What are we doing here?

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

Don Sweeney

Don't discount the culture that Boston has built, plus the drafting of McAvoy and Pastrnak with later picks. He has done a bunch of mistakes but also has done a few shrewd moves.

Wilson in his final 5 seasons with san jose

It's crazy watching teams reward older players with retirement contracts while Vegas just gets rid of anyone the minute they are not top-tier anymore and yet keeps getting new players want to go there.

 

[Darren McCord]

Not a fan of Hextall either, but he atleast had a vision and plan to acquire talent, even if he picked the wrong players. Fletcher was flailing in the wind with no discernable franchise direction.

I feel like Hextall’s visions were so meh though. Like he had plans but they were always mid. Never felt like he would commit one way. He just kind of vibed in the middle.

At least that’s what it was for the pens. Dude just didn’t want noticed at all and always took the path of least resistance.

 

[RandV]

In my 30ish years on NHL Fandom this is the example that comes to mind. All these fans giving examples of a bad GM their team had, while that team still made the playoffs and had premium talent stay... it's not comparable to the carnage listed above that damaged the franchise for a decade plus.

Milbury's team made the playoffs for a stretch in the the end. He also made some great trades that lead to that, for example Mike Peca and Adrian Aucoin. Of course what earns Milbury his rep is a few massive disastrous trades that no one else can compete with in terms of value lost, but just saying.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Steve Yzerman

 

[RandV]

I’m going to preemptively say that it was not Jim Benning.

As terrible as he was for the Canucks—I think a lot of his decision making was influenced by owner Francesco Aquilini interfering with hockey operations.

Either trying to rush the rebuild (Eriksson, Beagle, Sutter, OEL, etc) or not allowing the team to spend when they needed to (the disastrous post-bubble off-season, or the general lack in investment in hockey ops that led to them running out of time a lot).

That’s not to say that Benning wasn’t out of his element—but it is to say that things were made so much worse by ownership.

Generally for any other GM listed in this thread, I think ownership is an important consideration to evaluate their performance by.

This is a complete cop out, and was basically the last grasp for Benning supporters at the end of his tenure: 'Bennings not really bad, its Aquilini!'.

I don't think anybody in Vancouver is a fan of the owner, but he's had the team through 4 management groups now - the first two basically being fired for not following stupid orders. You can't know for sure from a fan perspective but for me the easiest way to interpret the situation is that Benning welcomed him into the room and valued his input. Great way to create job security when you have a meddling owner.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

Sabres- There's few last fifteen ish tears.

 

[Nikolajs Sillers]

you're crazy TM was the best gm we had in the best 15 years. he was a man with a plan.

Yes, he had a plan. Only that plan was crappy

 

[timmeh]

Agree, although the nolan patrick draft pick was pretty f***ing horrible.

I get that he didn't really turn out too well. Mostly due to injuries, no?
Was the Nolan Patrick pick really that bad at the time, though?

 

[Wallet Inspector]

Pierre Dorion for the Sens easily.

-Traded away Zibanejad and a 2nd for Brassard
-Traded away a top 4 pick in 2019
-Cost the Sens another 1st from the Dadonov NYC
-Traded Stone and Duchene for bad returns
-Wasted draft picks on Hamonic, Stepan and Matt Murray
-Traded high 1sts for Debrincat and Chychrun, only for those two to not stay long term
-drafted Jarventie over Peterka
-a bunch of bad first round picks(Bowers, Boucher, Thomson, Bernard-Docker)

 

[God]

if some genie in a bottle gave me a bunch of wishes to change things in the past, obviously i would consider certain tragedies like 9/11 or covid or whatever. but preventing jim benning from ever being hired would be up there.

 

[MrHeiskanen]

Brett Hull

 

[Rich Nixon]

I feel like Hextall’s visions were so meh though. Like he had plans but they were always mid. Never felt like he would commit one way. He just kind of vibed in the middle.

At least that’s what it was for the pens. Dude just didn’t want noticed at all and always took the path of least resistance.

In Philly, Hextall inherited a 26-year-old Claude Giroux and essentially guaranteed that he would never again compete for a Stanley Cup.

As others have noted, he was intent on rebuilding their farm system--but as you say, just utterly "meh" at everything he did. They already had a young Couturier, Schenn, Voracek, Gostisbehere, Stolarz, and Sanheim in the mix and he drafted Konecny and Provorov right after taking over. There was enough young talent at every position that Hextall could have built SOMETHING, but he just...didn't. Nothing ever came together, he hired a coach who sucked and let that guy fester behind the bench for 4 years--literally got fired as a result of his unwillingness to fire Hakstol.

There are more glaring examples of bad GMs in this thread, but Hextall is one of the most peculiar for how downright stubborn and arrogant he was despite never accomplishing anything in either of his opportunities.

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Pierre Dorion for the Sens easily.

-Traded away Zibanejad and a 2nd for Brassard
-Traded away a top 4 pick in 2019
-Cost the Sens another 1st from the Dadonov NYC
-Traded Stone and Duchene for bad returns
-Wasted draft picks on Hamonic, Stepan and Matt Murray
-Traded high 1sts for Debrincat and Chychrun, only for those two to not stay long term
-drafted Jarventie over Peterka
-a bunch of bad first round picks(Bowers, Boucher, Thomson, Bernard-Docker)

Duchene wasn't actually a bad return, it was drafting Thomson that sucked.

 

[Colt.45Orr]

Don't discount the culture that Boston has built, plus the drafting of McAvoy and Pastrnak with later picks. He has done a bunch of mistakes but also has done a few shrewd moves.

Culture was built by Chara and Bergeron during Chiarelli years.

Pasta and McAvoy went where they were projected to go in drafts--but Pasta was under Chiarelli. Swayman pick was good. Zadorov signing has been very good --I'm just bitter about lost Cups during Sweeney years.

 

[Rooch]

[Pat Verbeek has entered the chat.]

 

[Bjornar Moxnes]

Don't discount the culture that Boston has built, plus the drafting of McAvoy and Pastrnak with later picks. He has done a bunch of mistakes but also has done a few shrewd moves.


It's crazy watching teams reward older players with retirement contracts while Vegas just gets rid of anyone the minute they are not top-tier anymore and yet keeps getting new players want to go there.

Pastrnak was drafted by Chiarelli.

 

[Darren McCord]

In Philly, Hextall inherited a 26-year-old Claude Giroux and essentially guaranteed that he would never again compete for a Stanley Cup.

As others have noted, he was intent on rebuilding their farm system--but as you say, just utterly "meh" at everything he did. They already had a young Couturier, Schenn, Voracek, Gostisbehere, Stolarz, and Sanheim in the mix and he drafted Konecny and Provorov right after taking over. There was enough young talent at every position that Hextall could have built SOMETHING, but he just...didn't. Nothing ever came together, he hired a coach who sucked and let that guy fester behind the bench for 4 years--literally got fired as a result of his unwillingness to fire Hakstol.

There are more glaring examples of bad GMs in this thread, but Hextall is one of the most peculiar for how downright stubborn and arrogant he was despite never accomplishing anything in either of his opportunities.

Ya he seems like a GM who just wants to perpetually focus on the future. I know he got a haul for Schenn but that was a dumb trade that set the back.

They had a 29 year old Giroux, 28 yr old Voracek, 25 year old Schenn and 24 year old Couturier.

Trading Schenn for futures was just dumb. They should have been surrounding those players with more talent.

 

[The Burdened]

I feel like Hextall’s visions were so meh though. Like he had plans but they were always mid. Never felt like he would commit one way. He just kind of vibed in the middle.

At least that’s what it was for the pens. Dude just didn’t want noticed at all and always took the path of least resistance.

Hextall in Philly had no plan, either.
Tried to rebuild on the fly with prime Giroux and Voracek.
Got gifted lottery luck, and f***ed up the pick royaly. And it is not hindsight 20/20, either. Everybody was screaming Nolan Patrick had injury history and was probably not gonna have much of an NHL career, but who needed Makar when we had Ghost and were set on D for the next decade with Ghost, Provorov, Sanheim, Myers, and Morin?

Man literally passed on 2 players that were cornerstones for a cup winner because he had a Brandon Wheat Kings fetish.

 

[nickdawg95]

Yes, he had a plan. Only that plan was crappy

got us kane ror reinhart eichel lehner carrier bogosian okposo ( most of those guys went on to be key pieces in cup winning teams except Kane/lehner

sign guys like kulikov

drafted HAGEL( who botterill let walk for no reason ) oloffson borgen

i would've love to see tim get one more year given his aggressiveness i think he would of gotten us over the hump into the post season.

personally i think we were set in goal and forwards the only thing that set us back was our defence ( i remember really wanting one of sergachev chrychrun or Mcavoy but instead got A.nylander lol ). but i think he would of addressed that given more time.

 

[Darren McCord]

Hextall in Philly had no plan, either.
Tried to rebuild on the fly with prime Giroux and Voracek.
Got gifted lottery luck, and f***ed up the pick royaly. And it is not hindsight 20/20, either. Everybody was screaming Nolan Patrick had injury history and was probably not gonna have much of an NHL career, but gotta draft his Brandon Wheat Kings boy.
who needed Makar when we had Ghost and were set on D for the next decade with Ghost, Provorov, Sanheim, Myers, and Morin?

Ya trading Schenn for futures was stupid. He had his 3 centers under 30. He should have traded the 2nd overall for immediate help or drafted one of the top dmen available.

 

[Gillings]

The Oilers hat trick of Chiarelli, Holland, and now Stan Bowman has done immeasurable damage. They would have at least one Cup by now if the team was properly run, but here we are in Year 10 of Connor McDavid wondering if John Klingberg’s bionic hips and a goalie with a .902 save percentage are the solutions on defence and in goal. Just complete idiocy from a group of has beens every season.

You act like teams are lining up to make the oilers better. No team wants to give Edmonton any elite talent unless it’s a bottom feeder on deadline day. And, even then, other times I’m sure are willing to out bid them.