GM of the year finalists named

[Jared]

I loathe the Penguins....

I mean, I LOATHE the Penguins....

and Dan Bylsma deserves the Jack Adams, by a mile.

Hey forty six, just curious about this one. How much of your Pens loathing comes from living in Pittsburgh? Does it make it worse?

I live there too, and the Pens are the only local time for whom I root. I am a die hard Lions/Tigers fan in the other major sports, and the NBA is a non entity for me. Before I lived here, I was sort of neutral about the Steelers, but now I hate them as much as any of the rival teams for my Lions.

Of course, Steeler's fans are way worse than Pens fans, and I'm not biased at all.

 

[WestEndVol]

Glad to see Poile as one of the finalist.

 

[Forty_Sixand2]

Hey forty six, just curious about this one. How much of your Pens loathing comes from living in Pittsburgh? Does it make it worse?

I live there too, and the Pens are the only local time for whom I root. I am a die hard Lions/Tigers fan in the other major sports, and the NBA is a non entity for me. Before I lived here, I was sort of neutral about the Steelers, but now I hate them as much as any of the rival teams for my Lions.

Of course, Steeler's fans are way worse than Pens fans, and I'm not biased at all.

Well I grew up in the 90s in Washington, so the Penguins ruined my hockey season every year. Add to this the move that I made up here was in 2005, right as the great one and the kid came into the league. A lot of my friends up here are Pens fans so that adds to it. I just can't stand them, because they broke my heart as a child and continue to today.

I actually like the Steelers because I love Ryan Clark (former Redskin) and Jason Worilds (Hokie).

There is only one team in all of sports who I dislike more than the Pens...and their name shall not be spoken by me.....

 

[jerseyjigroe]

Gillis, Yzerman, Poile

Gillis, Yzerman and Poile are GM of the Year finalists - NHL.com - Trophy Tracker

Homer greater than all of them.

 

[beantownmaniac]

Peter Chiarelli did a good job with trades for the Bruins this year. What exactly did Yzerman do better than him?

 

[pixburgher66]

Didn't read the whole thread, so it may have been stated, but this should wait until after the postseason. The true worth of a GMs labor is seen after the Cup is awarded.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

How in the world does Yzerman get nominated? He didn't build that Lightning team. The Gagne & Roloson trades were a no brainers.

I didn't see any other teams jumping on those "no brainers".

Yzerman cleaned house in that organization. He revamped the coaching staff, bringing in a guy who could be up for a Jack Adams. He dumped Kurtis Foster, Alex Tanguay, Andrej Meszeros, Brandon Bochenski, Stephan Vallieux, Paul Szechuanwhatever, Todd Fedoruk, Dan Ellis, James Wright, Matt Walker, Zanon Konopka, David Hale, Mark Parrish, Matt Smaby, Anterro Nittymaki, and a bunch of other scrubs. He brought in Gagne, Rolo, Kubina, Clark, Moore, Purcell, Ritola, Hall, Jones, and Brewer. He pretty much retooled the entire organization from the coaching staff, to upper management, to the players, and changed the culture from one of negativity to a place where guys wanted to play. The Lightning went from 80 points, tied for fourth worst in the conference and fifth worst in the league to being four points shy of winning the division.

I don't want to say he's got it in the bag, but if Yzerman doesn't win GM of the Year I swear Q will eat a hat.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

Peter Chiarelli did a good job with trades for the Bruins this year. What exactly did Yzerman do better than him?

Completely turned around a franchise headed in the wrong direction and brought them from the basement to the playoffs in one off season.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

I didn't see any other teams jumping on those "no brainers".

Yzerman cleaned house in that organization. He revamped the coaching staff, bringing in a guy who could be up for a Jack Adams. He dumped Kurtis Foster, Alex Tanguay, Andrej Meszeros, Brandon Bochenski, Stephan Vallieux, Paul Szechuanwhatever, Todd Fedoruk, Dan Ellis, James Wright, Matt Walker, Zanon Konopka, David Hale, Mark Parrish, Matt Smaby, Anterro Nittymaki, and a bunch of other scrubs. He brought in Gagne, Rolo, Kubina, Clark, Moore, Purcell, Ritola, Hall, Jones, and Brewer. He pretty much retooled the entire organization from the coaching staff, to upper management, to the players, and changed the culture from one of negativity to a place where guys wanted to play. The Lightning went from 80 points, tied for fourth worst in the conference and fifth worst in the league to being four points shy of winning the division.

I don't want to say he's got it in the bag, but if Yzerman doesn't win GM of the Year I swear Q will eat a hat.

His team is about to lose in 5 games to a team with a few AHLers & without two of the very best players in the game.

 

[h X c Chris]

So he got rid of a lot of players, a few of them I would call a mistake. Just because you make a lot of moves doesnt mean they were all positive.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

His team is about to lose in 5 games to a team with a few AHLers & without two of the very best players in the game.

The Pens are still a very deep team with a great defensive system. The guy made a 23 point swing in the standings for his team, I'm not sure what more a GM needs to do to be recognized.

So he got rid of a lot of players, a few of them I would call a mistake. Just because you make a lot of moves doesnt mean they were all positive.

You can argue not all of his moves were positive, but you can't argue with the results. The question was, "what has Steve Yzerman done as GM". The answer was "completely clean house and retool a team and organization". I think the results speak for themselves. The team went from gutter to playoffs in one offseason after Yzerman came in and made sweeping changes.

I can see why Gillis and Poille might or should win, I just think Yzerman did a hell of a lot more in a shorter time period.

 

[h X c Chris]

You can argue not all of his moves were positive, but you can't argue with the results. The question was, "what has Steve Yzerman done as GM". The answer was "completely clean house and retool a team and organization". I think the results speak for themselves. The team went from gutter to playoffs in one offseason after Yzerman came in and made sweeping changes.

I can see why Gillis and Poille might or should win, I just think Yzerman did a hell of a lot more in a shorter time period.

Fair enough.

 

[SLY]

His team is about to lose in 5 games to a team with a few AHLers & without two of the very best players in the game.

As much as I hate the Pens, I am shocked at how well they are doing minus their star talent. All homer comments aside, they truly are a good team to have that depth. I always made snide remarks about them only being good due to their "gifts" from the league, but they made the right moves. Still dont see them making it past the second round, but to beat a loaded TB squad that has all their talent... Impressing.

 

[evolver115]

His team is about to lose in 5 games to a team with a few AHLers & without two of the very best players in the game.

As much as I hate the Pens, I am shocked at how well they are doing minus their star talent. All homer comments aside, they truly are a good team to have that depth. I always made snide remarks about them only being good due to their "gifts" from the league, but they made the right moves. Still dont see them making it past the second round, but to beat a loaded TB squad that has all their talent... Impressing.

^^^This is why Shero deserves to be a finalist for the GM of the Year Award. I still can't believe he's not on this list.

From top to bottom, this franchise probably just enjoyed it's most unlikeliest success as a hockey organization, and now have a team 3 games to one with the teams top goal-scorer being a guy who made $550,000+ this season.

 

[Darkstone42]

Signing back Brent Johnson on a super low contract, getting Martin just above market value and Michalek at just below, and acquiring Neal, Niskanen and Kovalev, who have all had one impact or another (Neal's worn down defenses even though he wasn't scoring, Niskanen has replaced Goligoski defensively at the very least, and Kovalev is playing better hockey now than he has for a while) for the team's fifth defenseman and a seventh-round draft pick is pretty darned impressive. He also brought in Engelland and Lovejoy, Letestu, and I believe Jeffrey. Tangradi was a Shero acquisition, as well. Shero's the reason the Penguins have depth and the reason they have just enough cap room to have that depth despite having two stars.

 

[evolver115]

Signing back Brent Johnson on a super low contract, getting Martin just above market value and Michalek at just below, and acquiring Neal, Niskanen and Kovalev, who have all had one impact or another (Neal's worn down defenses even though he wasn't scoring, Niskanen has replaced Goligoski defensively at the very least, and Kovalev is playing better hockey now than he has for a while) for the team's fifth defenseman and a seventh-round draft pick is pretty darned impressive. He also brought in Engelland and Lovejoy, Letestu, and I believe Jeffrey. Tangradi was a Shero acquisition, as well. Shero's the reason the Penguins have depth and the reason they have just enough cap room to have that depth despite having two stars.

well said. Ray has his fingerprints all over this team.

 

[pixburgher66]

I mean...I love Ray and everything he's done with this team, but I'm pretty sure this is Stevie Y's award to take. I'd be amazed if anyone else won it. The team had a comeback season and a lot of that has to do with Yzerman's moves. Not all of it, but a good portion of it. I think that the moves gave the team confidence during the season and sort of revamped St. Louis game, as well as helping the slumping Malone and Vinny.

 

[beantownmaniac]

Completely turned around a franchise headed in the wrong direction and brought them from the basement to the playoffs in one off season.

They weren't in the "basement" last year, they finished above 3 other teams, were tied with the Canes at 80 points 8 points out. This year 80 points was 13 points out. The Bruins also improved this year winning a division they finished 3rd in last year. And I'm pretty sure the Lightning have won a cup more recently than the Bruins. Just sayin.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

Completely turned around a franchise headed in the wrong direction and brought them from the basement to the playoffs in one off season.

Yzerman made quite a few moves, but he inherited a team that already had a solid nucleus of players in place. Including 3 Superstars.

He's done a good job & deserves recognition for it. However I feel there are others like Shero who deserve the same recognition.

 

[jstewismybastardson]

Im gonna put this here ... didnt think it required a new thread

(also apologize if its been posted already somewhere on here)

after the Mike Gillis "rant" during round 1, Steve Simmons tweeted "Mike Gillis is a creep" ... among other choice things ... he then deleted that tweet and posted this on his blog

Why I don’t like Mike Gillis The Simmons Sports Zone

In 1999, I began working on an expose on David Frost, the hockey cretin who later became famous for his involvement with Mike Danton and the apparent attempt on his life. The work back then led me directly to a player agent named Mike Gillis.

At the time, Frost worked for Gillis: His job was to identify young talent and like most bird dogs working for agents, he would act as unofficial agent for the players until they got to a level where Gillis took over.

When it became apparent that not all was proper with Frost and his Gillis clients – which included Mike Jefferson (before changing his name to Danton) and Sheldon Keefe – I called Mike Gillis. I asked him if he employed Frost. He said he did. I asked him if he was aware of what was going on with Frost and his clients. He said he did not. He also told me he had no trouble with Frost.

Once it became apparent to outsiders that Frost was someone you didn’t want to do business with, Gillis changed his story. He would tell other reporters that he never employed Frost, didn’t know Frost, had little to do with him, changing his story almost every time a question was asked. The more the press and public learned about Frost, the more Gillis ran from the story and hid whatever involvement he may have had.

Meanwhile, for those of us who have stayed close to the story, there are always little connections to Gillis, with uncertainty about what he knew about Frost and his ways, why he empowered him, when he knew about them, what he knew what was going on with his apparent clients, how involved or uninvolved he was.

When Frost went to court in 2008, Gillis’ name came up more than once. His name, was in fact, CCd on a document that was apparently Frost’s treatise to his cult of hockey players on how they should behave and how they have to stick together. Still, Gillis, running the successful Vancouver Canucks, has managed to keep more than an arms length distance from Frost’s name. Last summer, when working on a book that will be released in October, I requested to interview Gillis to finally get the straight goods on his relationship with Frost, Danton, Keefe etc. Some general managers, like Lou Lamoriello in New Jersey, told me that Gillis was the only person who ever acted properly for Danton.

Gillis never responded to the interview request. He didn’t decline. Once again, he hid.

Because only a few journalists have followed this story, from beginning to end, Gillis has gotten a free pass from most reporters on this. Not from me. I would still like to know what he knew, when he knew it, and why he didn’t choose to do anything about it.