State of the Union - General Manager Review

The other day, Eklund discussed a topic which I found very fascinating. I normally do not do general NHL blogs, but bear with me, because this topic intrigues me.

Who are the cream of the crop of the General Managers? What criteria should we base it on?

Who is to say who is good and who is bad? This is based on my own gut feelings, so blast if you will.

The Toast to the Best

Tampa Bay Steve Yzerman

Steve is a class by himself for a few reasons. The first one is from the past for Jonathan Drouin incident. He did not let the player control the situation; he didn't trade him for the sake of trading him.  He stuck to his guns, and Jonathan has been a force in the team's success because of it. The second is for using the trade deadline to find a way to get rid of an eyesore contract. Convincing Ron Hextall to take Valtteri Filppula off of his hands was a miracle in itself.  And then recognizing the state of the injury woes of the Pens' defense and shipping Mark Streit out to Pittsburg was pure genius. This had a twofold effect; getting rid of the Filppula cap space and, far more important, freeing up the team to protect another player in the expansion draft.

Chicago  Stan Bowman

I chose Stan simply because of his ability to keep the Hawks competitive year after year. He manages to find players who are coal and turn them into diamonds. And then to fit them into the cap. It is mind boggling. How he does it year after year, I will never know.

The Pass

Calgary Flames Brad Treliving 

The trade that went mostly unnoticed was bringing in Michael Stone from the Coyotes. This move, along with the signing of Matt Bartkowski, has solidified the defense. The jury is still out on the acquisition of Curtis Lazar.

What were you thinking?

Los Angeles Dean Lombardi

The Kings must be grasping at straws at the deadline. The trade of Ben Bishop reeks of trading just to show people you mean business. But the main reason for "what you were thinking" is all the bad contracts Kings have done. Kings have a lot of bad contracts to get rid of. The worst one being  Marian Gaborik.

New York Islanders Garth Snow

Putting all his eggs in one basket on Matt Duchene and backing out on a trade with the Oilers, the Isles desperately needed a top-six forward, and they came up with bupkiss. Convincing JT to stay was victory in itself.