*** A Tier ***

1. Waddell - Canes
Mostly good moves with carolina, no real blemishes that come to mind.
Getting Burns with retention for basically nothing is one of the greatest trades ever.

2. Brisebois - Tampa
Right from the get-go he was set up for success with this Tampa core, all he had to do was getting them over the top. And he did just that. Flipping JT Miller for Coleman + Goodrow + cap space was nothing short of genius. Hagel trade is a massive W and so was forcing McDonough out this last summer without having to pay Nashville to take his cap on. I think Brisebois did everything right from the moment he got the job all the way up until trading for Jeannot.

3. Fitzgerald - Devils
Walking W
Sold off rather well in the 2020 and 2021 TDLs.
Rebuilt the Devils blueline by getting Hamilton, Graves, Marino and Siegenthaler in by only having to give up a 2nd, two 3rds and Ty Smith. Hughes 8 x 8 extension is looking more and more like a steal by each day. Drafting has also been on point mostly throughout his tenure. So happy he's the Devils GM.

*** B TIER ***

4. Adams - Sabres
I really like what Adams has done with the Sabres so far. Drafting has been on point, particularly the 2020 one with Levi, Peterka and Quinn all looking to play key roles on a future contender. He absolutely knocked the Eichel trade out of the park. But perhaps most significant is how amazing the Tage and Cozens extensions are looking. The only moves I really didn’t like from him are selling way too low on Montour and the Greenway trade which seem like a waste of a 2nd rd pick to me.

5. Zito - Panthers
The waiver-claim God. I have soft spot for him. Definitely a Zito stan.
While having that 10m black hole that is Bobrovsky’s contract hanging over his head, here’s some of his numerous Ws in his tenure with the Panthers:
Tkachuk
signing Weegar to 3.25m AAV
Finding 4 top 6 fwds in Duclair, Verhaeghe, Bennet and Marchment for next to nothing
Getting Montour for a 3rd.
This man found two (2!) top 4 defensemen in Mahura and Forsling on frickin WAIVERS! INSANITY!

Such a shame he had to tarnish his Panthers tenure with that god awful Chiarot trade. (What’s up with Chiarot burning otherwise brilliant GMs btw….)

6. Yzerman - dead things
One year ago I’d have considered Yzerman a top 5 GM in the league, now not so much. Vrana, Chiarot and Copp are some major f ups and committing them all in the span of one year would hurt any GM’s reputation. And that’s not counting the Nedeljkovic signing and how bad a decision passing on Wallstedt in favour of Cossa is looking right now. But still, there’s some major Ws to offset those Ls. He consistently finds value throughout the draft rounds and turning frickin Leddy into Jake Walman for example.

7. Sweeney - Bruins
Sweeney’s been with the Bruins for a long time. For every two good decisions there is a bad one, which is on balance quite decent. The amount of value gained by getting Pasta, Marchand and Bergeron signed to those AAVs below 7m is quite the achievement and has played a key factor in maintaining a high level of competitiveness for a long time. The 2015 draft will always hold him back from the highest tier however.

*** C TIER ***

8. MacLellan - Caps
Lots of value lost out on in how vanecek and samsonov were handled. Massive TDL. I like the Strome signing a lot.
I agree with MacLellan's overall vision for the Caps in trying to use this TDL to retool and be as competitive as possible for Ovi's last years.

9. Dubas - Laffs
First off, the flat cap really screwed him over. Committing all that cap space to Tavares, Matthews and Marner right before covid is just terrible luck, completely neutered the ceiling of this core’s competitive window.

He’s done plenty of F ups in his tenure though. The one that comes to my mind is the Rielly signing. He’s not worth his AAV and I for one thought it was a mistake the day the extension got signed. That led directly to having to fill the rest of this year’s roster out with very limited cap space. It also created the conditions for a terribly misguided Sandin trade. Between moving Sandin out and trading for Schenn and McCabe, Dubas actively downgraded his D corps in what may turn out to be one of the last years the Leafs can contend.
Still, I think Dubas is a decent GM. For example, I love how good he is at consistently finding value in the draft while trading back.

10. Hughes - Habs
Hasn’t been on the job that long. I think he approached the 2022 TDL correctly. Stealing a 1st from Zito in the Chiarot trade is an absolute heist. Moving Toffoli, Kulak and Lehkonen out also made a lot of sense, as did taking Monahan’s contract on for a 1st.

I didn’t like what Hughes did at the draft though, particularly the 1st rd. Between Slaf, Nemec, Cooley, Wright and Jiricek, Slaf clearly felt like the wrong choice at #1 to me. Picking any of the other 4 would’ve been a lot better. Following that up by dealing Romanov for #13 was an absolute heist, but then moving #13 on to the Hawks for Dach in return seem like a big missed opportunity to me.
Hughes did redeem himself the next day by picking Hutson and Beck up in the 2nd rd though so that’s something.
I didn't like the Petry trade for the Habs either, should've targeted more futures going back than Matheson coming off a career year with the Penguins.

*** D TIER ***

11. Drury - R*gs
Decent in the contracts he signs, the only really bad one is Goodrow that comes to mind. Buchnevich trade is a massive L however.

12. Kekkäläinen - CBJ
Sympathetic figure. Mostly good trades and decent at the draft table. Horrible in FA and roster construction however.
This Blue Jackets team better be one of the best in the league once they come out of the rebuild, if not Kekkäläinen's tenure would go down as a massive failure.

13. Dorion - Sens
I feel kinda bad for Dorion. He’s horribly outclassed by the other GMs he has to contend with within his division. Once in a while he pulls off a decent move like trading for Chychrun or signing Stützle to a steal of a contract. But that’s very much offset by the myriad of Ls he has inflicted on this organisation: Duchene trade, Filip Gustavsson trade, Matt Murray, Zaitsev, drafting Boucher at #10 LMAO. Such a terribly mediocre GM

14 - Lamoriello - Isles
this man just keeps committing to an aging and declining roster propped up by one of the worlds best goalies in sorokin. Traded Toews away for scraps and dealt pick 13 for Romanov. The only thing keeping him from the lower tiers is that he managed to pull two consecutive ECFs off

*** F TIER ***

15. Hextall - Pens
ass gm. walking L. bet he's a Flyers double agent intent on destroying the penguins from within



The Flyers and Briere goes unranked but you can bet your ass that Fletcher would've showed up in last place on this list if he were still employed.

Hughes most definitely doesn't deserve a C. Only questionable thing he's done is taking Slaf. Dach has been our 3rd best forward behind Suzuki and Caufield (could argue he's been a bigger/better surprise than Suzuki). Getting him for the 13th Overall pick is a big win for us, especially considering we got the 13th Overall pick for Romanov. Hutson's pick was from Edmonton who we traded for a 2nd which was way above market value. Dach's contract is a steal as well.

It's still way early to tell, but it's unjust to give him a C

The way he handled the Josh Anderson offers was awful at best

Imagine rejecting a first for a player I’d be hesitant to give a 4th for

Dubas is B borderline A tier. He goes to A tier if they win a round or more. Despite having all these high paid guys in a flat cap he improved the goaltending, Dcore, and forward group, has done a good job of drafting, and finds diamonds in the rough via FA. Look at the TDL he had he traded a bunch of assets while also restocking on others. Not many GM's can keep their team competitive while also doing that. Then u got the Timmins trade which was pure robbery and he got out of Mrazek by moving down 13 spots.

But the biggest accomplishment turning the Dcore from

Rielly-Hainsey
Muzzin-Zaitsev
Gardiner-Dermott

to

Rielly-Brodie
McCabe-Holl
Gio-Schenn

7. Sweeney - Bruins
Sweeney’s been with the Bruins for a long time. For every two good decisions there is a bad one, which is on balance quite decent. The amount of value gained by getting Pasta, Marchand and Bergeron signed to those AAVs below 7m is quite the achievement and has played a key factor in maintaining a high level of competitiveness for a long time. The 2015 draft will always hold him back from the highest tier however.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jake DeBrusk (more GWG in playoffs than any other classman, one a series winner)
Zboril (a regular next year when CAP issues develop from going all in; justifiably).
Carlo

+ NHLers Lauzon, Vladar...

All IN = over 1223 NHL games played...

NJ in that same draft = 750 NHL gms played (Zacha leads the way)!

Call that a Sweeney Master-class

He did it absolutely fine, is Anderson’s contract amazing no, but like Ben Chiarot, Rasmus Ristolainen, etc, he’s a player that has value even though fans don’t accept it, the Habs are fine with keeping Anderson on our 2nd line until either someone comes with the right offer or his contract expires

I’m gonna say the latter will happen and this one event will forever tarnish Kent Hughes’ resumé for me

Yes he’s made some great moves but he’s not the peak negotiator when it comes to his own players

What your hesitant to give up and what GMs are hesitant to give up are completely different. Clearly GMs see Anderson as a valuable piece. Can't say it was handled badly if it doesn't negatively affect us. First let's see what we get for him. Not like it's hurting us, we're retooling and not capped out.

I know they say GMs know better then us which is true most of the time but in this case this is a blatant overvaluation of a player

More then one is likely the max you could received for him, two is just outrageous

I'd say he gets a 1st + a decent prospect or NHL player. Also we don't really know what he's doing in the locker room. Always good to have guys with experience teaching the young players how it's done.

No bad team is paying you that first and then there are pretty limited team who have or are willing to trade a first

Yeah I understand that, if he's going to get traded, it will likely he in the offseason and the first round pick will have conditions.

When does the western conference GM rankings come out?

Our teams will be F tier so what’s the point?

True.

Might have time to put something together tomorrow.
We'll see.

A: Brisebois, Sweeney,
B+: Fitzy, Waddell
B: Dubas, MacLellan
B-: Drury, Yzerman, Adams, Dorian
C+: Lamoriello
C: Kekkäläinen, Hughes
C-: Hextall, Zito
D: Gorton, Fletcher

Incomplete: Briere

Would give Fletcher an F as he didnt trade JVR

Shows you haven't watched the Canadiens at all this year.
Dach has been better than Suzuki this year. It was a steal.
Matheson is on a 50 point pace lmao, check your notes, man.