Who is the NHL's best General Manager? On NHL.com

[ufcredwingfan 0]

Who is the NHL's best General Manager?

Its on nhl.com Kenny boy is leading it.

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

Who is the NHL's best General Manager?

Its on nhl.com Kenny boy is leading it.

Despite the flak he gets here, I still agree that Holland is one of the best in the bussiness. People complain that he simply maintained a lot of talent he inherited, and to a certain point that is true, but still any other G.M. would have gone the same route. To me its claiming a lack of skill based on a situation, a situation that I think he has handeled very well. Let us not forget that Lou Lamerello inherited Martin Broduer, and a supreme defense also.

In short, I think Holland is deffinatly a top GM in the league, and in many aspects is the best in the bussiness. You may say he often dosen't make the big move, but there have been very very few reasons for him to in the past few years.

One GM that is definatly underated is the Predator's GM though, along with the whole brass and coaching Staff. San Jose also on paper always seems to make great moves, and the return they gave up to get Heatly was actually incredibly low. If I'm a fan, I'd be blaming the players on choking rather then their GM.

[redmathew 0]

This poll looks like a joke,(stupid leaf fans and crosby lovers seem to be flooding this poll)

kenny and lou should be leading by a wide margin. with kenny in first of coarse.

[Marty Barry 230]

Edited March 7, 2010 by Marty Barry

[MCleveland89 122]

Glad he's getting some praise. No doubt he's doing a good job with Detroit.

[ShanahanMan 473]

You have to be kidding me......how the HELL is Ray Shero 2nd place? I didn't know blowing for more then 10 years and then picking obvious great players with your high round picks constitutes as being a great GM. Ugh.....

[skyphoenix 153]

You have to be kidding me......how the HELL is Ray Shero 2nd place? I didn't know blowing for more then 10 years and then picking obvious great players with your high round picks constitutes as being a great GM. Ugh.....

People obviously don't pay attention. It was probably a bunch of Penguins fans hopped up on the fact they finally won a cup and they drafted God's gift to hockey.

[Free_Candy 38]

Shero's been the GM for four years. Everything that happened prior to 2006 for better or worse involved Craig Patrick and much of the team still has Patrick's fingerprints on it. Realistically it will take at least a few years more to really assess Shero's abilities, but he has proven so far to be pretty smart about managing the cap and making the right trades to assemble a supporting cast around the core. If you want to object because he is yet unproven and already had good players to work with, that is totally fine, but it's not really accurate to say he made the team blow for over 10 years.

I don't rank him as "best" yet along the likes of Holland or Lamiorello because it's best to let time be the judge for now, but he does show promise.

Edited March 7, 2010 by Free_Candy

[ShanahanMan 473]

Shero's been the GM for four years. Everything that happened prior to 2006 for better or worse involved Craig Patrick and much of the team still has Patrick's fingerprints on it. Realistically it will take at least a few years more to really assess Shero's abilities, but he has proven so far to be pretty smart about managing the cap and making the right trades to assemble a supporting cast around the core. If you want to object because he is yet unproven and already had good players to work with, that is totally fine, but it's not really accurate to say he made the team blow for over 10 years.

I don't rank him as "best" yet along the likes of Holland or Lamiorello because it's best to let time be the judge for now, but he does show promise.

I'm aware he has only been the GM for four years, but I fail to see anything significant that he's done to make him stand out as even "an above average" GM. The elite players on your team were built with first round picks alone (Malkin 04, Crosby 05, Stall 06). Do you think your team would be anywhere as successful as it currently is without those players that ANY other GM would have picked as well? You know what shows talent and good GM skills? A team thats made back to back finals consisting mostly of players taken past the 5th round. THAT, my friend, is skill.

I suppose he hasn't done too bad with the supporting cast (even though most were either picked OR signed before Shero even became GM).....and he has made a few really good deals (Kunitz, Poni specifically), but to say he's one of the best in the league and compare him to the ranks of Lou Lamoriello and Ken Holland is simply idiotic to say the least and shows how little some people know about hockey.

Edited March 7, 2010 by ShanahanMan

[Free_Candy 38]

I'm aware he has only been the GM for four years, but I fail to see anything significant that he's done to make him stand out as even "an above average" GM. The elite players on your team were built with first round picks alone (Malkin 04, Crosby 05, Stall 06). Do you think your team would be anywhere as successful as it currently is without those players that ANY other GM would have picked as well? You know what shows talent and good GM skills? A team thats made back to back finals consisting mostly of players taken past the 5th round. THAT, my friend, is skill.

I suppose he hasn't done too bad with the supporting cast (even though most were either picked OR signed before Shero even became GM).....and he has made a few really good deals (Kunitz, Poni specifically), but to say he's one of the best in the league and compare him to the ranks of Lou Lamoriello and Ken Holland is simply idiotic to say the least and shows how little some people know about hockey.

Again, I'm not denying anything of what Shero has had to work with at all. In the end, only time well tell. Only reason I piped up was because I was under the impression from your previous post that you were mistaken as far as how long Shero has been GM in Pittsburgh. No worries. Fans will show a certain attachment to a GM just after a championship, but in the end it's just a poll. There's a reason why fans aren't GM's.

Edited March 7, 2010 by Free_Candy

[Nev 1,085]

People complain that he simply maintained a lot of talent he inherited,

See, the problem with that argument (and I'm not accusing you of promoting it) is that he scouted most of the players he inherited on his way to becoming GM.

[ShanahanMan 473]

Again, I'm not denying anything of what Shero has had to work with at all. In the end, only time well tell. Only reason I piped up was because I was under the impression from your previous post that you were mistaken as far as how long Shero has been GM in Pittsburgh. No worries. Fans will show a certain attachment to a GM just after a championship, but in the end it's just a poll. There's a reason why fans aren't GM's.

I can agree with that. Who knows, the guy may end up being an amazing GM afterall. Didn't mean to be sound so abrasive in the previous post .

[ShanahanMan 473]

See, the problem with that argument (and I'm not accusing you of promoting it) is that he scouted most of the players he inherited on his way to becoming GM.

Actually, most of the star players were scouted by Andersson.

[Finnish Wing 110]

Actually, most of the star players were scouted by Andersson.

Andersson "works under" Kenny, so basically he gets the credit as he should. Kenny is responsible for making the final decisions.

[Nev 1,085]

As my Scandanavian colleague points out, Anderson worked for Holland - before he was GM he was assistant GM, and before that he was director of amateur scouting. I think before that he was Canadian juniors scout (so McCarty, LaPointe, Primeau etc).

Its not like Anderson (or any of the other scouts) work in isolation. Anderson may have watched Lidstrom etc more than Holland, but Holland still saw most of them play before they were drafted. Hence why he has the story about being tipped off by a Swedish taxi driver about Lidstrom, and was able to say of the first time he watched Zetterberg, "this skinny little kid who no-one could get the puck off"