Quoting: PointStamkosVasilevskiy219188
With Sakic promoted to President of Hockey Ops (no longer the GM), here are the top 5 GM's in the league right now IMO (in order):
1) Rob Blake (LAK)-From a first-rate HOF player to a front-office wizard, he's developed one of the best prospect pools in the league, consistently signed good players to club-friendly deals, and got them to the playoffs way ahead of schedule. Best current GM, IMO.
2) Don Waddell (CAR)-Not many GM's can trade away a Calder finalist coming off an astounding rookie year for nothing but a 3rd and prove it to be a good move. Waddell replaced Ned/Reimer/Mrazek with Andersen and Raanta, who proved themselves to be a stellar tandem (and won the Jennings trophy to boot). He got Pacioretty and Coghlan for...nothing. He's given Carolina a stellar reputation for finding late-round steals in the draft, and his first round record (Svechnikov, Jarvis, and the unproven Ryan Suzuki) isn't bad either. He's done a terrific job taking the Canes from cellar-dwellers to Cup contenders, along with Brind'amour.
3) Bill Armstrong (ARI)-I absolutely love what he's done for the Coyotes-going scorched-earth rebuild the right way, getting his hands on every draft pick possible-be it by trading away assets or taking on other teams' bad contracts-and then making good selections and trades during the draft itself, keeping good young pieces (mainly Keller and Chychrun) that will be key assets in the future, and he hasn't had a single truly lousy signing other than Dimitrj Jaskin (signed for 1 year at $3.2 million, which made no sense, and he wound up only playing 12 games). Of course, the jury's still out on whether it all pans out.
4) Steve Yzerman (DET)-A few months ago, I might've put him at #1. But barring a drastic change, nothing can justify signing Ben Chiarot for 4 X 4.75 million, and the Copp and Husso signings are pretty risky. I also found drafting Kasper over Lekkerimakki, Kemell, Savoie etc. a little interesting as well. But there's still no denying the fact that Yzerman's fingerprints are all over the Lightning and their back-to-back Cups, and his draft record in and of itself with the Wings (Seider, Raymond, Cossa, Edvinsson) is excellent. I don't think he was at his best this past offseason, but he's still a heck of a GM.
5) Julien BriseBois (TBL)-Like his predecessor as Lightning GM in Yzerman, JBB's moves this past year ($8 million for 8 years to SERGACHEV?! TWO first round picks for HAGEL?!) have put him lower on this list than he otherwise would have been, but he still has done a great job finding steals in the late rounds of the draft, has locked up the Lightning's core for years to come, and he has a terrific record with trade deadline pickups such as Goodrow, Coleman, and Paul (the jury's very much still out on Hagel). He's done a good job filling Yzerman's (enormous) shoes.
HM: Bill Zito (FLA)-Has assembled a great team, but I really think he's setting up the Panthers' future to be dismal by trading away all of their picks. He's still a good GM, don't get me wrong, but his moves haven't panned out as much as some thought they would.
(In case you're curious about who the worst GM is BTW, it has to be Chuck Fletcher (PHI). He makes Jim Nill look like Yzerman by comparison. He's so abysmally awful it's astounding he still has the job. The past year alone-Torterella hiring, Ristolainen extension, Deangelo trade, Deslauriers signing-shows how pathetically awful he is. The Flyers are going nowhere until they rebuild, and he's the last person to take them through it. Just awful.)
I wouldn't have thought of Wadell, but don't forget the Burns signing.
Tbh I'd put him slightly lower tho.
Yzerman imo wanted to transition into contending too quickly. Bad idea.
Not a fan of Julien.