Jim Nill thought he was having a normal dinner with the Dallas Stars scouts and management team recently and ended up being surprised with the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award.
Stars assistant GM Mark Janko and Nill’s wife, Bekki, were in on the secret.
“Today, picking the kids up at the airport, I turned off my location so he wouldn’t know,” Bekki said. “I’ve had to do a lot of behind-the-scenes sneaking around.”
Before the meal, Nill got up and made a speech while the trophy was on its way to be presented to him.
“As we’re getting close to this (NHL) Draft, I just wanted to thank you guys again,” Nill said as part of the speech. “You’re the reason why we are who we are, the work you do, and it’s just a pleasure to have you part of our team.”
Right after that, the trophy was presented to him by his three children, who flew in for the occasion.
“It caught me off guard,” Nill said. “I was like, ‘What are [the children] doing here?’ They did a good job of hiding it.”
Nill, 67, formally was announced as the winner on Friday during the first round of the 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft at L.A. Live’s Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. He became the first three-time recipient of the award and won it for a third straight season. Nill finished third in the voting in 2015-16 and 2019-20.
“You can tell by Jim’s face how surprised he was, emotional,” Janko said. “He’s excited he won it for three years in a row, [but] he’s more excited that he gets to see his wife and three children in that environment and share with them. I think that was really cool.”
The Stars (50-26-6) finished second in the Central Division this season, Nill’s 12th with Dallas. They advanced to a third straight Western Conference Final despite being without forward Tyler Seguin (hip) and defenseman Miro Heiskanen (knee) for a large part of the season because of injury.
“This might have my name on it, but it’s got every one of your names on it,” Nill told his staff of the award. “To be able to share this with you guys, it’s special. I’m humbled by it. There’s so many great people in our business that are deserving of this also and to have the staff here, to have my family here, that is super special.”
Prior to the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline on March 7, the Stars acquired forwards Mikko Rantanen and Mikael Granlund, and defenseman Cody Ceci. Rantanen signed an eight-year, $96 million contract ($12 million average annual value) with the Stars that begins next season and led the team with 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) in 18 Stanley Cup Playoff games. Granlund had 10 points (five goals, five assists) in the playoffs, and Ceci ranked fourth on the Stars in average ice time per game during the postseason (21:31), with both also playing all 18 games.
“The look on his face was shocked,” Bekki said of Jim winning the award, “but then to see your kids, that’s when the tears showed up.”
Kevin Cheveldayoff of the Winnipeg Jets and Bill Zito of the Florida Panthers were the other finalists for the award.
