Photo by Chris Wohlers/NHLI via Getty Images
With the 2024-25 NHL campaign approaching, teams have continued towards an upward trend but others have gone the other way since last season ended. While some of those teams may project to go down because of age and internal issues, others are due to consistent poor roster and asset management and those people could be in the job market soon. NoVa Caps picks four NHL GMs that are on the hot seat entering this season:
Criteria for candidates: this post will feature candidates whose teams are pushing for the postseason this spring but could also see a major drop of. These squads have GMs and/or coaches who have made questionable moves for a certain time period (some names such as Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan may not be included because expectations are low for their team entering this season).
- GM Lou Lamoriello, New York Islanders
New York has been on a borderline postseason team throughout the decade and their 20th overall selection (left-wing Cole Eiserman) this summer was their first since 2019. Some contracts that Lamoriello has given out (four years, $5 million cap hit to right-wing Kyle Palmieri in 2021; six years, $5 million cap hit to center Jean-Gabriel Pageau) have not aged well for the team. He also traded top-pairing defenseman Devon Toews four years ago for two pieces that have not turned into anything for New York.
Earlier this year, The Athletic ranked the Islanders’ prospect pool the worst in the league.
The Islanders had the fewest wins of any team that qualified for the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs (39) and did not do much to improve this offseason, which has been a consistent pattern throughout Lamouriello’s tenure on the Island. Though the addition of right-wing Anthony Duclair should help the team’s offense, it is not a signing that will move the needle especially after teams in the Metropolitan Division like the Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils were very active in retooling their rosters. At some point, the Islanders need to pick a direction and stick with it and Lamoriello has yet shown he can do that.
- GM Ron Francis, Seattle Kraken
It may be time to start questioning Francis’ job security after signing 30-year-old center Chandler Stephenson to a lucrative seven-year deal that carries a $6.25 million cap hit on July 1, which was ranked the second-worst contract in the NHL by The Athletic last month.
Stephenson’s contract comes after numerous high-profile free-agent additions have not worked out for the Kraken as goaltenders Philipp Grubauer (six years, $5.9 million cap hit in 2021) and Chris Driedger (three years, $3.5 million cap hit in 2021), defenseman Jamie Oleksiak (five years, $4.6 million cap hit in 2021), left-wing Andre Burakovsky (five years, $5.5 million cap hit in 2022), and defenseman Brian Dumoulin (two years, $3.15 million cap hit in 2023) have all backfired. Dumoulin was traded just one year after signing in Seattle to the Anaheim Ducks for a 2026 fourth-round pick.
In addition, Francis’ expansion draft strategy of saving money has not worked out as Seattle ranks 24th in the NHL with a 107-112-27 record (.490 points percentage) and has finished below .500 in two of their first three seasons. He made some big whiffs as he passed on players such as Nikita Zadorov, J.T. Compher, Max Domi, Vladislav Namestnikov, Frank Vatrano, Olli Maatta, Yakov Trenin, Evgenii Dadonov, James Van Riemsdyk, Jakub Voracek, Shayne Gostisbehere, Evan Rodrigues, Jacob Middleton, Alex Killorn, Ondrej Palat, Ross Colton, Nick Jensen, Conor Sheary, and Dylan DeMelo for free. Quite a few of Seattle’s expansion picks (Cale Fleury, Kole Lind, Alex True, Carsen Twarynski, Dennis Cholowski, Gavin Bayreuther, John Quenneville) have barely gotten NHL time at best since Seattle’s inaugural campaign.
- GM Bill Guerin, Minnesota Wild
Buying out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter have hindered Minnesota’s roster management three years later as they will cost over $14.7 million of dead salary this season. It forced them to part with Kevin Fiala two years ago, though that move has worked out pretty well for Minnesota as they got left-wing Liam Ohgren and defenseman Brock Faber out of it but Guerin would like to put himself in a better position if he had a do-over.
The Wild have yet to address their need of a first-line center, which has been there for years.
Minnesota did not do much to improve this offseason with Trenin being their only big addition after finishing last season 11 points out of a postseason spot and five behind the next highest team in the Central Division, the St. Louis Blues. Similar to New York, they are also not bad enough to fully rebuild with the likes of Faber, Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi, and Mats Zuccarello as their core.
- GM Rob Blake, Los Angeles Kings
Los Angeles was trending towards being a Stanley Cup contender just last year before trading Gabriel Vilardi, Rasmus Kupari, Alex Iafallo, and a second-round pick to the Winnipeg Jets for Pierre-Luc Dubois, who signed an eight-year contract that carries an $8.5 million cap hit and was traded to Washington for 33-year-old goaltender Darcy Kuemper just one year after the Kings gave up that haul for him. Kuemper counts $5.25 million against the salary cap for three more seasons and posted an .899 save percentage and 3.09 goals-against average in 90 games for the Capitals, where he lost the starting job last year.
In addition, Blake gave out a lucrative four-year contract ($3.8 million cap hit) to third-pairing defenseman Joel Edmundson this summer and saw defensemen Sean Durzi and Sean Walker thrive in new places after trading them last year.
While Blake did an admirable job of stockpiling young talent through the draft (Vilardi, Quinton Byfield, Brandt Clarke) and did very well on acquiring Trevor Moore, he has done a lot to undo that good work over the past year to hinder Los Angeles’ contention hopes in the Pacific Division.
By Harrison Brown
