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Armstrong, Poile, Tallon get GM of the year nods


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Armstrong, Poile, Tallon up for GM of the Year

The players play and the coaches coach, but someone has to put all those pieces into place.

That person is the general manager, and three stood out from the rest of their peers this season. Doug Armstrong of the St. Louis Blues, David Poile of the Nashville Predators and Dale Tallon of the Florida Panthers have been named the finalists for the 2012 General Manager of the Year Award.

The winner will be announced at the 2012 NHL Awards Show, June 20 at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas.

Armstrong added to his young core group over the summer by signing veteran forwards Jason Arnott and Jamie Langenbrunner, along with defenseman Kent Huskins, all of whom arrived with Stanley Cup rings.

He also signed goalie Brian Elliott when no other teams were interested and watched him turn in a record-setting performance.

Knowing how good a team he had, Armstrong found one final ingredient behind the bench, as he fired Davis Payne 13 games into the season and hired Stanley Cup-winning veteran Ken Hitchcock. That moved turned into a master-stroke, as the Blues went 43-15-11 under Hitchcock, won the Central Division for the first time since 1999-2000, finished second in the Western Conference and became the League's best defensive team.

Poile was able to help the Predators build off last year's first-ever playoff series win. He locked in goaltender Pekka Rinne with a seven-year contract, and continued to make headway on doing the same with franchise defenseman Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.

At the trade deadline, Poile added to his group by acquiring size on the back end in Hal Gill and adding skill and depth up front in Andrei Kostitsyn and Paul Gaustad. He also smoothly brought Alexander Radulov back to the franchise after he left three seasons ago for Russia.

It all added up to the franchise winning 48 games and starting the playoffs at home for the first time since the 2006-07 season.

While Armstrong and Poile made the usual number of offseason moves, Tallon pulled an extreme roster makeover this past summer. He traded for or signed 10 new players, among them Lady Byng finalist Brian Campbell, who was third in scoring among defensemen and played more minutes than any other player in the League; left wing Tomas Fleischmann, who led the team with 61 points and set career-bests in goals, assists and points; and goalie Jose Theodore, who had a resurgent season while backstopping the Panthers to the top of the Southeast Division.

To lead his new-look team, Tallon hired a first-time coach in Kevin Dineen, and watched him guide the Panthers to the first division title in franchise history and the first playoff berth since 2000.

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I am not trying to play the hometown fan here, but no Holmgren? That is insanity! We lost Carter, Richards, Versteeg (not that it matters) Leino. Bring in a rookie to shut down the leagues top scorers, Schenn, Read, Talbot, Jagr (3 years removed from the NHL). He manages to stabilize the blueline by acquiring Grossmann and Kubina.

The only blemish that I see (and the jury is still out) is the Bryzgalov contract.

Other than that I agree with the selections above, but think the Holmgren should be in the mix somewhere.

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Other than that I agree with the selections above, but think the Holmgren should be in the mix somewhere.

Bert- Bettman would rather have a limp amputated before he allows someone from the Flyers organization to be nominated for any award! That's ok though because he has to hand the Stanley Cup to Giroux in June!

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I am not trying to play the hometown fan here, but no Holmgren? That is insanity! We lost Carter, Richards, Versteeg (not that it matters) Leino. Bring in a rookie to shut down the leagues top scorers, Schenn, Read, Talbot, Jagr (3 years removed from the NHL). He manages to stabilize the blueline by acquiring Grossmann and Kubina.

The only blemish that I see (and the jury is still out) is the Bryzgalov contract.

Other than that I agree with the selections above, but think the Holmgren should be in the mix somewhere.

Not only do I agree with all of that..... but it doesnt take a rocket scientist as GM to go out and acquire already established players..... I think one key fact left

out w/ the Flyers Org not mentioned w/ the other teams/GMs is we did alot of this w/ our own draft picks/rookies acquired.... and had such a wide margin in rookie pt scoring that the 2nd place team should have been on another list all together (@ 40 pts behind)...... its a downright sin Holmgren isnt mentioned above the guy from Florida....pfft.

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I think the difference is that the Flyers simply (I know, not so simple!) maintained their level of play while doing a massive overhaul... the other teams, I think, really increased their standing from last year (though I was too lazy to check if that's true, lol).

Not diminishing the work of Homer, but I think that's probably how they evaluated it.

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@brelic

McKenzie: "Doug Armstrong, David Poile and Dale Tallon nominees for NHL Exec of Year, all worthy, but I had PHI's Paul Holmgren on my three-man ballot."

That's not who said it on the broadcast, but glad to see some 'experts' realize Homer should have been on the list.

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Poile is the one I don't get too much. All he really did was stand pat. His team didn't do significantly better than last year - only a 5 point improvement. He brought in Gill, who's been injured, and sent away a first round pick to get Paul Gaustad. Radulov returned, but he was already under contract. Kostitsyn? Going back to last year, he hasn't really made any changes to his team that have made a significant impact. He re-signed Rinne, I suppose, but how could he not? Not to take anything away from the team's success, but I just don't see how it had much of anything to do with what Poile did this year.

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I think the difference is that the Flyers simply (I know, not so simple!) maintained their level of play while doing a massive overhaul... the other teams, I think, really increased their standing from last year (though I was too lazy to check if that's true, lol).

Not diminishing the work of Homer, but I think that's probably how they evaluated it.

I understand that's how it may work, but they may as well call it "Comeback GM of the Year" or something..... I think its much more challenging and important to maintain consistency while turning over your roster and giving MORE hope for the future......rather than sucking and having one big year. While Andy Reid hasnt ever won the big one for the Eagles, that is also a main reason why he is so respected nationally.....

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@AJgoal

Poile is a marginal choice at best. So he over paid for a bunch of guys at the deadline. So what? Smells like another hand out to a struggling franchise.

Tallon is deserving, Armstrong I don't know.

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Armstrong added some key vets in the offseason, but the big move is bringing in Hitch, catapulting them from out of the playoffs to #2 in the West. I'm ok with his nomination.

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Poile should not be on the list, as he still can't sign Weber. Radulov wanted to come back to 1) leave Russia and 2) make more money [uFA since somehow his few games this season count as a year off his contract], and 3) play against top competition. Poile had nothing to do with it. Finally, his roster is largely the same, and they're in the playoffs again maintaining status quo. While in some ways that is admirable, I give this a yawn.

No problem with Armstrong, though I think he gets too much credit for Hitch's success. Armstrong's highlight should be bringing in winning veteran players and a second solid goalie.

Tallon should win. The overhaul Floria went through, and the immediate success with new players and coaches is nothing short of remarkable. Great job.

Homer should be on the list though. While Bryz in my opinion didn't pan out, he did trade the bookends of his franchise and manage to get more out of it. The roster had some crazy turnaround (lost Boosh, Richards, Carter, Zherdev, Powe, Versteeg, Carcillo, Nodl, Leino, O'Donnell, Boynton) (gained Bryz, Schenn, Couturier, Simmonds, Rinaldo, Sestito, Jagr, Voracek, Talbot, Read, Harry Z, Grossman, Kubina) (injured during the season Pronger, Mesz, Giroux, Bourdon, Timonen, Briere, Betts, Lappy, Sestito, JVR, Voracek, Schenn, Couturier...some of which were lost for a while and others played through it). A staggering number of rookies excelled, though that's also credit to Lavy.

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@brelic

St Louis last year: 87 points, this year: 109

Florida last year: 72 points, this year: 94

Nashville last year: 99 points, this year: 104

I think Nashville is the one that I don't really get. For the first time in a while, they were able to spend up to the cap. Yet the majority of pieces were already in place.

I could also argue the same with St louis and that the most transcendental thing they did was hire hitchcock (who more than likely will win the Jack Adams). I have no problem with Florida. They made allot of moves and should be a finalist.

Yet, when you look at what Homer did, bringing 4 players in for two stars and having success with them, bringing in Jagr and Talbot, bringing in Grossman / Kubina to tighten the ship in the loss of pronger. Signing what should have been a Calder finalist in Read out of the NCAA ranks, who can match that?? NINE rookies dressed for the Flyers this year- all of whom had Homers fingersprints all over.

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@brelic

St Louis last year: 87 points, this year: 109

Florida last year: 72 points, this year: 94

Nashville last year: 99 points, this year: 104

I think Nashville is the one that I don't really get. For the first time in a while, they were able to spend up to the cap. Yet the majority of pieces were already in place.

I could also argue the same with St louis and that the most transcendental thing they did was hire hitchcock (who more than likely will win the Jack Adams). I have no problem with Florida. They made allot of moves and should be a finalist.

Yet, when you look at what Homer did, bringing 4 players in for two stars and having success with them, bringing in Jagr and Talbot, bringing in Grossman / Kubina to tighten the ship in the loss of pronger. Signing what should have been a Calder finalist in Read out of the NCAA ranks, who can match that?? NINE rookies dressed for the Flyers this year- all of whom had Homers fingersprints all over.

All very good points, which begs the question as to whether or not the GM is based solely on year over year, or how he has constructed the team over time. I was reading an article the other day about how a GM really needs about 10 years before he can truly be judged for what he's accomplished. Drafting, developing, UFA or RFA signings, making the right trades, contracts, managing the cap, etc. On the low end, the article mentioned that it's really not fair to evaluate at all before 5 years (of course, they were using Burke as an example, but it's a fair point).

It might really be my homer (no pun intended) bias, but I am completely baffled that Homer is not even short-listed. He pulled off a major overhaul, including starting goalie, captain, and leading scorer.

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@brelic

Interesting about that aritcle. I wondered if they call it the "Burke exception criteria" when evaluating GM's. On the premise that you 5-10 years to really evaluate the success of a GM, I wonder what the criteria is that they use to award GM of the year?? Because while really did allot of wheeling and dealing to restructure the panthers, who know the the repurcusions are going to be 2, 3, 5 years from now (though you can not deny the success).

And this brings me full circle back to Homer again, because what he did is clearly evident in restructuring the team and most pundits / analyst all agree that the moves that Homer made are only going to get better next year.

The only blemish really is the Bryzgalov move. Especially in light of what is going on in Vancouver (which EVERYONE saw coming). Homer could of gotten Vokun on the cheap with the foresight that this was going to be the year that the Schneider / Luongo situation push came to shove.

And while he is a bit older and also have never won anything, I would take Luongo 7 days a week and twice on Sunday over Breezy. But I digress.

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The only blemish really is the Bryzgalov move. Especially in light of what is going on in Vancouver (which EVERYONE saw coming). Homer could of gotten Vokun on the cheap with the foresight that this was going to be the year that the Schneider / Luongo situation push came to shove.

And while he is a bit older and also have never won anything, I would take Luongo 7 days a week and twice on Sunday over Breezy. But I digress.

Except that "the only blemish" you refer to happens to be a Humongous scar on the face of the team for the next 9 years.

And how much foresight does it take to go to capgeek.com?

Add that to the way they mishandled Bob, allowing him to become waiver-eligible this year (exceeding the limit of games played) for no reason, not really. It wasn't like Bob was on a hot streak and 1 more game might've got us past Boston. Dumb. Inexcusably dumb in a world of professionals I would say.

I don't know what they factored in or didn't obviously, but the "Elephant in the Room" is Bryzgalov's ridiculous contract. That's not a misstep it's a giant screw-up, not something you can ignore just because everything else seems to be going well.

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@Vanflyer

What makes the Bryzgalov contract look even dumber is he traded away 2 26 year olds with longterm contracts that didn't look like they were going to work out, then signs a 31 year old to one.

If Giroux and Bryz switched contracts, Holmgren is god.

You know what? I wouldn't swap those two contracts. Even for Giroux, I do not like lifetime contracts. 5 years, max. Heck, even JVR's contract is piddly by Homerian standards, but it's about 3 years too long for my taste. You just get the sense that there's no way JVR will even come close to Giroux's level, despite being a 2nd overall, and I'm not sure what the rush was to lock him up based on very little.

Of course, Giroux ended up being a gem, and looking at the 2006 draft now, I would pick him #1 overall... yes, even over Toews.

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@brelic

With Luongo and Bryz- I dont like either contract. However, from a quality standpoint, I would take luongo any day over Bryz. Luongo has always had a tremendous sv pctg and often faces allot of shots.

Re: JVR, I don't mind it that much. Their are kind of two ways to go with your young kids.

a) There is the Giroux approach where you give him a short term middle of the road contract that keeps him as a RFA when the contract is up and where- if he prospers, you know you will have to pay a kings ransom when the current contract is up.

and

B) where you pay more upfront, but for a longer time frame into and where the player is a UFA at the end of the contract.

Method (a) has lower front end risk, but higher back end risk from a cost perspective. Method (B) has lessor cost risk factor, but a higher reward risk factor (ie. what if JVR never pans out to anything more than a 20-20 guy, which I believe he will exceed).

As much as I like Toews, I would take Giroux ahead of Toews as well.

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