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On Wednesday the NHL announced Kevin Cheveldayoff, George McPhee, and Steve Yzerman as the three finalists for the GM of the Year award.
In this edition of the hotstove, we share our thoughts on which GM is most deserving.
Todd Cordell
I have to go with Kevin Cheveldayoff.
It's not so much the moves he made, although I loved the Paul Stastny trade, but rather the moves he didn't.
After missing the playoffs for the fifth time in six years, it would have been easy to press the panic button. Cheveldayoff didn't.
Rather than make sweeping changes, he kept his core in tact and relied on the development of the team's top young players, all of whom he drafted, to help them take the next step.
The results couldn't be much better. For my money, the Jets are the best team in the league. Headlined by Mark Scheifele (25), Jacob Trouba (24), Connor Hellebuyck (24), Josh Morrissey (23), Nik Ehlers (22), Kyle Connor (21), Jack Roslovic (21), and Patrik Laine (20), they have a fantastic core in place to help ensure they remain in that conversation for a long time.
I think Cheveldayoff deserves a lot of credit for sticking it out and allowing his guys time to develop. It has clearly paid off.
Mark Paul
The popular answer is going to be George McPhee because of what Vegas has been able to accomplish in their inaugural season. However, there's no way McPhee expected this from this team, and some of the players that he's "hit on" has been somewhat lucky. I credit more their head coach Gerard Gallant.
Cheveldayoff, however, has been at the helm since the Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and became the second iteration of the Jets. He's built an incredibly impressive team from top to bottom with a great combination of veterans and youngsters. So much homegrown talent and guys that he's brought in through trades over the years to build this roster.
Cheveldayoff should win GM of the year.
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