One first-place vote and one second-place vote for the General Manager of the Year award landed Ken Holland eighth on the ballots.
The award, handed out annually to the league’s top general manager as voted on by colleagues and a panel of NHL executives and media members, was handed to Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill for the second year in a row. Nill received 17 of 42 first-place votes, as well as eight second and nine third-place votes, giving him 118 points in the voting.
Second was Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin, received six first-place votes, 10 second-place votes and six third-place votes, for 66 voting points.
Here’s a full look at the voting:
Points | (1st-2nd-3rd) | 1. | Jim Nill, DAL | 118 | (17-8-9) |
2. | Patrik Allvin, VAN | 66 | (6-10-6) |
3. | Bill Zito, FLA | 64 | (7-8-5) |
4. | Chris Drury, NYR | 61 | (6-8-7) |
5. | Don Sweeney, BOS | 21 | (3-1-3) |
6. | Barry Trotz, NSH | 12 | (1-2-1) |
7. | Kevin Cheveldayoff, WPG | 9 | (0-1-6) |
8. | Ken Holland, EDM | 8 | (1-1-0) |
9. | Don Waddell, CAR | 7 | (0-1-4) |
10. | Daniel Briere, PHI | 5 | (1-0-0) |
11. | Chris MacFarland, COL | 4 | (0-1-1) |
12. | Kelly McCrimmon, VGK | 3 | (0-1-0) |
* Points allocation: 5-3-1 (1st-2nd-3rd)
The last calendar year for Holland had, all things considered, been relatively quiet. In free agency the Oilers signed Connor Brown, Lane Pederson, Drake Caggiula, Ben Gleason, and Noel Hoefenmayer in what were by-and-large minor league moves. In season, the Oilers made two trades, picking up Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick from the Anaheim Ducks and Troy Stecher from the Arizona Coyotes.
Nill’s resume of work this year was even smaller, with the offseason moves being the club trading Colin Miller to the New Jersey Devils for a late round pick, as well as signing Matt Duchene, Craig Smith, Sam Steel, Ty Dellandrea and Joel Hanley, the latter of whom was waived and claimed by the Calgary Flames in season. Speaking of the Flames, Nill’s only trade this season was to acquire Chris Tanev.
The second-place Allvin, meanwhile, may have been snubbed for the award. His off-season moves weren’t major, singing Ian Cole and Carson Soucy, but his in-season moves were vast. In September, Vancouver acquired goaltender Casey DeSmith and a month later, it was Sam Lafferty getting picked up.
He made two trades in November, sending Anthony Beauvillier to Chicago to clear cap space, then acquiring Nikita Zadorov from the Flames two days later. In December, they swung a minor deal for depth acquiring defenceman Nick Cicek, but the biggest move came in January. That’s when he sent a package to the Flames to pick up forward Elias Lindholm, who played a solid role for them throughout the rest of the season.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
