How many general managers will be fired before the summer?
It’s well known that “NHL head coach” is about as tenuous a position as you’ll find nowadays, but “NHL general manager” isn’t too far behind. Once a GM has scapegoated a coach or two, owners begin to look at them as the common denominator for why their teams are falling short of expectations. The dismissal of Tom Fitzgerald from the New Jersey Devils on Monday marked the third GM firing so far this season, following Brad Treliving from the Toronto Maple Leafs and Kevyn Adams from the Buffalo Sabres.
With the season winding down, and with more teams about to taste the disappointment of a failed season, there are several other GMs around the league that are standing on shaky ground, and could be out of a job before the next Stanley Cup champion is crowned.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed which current NHL GMs are on the hot seat as we near the postseason.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I think the obvious one is Detroit. If they end up missing the playoffs it’s going to be all eyes on Steve Yzerman. Vancouver may be a bit of an interesting situation as well. Anyone else, Hutts? Is it just those two? How many more GM changes do you think we could see this season?
Carter Hutton: You start to think about some of these teams that are moving in the wrong direction. I don’t know if I see anybody else being horribly out. The one for me would be if Vegas does keep losing and they have a quick four-game exit, I don’t know with (Kelly) McCrimmon and where they’re at, you see the head coach firing. There’s some interesting topics, but the Wings is the one that lights the lamp for me. Obviously you can talk about Ottawa, but Ottawa’s played so well, they’ve just had a lack of goaltending. I think (Steve) Staios and everyone is protected there. The Wings are the team for me with a lot of question marks because of the Yzerplan and the way they’re built. And then you look at this fall from grace, it’s been tough.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Tuesday’s episode here…