The NHL announced its three finalists for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award on Friday. Neither Brian MacLellan or Chris Patrick were among the finalists for the trophy despite a 20-point turnaround in the standings by the Washington Capitals and a retool on the fly that was the envy of other GMs across the league.
Kevin Cheveldayoff of the Winnipeg Jets, Jim Nill of the Dallas Stars, and Bill Zito of the Florida Panthers were announced to be the three finalists.
Voting for the award, according to an NHL press release, was done by “NHL general managers and a panel of League executives, print and broadcast media at the conclusion of the Second Round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.”
The Capitals, who ended up with the best record in the Eastern Conference, acquired or signed seven different regulars over the 2024 offseason including Logan Thompson, Jakob Chychrun, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Matt Roy, and Brandon Duhaime. The moves helped transform the Caps from a team that squeaked into the postseason in the final game of the regular season in 2024 to the first club to clinch a playoff spot in 2025.
What could have kiboshed a Capitals’ nomination may have been the timing of Chris Patrick’s promotion to general manager and the shared roles between Patrick and MacLellan over the last full year. Despite having a hand in all of the Caps’ offseason moves in the summer of 2024, Patrick remained the team’s associate general manager through July 7 as MacLellan was officially recognized as the team’s primary GM during the roster’s transformation.
The Capitals officially promoted Patrick to GM on July 8 once the team’s offseason moves were done. The timing gave Patrick a level of protection from criticism if the moves did not work out during his rookie season at the helm. But it also appears to have hobbled the Capitals’ front office from getting recognition in this award.
Here’s the full press release from the NHL:
Cheveldayoff, Nill and Zito Voted Finalists for Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award
NEW YORK (May 23, 2025) – Kevin Cheveldayoff of the Winnipeg Jets, Jim Nill of the Dallas Stars and Bill Zito of the Florida Panthers are the three finalists for the 2024-25 Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, the National Hockey League announced today.
Voting for this award was conducted among the NHL general managers and a panel of League executives, print and broadcast media at the conclusion of the Second Round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Following are the finalists for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, in alphabetical order:
Kevin Cheveldayoff, Winnipeg Jets
Under Cheveldayoff the Jets enjoyed the best regular season in franchise history (56-22-4, 116 points), capturing the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time. His first offseason move to the club that finished fourth in the NHL overall standings in 2023-24 was the hiring of head coach Scott Arniel, who became the first bench boss in League history to win his first eight games with a club. The Jets became the first team in NHL history to win 15 of its first 16 contests of a season and completed the season allowing the fewest goals in the NHL, with Arniel voted a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top coach. To a successful core led by captain/C Adam Lowry, C Mark Scheifele, LW Kyle Connor, LW Nikolaj Ehlers, D Josh Morrissey and G Connor Hellebuyck – Cheveldayoff draft picks all – the Winnipeg GM added LW Brandon Tanev and D Luke Schenn at the trade deadline. Cheveldayoff is a Jim Gregory finalist for the second time after a second-place finish in 2017-18.
Jim Nill, Dallas Stars
Nill’s Stars (50-26-6, 106 points) finished fifth in the NHL’s overall standings during the regular season, marking the first time the franchise posted a top-five finish in consecutive seasons since the Presidents’ Trophy-winning teams in 1997-98 and 1998-99. The club has advanced to the Conference Finals for the third consecutive season and fourth time in six years. Nill strengthened a perennially strong roster by adding C Mikael Granlund and D Cody Ceci from San Jose in early February and made headlines at the March 7 trade deadline with the acquisition of RW Mikko Rantanen from Carolina. Rantanen leads all playoff scorers with 9-11–20 in 14 GP, including a historic third-period hat trick vs. Colorado in Game 7 of the First Round. Nill, in his 12th season as Stars GM, is a Jim Gregory finalist for a record fifth time. Last season he joined Lou Lamoriello (2019-20 and 2020-21) as the only GM to capture the award in consecutive seasons, adding to third-place finishes in 2015-16 and 2019-20.
Bill Zito, Florida Panthers
Zito and the Panthers posted a 98-point regular season (47-31-4) and have advanced to the Eastern Conference Final for the third consecutive campaign in their bid for a third straight Stanley Cup Final appearance and a repeat of their championship season in 2023-24. Tasked with replacing several players from a Stanley Cup-winning roster, Zito made offseason free agent signings that included D Nate Schmidt, LW A.J. Greer, LW Tomas Nosek and C Jesper Boqvist. He further boosted the Panthers’ title defense prior to the trade deadline by adding D Seth Jones and LW Brad Marchand, who led all NHL scorers in the Second Round with 3-5–8 in 7 GP vs. Toronto. Zito is a Jim Gregory finalist for the third consecutive season and for the fourth time overall, following third-place finishes in 2020-21, 2022-23 and 2023-24. He ranks second to Nill (five) for the most finalist berths since the award was introduced in 2009-10. He is the first to be voted a finalist in four of his first five seasons as an NHL GM.
History
The NHL General Manager of the Year Award first was presented in 2009-10. It was renamed in 2019-20 in honor of Jim Gregory, the 2007 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee who served as Toronto Maple Leafs general manager and a League executive for four decades.
