These days, NHL general managers are some of the busiest people on the planet. After the trade deadline hits at 3 p.m. ET / noon PT on Friday, though, they can settle back into a life of living and dying with the result of each game or fretting that the kid they drafted three years ago is officially a bust and might represent a tipping point in terms of remaining employed.

Honestly, these guys must blast Pepto-Bismal out of a water bottle like a goalie who just got scored on when we’re not looking. 

Of course, the upside to being one of only 32 people in the world to do what you do is undeniably high. On the very top level, constructing a Stanley Cup champion is something that stays on your resume forever and, in some cases, might even be something you request be etched on your tombstone. 

Only six general managers in the league — Stan Bowman, Bill Zito, Ken Holland, Doug Armstrong, Julien BriseBois and Kelly McCrimmon — have a championship to their name while holding that title. 

That leaves 24 men still searching for that first ring as a GM and, of course, some are much closer to realizing that dream than others.

With that in mind, and as the craziness of deadline rumours whirl all around us, we thought it prudent to use this week’s Power Rankings as check-in on the GM chair for all 32 clubs.

1. Dallas Stars (38-14-9) Jim Nill is the third-longest tenured GM in the league. The Stars are set up to win the Cup now and for the next few years. They just have to actually do it. 

2. Colorado Avalanche (41-10-9) Chris MacFarland took over from Joe Sakic just after the Avs won their title in 2022. Relative to last season — when he fixed Colorado’s goaltending problem on the fly, traded Mikko Rantanen for Martin Necas and acquired Brock Nelson at the deadline — this has been a relatively quiet year. 

3. Carolina Hurricanes (39-16-6) Eric Tulsky is in his second year on the job and the Canes are basically mentioned as a possible destination for every big offensive fish that comes on the trade market. Tulsky is an analytics expert who has to figure out how to get this team over the top. 

4. Buffalo Sabres (36-19-6) The Sabres hired Jarmo Kekalainen as a senior advisor in May and, about six months later, he was the Sabres GM. Kekalainen brings much more experience to the seat than many of his predecessors in Buffalo and while it’s hard to give him much credit for the team’s incredible surge in the past three months, he’s a man with the conviction and knowledge to meet this big moment in Western New York. 

5. Tampa Bay Lighting (38-17-4) Julien BriseBois has been Tampa’s GM for nearly eight years and has two rings to his credit. He feels like the right guy to keep the Bolts’ window to win open as long as possible, and would it surprise anyone if he had the final say in constructing Canada’s men’s team for the 2028 World Cup and 2030 Olympics?

6. Minnesota Wild (36-16-10) Between acquiring Quinn Hughes and winning gold in Milan, Bill Guerin is having himself a year. This is Year 7 for him in Minny and the Wild are well-positioned to push for a title. 

7. Pittsburgh Penguins (31-16-13) When Kyle Dubas landed in 2023, he was trying to immediately revive a team going the wrong way by doing things like trading for Erik Karlsson. Once the mandate became more future-focused, though, Dubas started doing a masterful job of picking up players who are making Pittsburgh’s long-term outlook brighter. This team making the playoffs — especially with Sidney Crosby injured for a significant stretch — would be one of the stories of the season.

8. Montreal Canadiens (33-18-9) Kent Hughes, hired four years ago, has done a great job overseeing the total rebuild. Now comes the hard part: how to jump from being competent to true contender. 

9. Detroit Red Wings (35-20-7) Only five GMs have had their jobs longer than Wings legend Steve Yzerman in Detroit. Hired in 2019, Yzerman appears poised to finally end Detroit’s extended playoff drought — which feels like it had to happen this year to avoid some hard questions — and trading for John Gibson last summer is a major factor in that. 

10. Anaheim Ducks (34-24-3) Pat Verbeek just passed his four-year anniversary as Ducks GM and the team is as well-positioned for future titles as any in the league. Choosing Leo Carlsson and Beckett Sennecke high in the draft when the team could easily have gone in other directions is a feather in Verbeek’s cap. 

11. Columbus Blue Jackets (31-21-8) Don Waddell is in his second year on the job in Columbus. The Jackets missed the playoffs by a hair in Year 1 and are on the outside looking in. Say this, though: it’s hard to argue with Waddell’s decision to replace Dean Evason — who, granted, was also hired by Waddell — with 70-year-old Rick Bowness. Columbus is 12-2-1 since Bowness took over in January. 

12. Boston Bruins (34-21-5) Don Sweeney, now on the job for more than a decade in Boston, leaned into a hard sell at this time last year and his B’s are back challenging for a playoff spot. Acquiring Fraser Minten from Toronto 12 months ago looks like a sizable ‘W.’

13. New York Islanders (35-22-5) Mathieu Darche has been on the job less than a year and the Islanders are looking good for a playoff return. Yeah, that has more to do with Ilya Sorokin’s fantastic goaltending and the incredible good fortune of moving up 10 spots in the lottery to draft Matthew Schaefer than anything the GM has done, but Darche got a good return for Noah Dobson and added some playoff savvy in the form of Ondrej Palat before the Olympic break. It feels like the Isles are in good hands. 

14. Vegas Golden Knights (29-19-14) Kelly McCrimmon took over for George McPhee in 2019, ahead of the Knights’ third season. It’s always foot-to-the-floor time in Vegas, but the club has won just eight playoff games since claiming the 2023 Cup. 

15. Utah Mammoth (32-25-4) The liquidating of futures has already begun in Utah with the acquisition of MacKenzie Weegar from Calgary and Bill Armstrong — hired in 2020 to run the Arizona Coyotes — will be a GM worth watching through the deadline and into the next couple seasons as the Mammoth try to make hockey memories in Utah. 

16. Ottawa Senators (29-22-9) Steve Staios’ best move may have come at last year’s deadline, when he snagged Dylan Cozens from Buffalo for Josh Norris. That said, Staios — hired in November 2023 — is dangerously close to watching his team miss the playoffs one year after getting back in the derby. 

17. Washington Capitals (31-25-7) A year ago, Chris Patrick — tabbed as GM in 2024 — and the Caps were the darlings of the league for an on-the-fly retool that seemed too good to be true. Some of that lustre has been lost in a campaign where the Caps could miss the playoffs, but they still have a quality team with good prospects like Cole Hutson coming. Even if Alex Ovechkin calls it a career in a couple months, Washington should remain competitive. It always feels worthwhile during this type of discussion to point out the Capitals have had just four GMs — David Poile, George McPhee, Brian MacLennan (current president of hockey operations) and Patrick — since 1982. 

18. Edmonton Oilers (30-24-8) Stan Bowman was hired in 2024 to push the Oilers over the top. It didn’t happen in Year 1 and it’s fair to question some of the moves — hello, Tristan Jarry — he’s made in pursuit of that goal in Year 2. 

19. Seattle Kraken (29-23-9) It sure feels like Jason Botterill, promoted to the GM gig nearly 11 months ago, is itching to do something big. The Kraken went hard after Artemi Panarin and seem ready to move heaven and earth in pursuit of high-end talent the Kraken have yet to find. 

20. San Jose Sharks (30-25-4) Mike Grier took over a total rebuild in 2022 and, four years later, he’s at the helm of a team that looks like it can win a championship within the next two or three years. Credit Grier for looking at the standings this year and deciding to reward his team with the acquisition of Kiefer Sherwood. 

21. Philadelphia Flyers (28-21-11) Hired nearly three years ago to the day, Daniel Briere finds himself a seller again in Philly. That’s not necessarily the end of the world given where the team was, but it’s still hard to make heads or tails of what the Flyers’ future holds. 

22. New Jersey Devils (31-29-2) This has been a hugely disappointing campaign in Jersey and it’s fair to wonder if everything is on the table after the season. Tom Fitzgerald has been the GM since 2020.

23. Toronto Maple Leafs (27-24-11) Brad Treliving became the GM in 2023 and failed, in his first two seasons, to find the missing championship piece in Toronto. Now, as the Leafs embark on a new chapter, Treliving’s job description will change and people will most certainly speculate about his job security. 

24. Nashville Predators (27-26-8) What an odd two-plus year tenure Barry Trotz had as Nashville’s GM. He spent big, but apparently on the wrong players and now he’s made the decision to step away. Trotz will keep the seat warm until a new GM comes to town and gets to work on the huge lift of making Nashville a contender again. 

25. Florida Panthers (30-28-3) Bill Zito — hired in 2020 — has built a team that went to three straight finals and won the past two titles. Nobody is going to hold an injury-ravaged gap year against him. 

26. Los Angeles Kings (24-22-14) Ken Holland is in Year 1 on the job in L.A. and fired coach Jim Hiller coming out of the Olympic break. The Kings are sliding the wrong way under Holland, who is likely to go big-game hunting in the summer if he can’t swing another Artemi Panarin-like deal before the deadline. 

27. Winnipeg Jets (24-26-10) When Doug Armstrong sheds his GM label to move upstairs full time in St. Louis this summer, Winnipeg’s Kevin Cheveldayoff — hired in 2011 — will become the longest-tenured general manager in the NHL. It sure feels like he has a job for life in Manitoba, but another season like this one might put that notion to the test. 

28. Chicago Blackhawks (23-28-10) Kyle Davidson was hired in 2021 to execute a ground-up rebuild, and that does take time. However, it doesn’t help that a team in a very similar position and on the same kind of timeline — the San Jose Sharks — appears well ahead of the Hawks. 

29. St. Louis Blues (23-29-9) As noted, Doug Armstrong — who was hired in 2010 and has held his job longer than any GM in the league — will shuffle aside in coming month in a succession plan that sees Alex Steen take over. The latter becomes the main decision-maker at a time where just about anything seems on the table in St. Louis. 

30. Calgary Flames (24-29-7) A lot of Craig Conroy’s moves in recent years involved dealing veteran talent (usually on an expiring contract) for players or prospects in their early-20s. As Sportsnet’s Eric Francis noted, sending MacKenzie Weegar to Utah for three draft picks represents an organizational shift for Calgary. 

31. New York Rangers (23-29-8) Chris Drury has been the GM since 2021 and the Rangers have been going the wrong way for the past two years. You have to wonder how confident Blueshirts backers are in Drury being the guy overseeing another reset that — depending on how things break — could bubble into full-rebuild territory. 

32. Vancouver Canucks (18-36-7) Patrik Allvin took over as Canucks GM four years ago and it seems like there hasn’t been a dull moment since. At least now Canucks fans can sink in knowing the plan is to draft as high as possible the next couple Junes and completely reconstruct what’s happening on the West Coast.