The NHL GMs under the most pressure this summer

The 2023 offseason is officially underway. Daily Faceoff president and insider Frank Seravalli talks with former NHL player and now Chicago Blackhawks analyst Colby Cohen about which NHL general managers are facing the most pressure. 

Frank Seravalli: In a general overview, which NHL general managers are facing the most pressure this summer? It’s an interesting question, as someone somewhere is always facing pressure, but more to the point, there are a number of really good answers with all the cap crunch, expectations and potential player movement. Who rises to the top of the list for you? 

Colby Cohen: So when I started to dig into this one, Frank, three names for very different reasons came to mind. I’ll start by talking about Steve Yzerman; he’s got $30 million in cap space this summer; that’s a lot of dough to play around with. 

Next up for me, is Jarmo Kekalainen in Columbus. They go out and hire Mike Babcock, and to me, that smells a bit like desperation. The seat is heating up; you’ve got Cole Sillinger, Kent Johnson and Marchenko all going to be restricted free agents the following season. Does he commit to them long-term, are they bridge deals? I think he’s facing a lot of pressure here to get over the hump. 

The last one for me is Brian MacLellan and the Washington Capitals. They go out and hire a rookie coach, pretty much are bringing back the same team as of now; only two forwards on their roster are technically unsigned, and they got $7 million in cap space. What do they do with Tom Wilson and Anthony Mantha? Those contracts expire next year. Ovechkin isn’t getting any younger, so they’re kind of in this influx position where I believe he’s got to get things turned around and salvage the final years for Ovechkin. 

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I agree with you.  I’m going to throw two other names at you; one is Kevin Cheveldayoff of the Winnipeg Jets. We know the turmoil that exists there right now in terms of moving out some of those pieces; three of the five players on our trade targets board are Jets players. it depends on how you look at it and could say the Jets are in a tough spot; they’re got to get some value for these guys who don’t want to be here anymore and want to leave. Or you could look at it like a significant opportunity with the premier young center on the market, the premier goalie in Connor Hellebuyck. To me, I think there’s an opportunity for the Jets, but then there’s also pressure to get it right. 

There’s pressure in Winnipeg, but there is also pressure, I think, in Boston. Don Sweeney put a lot of his eggs into one basket here with the best regular-season team in NHL history, and for good reason, to go after a Stanley Cup, but they fall in the first round. Are Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci coming back? If they are, then they got to make some real moves. Do they want to keep Tyler Bertuzzi? If so, that probably means saying goodbye to Taylor Hall. If you want to try and keep Dmitry Orlov, you’ll have to move one or maybe multiple defensemen like Mike Reilly and Matt Grzelyck. You went all in trading your futures, but there is real pressure now to take this Bruins team and put them on a path to success for next season.

You can watch the full episode here…