At the halfway point of the first round on Friday night, the NHL handed out its final award of the season, the Jim Gregory Award. Given the league's top General Manager and voted on by the 32 GMs in the league, among others, the honor went to Minnesota GM Bill Guerin, despite receiving the second-most first-place votes to then-Colorado GM Chris MacFarland.
Not only was the win for Guerin a little surprising, but the finish of the Hurricanes' GM Eric Tulsky was also very eye-opening. Despite an offseason that saw him make several big-time moves to improve the team, Tulsky finished sixth for the award. He didn't receive a single vote to finish in first, while getting two second-place votes and eight for third place.
When the nominees for the award were announced, many were quick to point out that Tulsky not being among the finalists was wrong. However, this finish is laughable. Maybe it's the fact that some of those in charge don't like the analytical guys. Maybe it's that they vote for the award after the first round of the playoffs ends. Whatever it is, it was the wrong decision.
Guerin's biggest move this season saw him trade for Quinn Hughes, which was easily one of the year's biggest trades. However, it's easy to make a trade for a player of Hughes' caliber look good. Meanwhile, Tulsky signed the league's top free agent (Ehlers) and made a bold sign-and-trade with New York (Miller). That doesn't take into account the injuries they navigated early in the season.
At the end of the day, the last laugh belongs to Tulsky and the Hurricanes. After all, they were the last team standing at the top of the mountain. Only one General Manager got to hoist the Stanley Cup in June, and Tulsky was that man. He'll receive his flowers sometime in the future for sure, but it's still a head-scratcher in the grand scheme of the award.
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