How Steve Yzerman won the 2015 NHL GM of the Year Award
Steve Yzerman may not have won the Stanley Cup last week, but he’ll end this season with some hardware after taking home the 2015 NHL General Manager of the Year.
“It’s been a lot of work,” said Yzerman. “A lot of decisions. A lot of changes, player wise, personnel wise, our staff wise. We’ve done a lot of different things. Some things have worked, some things haven’t worked. It’s nice to see us progressing. I wouldn’t be standing here if it weren’t. I literally wouldn’t be standing here.”
From the NHL:
After leading Tampa Bay to the Conference Finals in 2010-11, his first season in charge, Yzerman oversaw the rebuild to a roster that returned to the final four with just two holdovers from the 2011 squad, cornerstone center Steven Stamkos and defenseman Victor Hedman. Bolstered by key acquisitions through the draft (Nikita Kucherov, Ondrej Palat), via free agency (Brian Boyle, Valtteri Filppula, Tyler Johnson, Anton Stralman) and trades (Ben Bishop, Ryan Callahan, Braydon Coburn, Jason Garrison), the Lightning set franchise records with 50 wins and 108 points during the regular season. They also led the League with 262 goals and 32 home wins.
The season didn’t end the way the way Lightning would have liked. When asked if winning the award was bittersweet, given then past week’s events, Stevie Y was brief, “I would like to trade, but I don’t think Stan will.“
Here’s the voting breaking, which was done by all 30 GMs and a panel of NHL executives, print and broadcast media at the end of Round 2 of the playoffs.
Garth Snow did not receive enough love for this award. What more could he have done to turn around the Islanders’ fortunes heading into this season?
Finally, in a touch of great booking, Jordyn Leopold, the 11-year old daughter of Minnesota Wild defenseman Jordan Leopold, helped present the award with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. If you don’t know Jordyn’s great story from the trade deadline, read up here.
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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy
