Quote:
Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat
It's an interesting question, who is the worst GM?
Button did some good things, I thought (Conroy). At the end of the day, a lot of what he brought was part of the team that made it to the Finals in '04 but he also cost us the Cup because he bought out Martin St. Louis.
He was awful on coach hires (I'm 99% sure that Darryl Sutter being hired was over his head). The way he handled the Marc Savard situation was brutal as well. And Giguere for what was essentially Mika Elomo was terrible, too.
Coates brought in St. Louis, brought in Giguere, brought in Savard. He had a ton of good pieces in place that Button just flushed down the toilet.
Risebrough was strapped financially but essentially took what was a Cup-winning team and sewered them right down to nothing.
Maybe his only good move was trading Gary Leeman for Brian Skrudland, but then he let Skrudland go in the expansion draft. You could perhaps make an argument Nylander/Patrick/Zalapski for Suter/Ranheim/Drury was decent asset management. He traded Robert Svehla to Florida for next to nothing, Sergei Makarov for even less than that and the Gilmour/Leeman trade is awful even if you take Gilmour and Leeman out of it.
So I would say Risebrough is the worst. Button second worst.
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For me it is Button. As you outline, he really miss-managed some key situations and wound most of the good work that Coates had done. Boy - if they had just given Coates more time, what could have been.
I also look at the draft record and Riser's wasn't bad.
91 - blew the first rounder, but McCarthy was a solid 3rd rounder. The rest isn't great
92 - Fantastic. Stillman was a greaet pick at #6, putting up over 1000 games. But he found NHLers in Svehla (then given away), Bouchard and Hoglund.
93 - Blew the first, but found German Titov way down in the 10th.
94 - No home runs but a series of solid picks with Dignman, Clark, and a couple of other lessers.
95 - Denis Gauthier was a very solid pick at #20, and Wilm at #150 is good too.
His draft issue is a lack of home run picks but he did find players throughout various rounds.
Button
2000: Blew with with Krahn. Solid pick w/ Stoll who didn't sign. Moen is a good pick too I suppose.
2001: Kobasew is an ok pick at 14. Found Moss at #220
2002: Nystrom at #10 just isn't a good pick, though that first round ain't great overall. Lombardi at #90 is a home run. McBackup at #176 is also solid
So I guess overall the draft records are similar.
I still put Button as the worst.
The real shame of Riser's GM tenure is that it soured the memory of him as a player and his overall place in the franchise history. He would be remembered more fondly as a player if he wasn't such a terri-bad GM.