The 6 NHL GMs and Front Offices That Should Be On the Hot Seat Next Season

They say it's much easier to fire a head coach than a general manager in professional sports, and that rings especially true in the NHL these days.

There have already been eight head coaching vacancies so far this spring, and we haven't even reached the Cup Final yet. Meanwhile, the only general manager moving on is Rob Blake, who "mutually" parted ways with the Los Angeles Kings after their first-round exit, as his contract was set to expire.

Just because NHL teams are more hesitant to give a GM the ax doesn't mean they should be. Here are six NHL GMs who should be on the hot seat—even if they won't be—headed into the 2025-26 season

Don Sweeney, Boston Bruins

If you guessed that this topic was inspired by Sweeney's two-year extension announced by the Bruins on Tuesday, you're correct.

Boston extended Sweeney through the 2027-28 season after a poor 2024-25 that saw Boston miss the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16. Sweeney's role in the direction of the franchise has been criticized by fans for a few years now.

On one hand, he's kept the team relevant with aggressive trade-deadline moves and free-agency signings. On the other, he's surrendered almost all of the Bruins' draft capital in this time frame ,and it finally caught up to him and the team this season.

He changed his strategy after essentially a decade of "win now" mode this trade deadline, finally accruing some high draft picks via tough decisions like trading franchise legend Brad Marchand and longtime defenseman Brandon Carlo to playoff teams.

Sweeney's tenure since 2015 has included eight playoff appearances, reaching Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, and a historic 2022-23 regular season. Still, the Bruins have only made it past the second round once since 2015, and the front office ran this window of relevancy to its absolute end as it came to a predictable halt this year.

While it's a positive for the future of the franchise that Sweeney bit the bullet and went into sell mode this past deadline, the Bruins' drafting and development under this front office have left much to be desired for years.

The last notable player the Bruins drafted was goaltender Jeremy Swayman in the fourth round in 2017. The last forward with a 20-goal season they drafted was Jake DeBrusk in the first round in 2015, but that draft lives in Bruins infamy, considering how badly they fumbled the players available.

Sweeney did a solid job righting the ship at the deadline, but he's got a lot of work to do at the draft and in free agency this offseason. You'd think the Bruins would've waited until the end of Sweeney's current contract next season to assess an extension, but he's been given a long leash with his decade-long tenure in Boston.

Steve Yzerman, Detroit Red Wings

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We've been told to trust the Yzerplan time and time again, and why would we doubt it?

Steve Yzerman is a Red Wings legend and did fantastic work helping build the Lightning's dynasty.

The Red Wings made progress last year as they woke up after hiring head coach Todd McLellan and only narrowly missed the playoffs. They've also got approximately $21.3 million in cap space to try to take the final steps in the plan this offseason. But it's been six years at the helm of the Red Wings for Yzerman, and he's officially under some pressure to make the playoffs this time around.

There have been some questionable moments as of late, like the Jake Walman trade to the Oilers that made the team worse for no significant assets and that brutal Justin Holl contract.

After an abysmal start, last season ended up being a decent step for the franchise. But it's time to put all the steps together to yield an actual ticket to the playoffs next year, or Yzerman will have to say a little more than "Just trust me, bro."

Barry Trotz, Nashville Predators

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Oh, GMBT, we wanted to love you. We wanted to see the rare coach-to-general-manager transition work out, especially for such a beloved NHL figure like Barry Trotz.

We wanted to see the aggressive moves, the effort to improve the team, and the transparency with the fans work out. Unfortunately, the first two years of Trotz's tenure as Predators GM have been disastrous.

We see what he was going for: avoiding a complete rebuild in the Juuse Saros era by doubling down on big free-agent signings and roster turnover. Unfortunately, going all-in on the likes of Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei failed to improve the team and made it older.

But it's finally clear at this point for the Predators, who've gone from middling to worse the past few years: A rebuild will be necessary. Let's see what Trotz does about it before we fully turn the page on his GM era.

Chris Drury, New York Rangers

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The Rangers have given Drury a considerable leash to enact bold plans.

Last season, he traded captain Jacob Trouba, Kaapo Kakko and Filip Chytil, among others, to send a message that no one was off the table in a down year for most of New York's stars.

The message wasn't particularly received well, with the entire team playing out of sync and suffering baffling defensive lapses after defensive lapse for the rest of the season.

The team parted ways with head coach Peter Laviolette when he made it clear he had no answers for how to stop this train wreck, so the pressure is on for Drury as the Rangers look for a bounce-back season.

So far, so good, considering Drury managed to hire the most coveted head coach of the offseason in longtime Penguins bench boss Mike Sullivan. Will he be able to improve morale enough, will the new acquisitions jell with the rest of the team, and will what's left of the core return to form?

Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford, Vancouver Canucks

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We can call the Canucks' front office the Allvin and Rutherford show at this point, right? Both of them have had some troubling moments at the helm of the Canucks this season.

There was the most recent infamous incident where Rutherford indicated Quinn Hughes wants to play with his brothers (most logically in New Jersey, where they both are).

There was a previous incident in which Allvin publicly tanked Brock Boeser's trade value.

Incidents aside, they traded away their top scorer due to off-ice drama, and team morale only got worse—as did on-ice play. Mind you, Allvin signed J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson to long-term contracts ahead of trading Miller. In retrospect, you see a disconnect too uninformed to ignore.

The Allvin and Rutherford hires are recent, yes, but given the state of the team, some public comments, and some moves that could've been avoided, we're watching them closely this offseason and beyond.

Kevin Cheveldayoff, Winnipeg Jets

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Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff falls off the radar when it comes to general manager hot seats, and that's exactly why his seat should be hot: He's been far too meek with this Jets team in the Connor Hellebuyck era.

We'll give him credit for extending Mark Scheifele and Hellebuyck to seven-year contracts amidst trade rumors at the beginning of the 2023-24 season, but he hasn't done enough at the deadlines or in the offseasons following to shore up the supporting cast around them. Thus, they get Hart Trophy regular seasons from Hellebuyck and win the Presidents' Trophy, but they run out of juice again and again when it comes to the postseason.

Should they go in a new, more aggressive direction with management? Perhaps a switcharoo between Nashville and Winnipeg is in order.