Boylen Thinks 4 GMs Getting Undeserved Shoddy Treatment From Fans

Wouldn't it be great to be the GM of a hockey team and run it how you see fit? What strategy would you take? Would you stick to it throughout?


GMs are constantly being judged by fans and onlookers at every turn. Did he get full value for a player? Why didn't he trade this player? Why isn't he trading the pending UFA who is unlikely to re-sign? Sometimes these measurements are fair and others, well, not so much. Here are four GMs I think, for the most part, get a rough ride when they don't really deserve it.
 http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/44649-Boylen-Four-GMs-given-an-unnecessarily-hard-time.html

Shacks' Take:  Boylen is out to lunch on this one.  Of the four GM's he lists, one should have been fired years ago and only recently has had success, two the jury is still out on but are certainly not above criticism and the fourth is a puppet who's the figurehead of the worst run team in professional sports now that the Detroit Lions have found their way.  Let's break it down shall we:

Sather did a terrible job for 11 years before finally getting his act together this year.  Henrik Lundqvist is likely the only reason he's not on the unemployment line.  The Redden, Gomez and Drury contract rank as 3 of the 5 worst deals in NHL history. 

The jury is still out on Brian Burke but turning a bad team into an average team is not something to celebrate.  Long term the Kessel for Seguin/Hamilton deal is clearly tilted Boston's way.  If Toronto's goal is to sneak into the playoffs as the 8^th seed and hope to win a round he's clearly succeeded even though the Leafs are one slump from 10^th in the easier conference.  If the goal is to win the Stanley Cup, there's still a lot of work to do.  I guess in Toronto the bar is set so low, competing for a playoff spot is considered a success.

Feaster in Calgary hasn't had a long enough run to assess the job he's done.

Garth Snow took over in 2006 and after the first season where the Islanders made the playoffs, they've missed the playoffs for four straight years and are on course to miss again this year.  So he took over a playoff team and has led them straight to the bottom of the standing and somehow this is doing a good job.  Nothing the Isles do makes sense from picking Nabokov off waivers to hiring a back-up goalie to play GM. 

I'm not sure why Boylen wrote this article but it so far out it should be lost to cyberspace.