Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award

Description: First awarded in 2009-10, the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award is presented annually “to the League’s most outstanding general manager.”

Voting: NHL general managers and a panel of League executives, print and broadcast media vote for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award at the conclusion of the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the top three vote-getters designated as finalists.

History: The NHL General Manager of the Year Award first was presented in 2009-10. It was renamed in 2019-20 in honor of Jim Gregory, the 2007 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee who served as Toronto Maple Leafs general manager and a League executive for four decades.

2025-26 Winner: Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin won the 2025-26 Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award. Guerin, the first recipient in Wild history, was named on 37 of 40 ballots as a top-three selection for 131 voting points, finishing atop a close race with second-place Chris MacFarland of the Colorado Avalanche (123 points). Guerin’s blockbuster move to acquire Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Quinn Hughes in a Dec. 12 trade sparked the Wild (46‑24‑12, 104 points) to the seventh-best record in the NHL and a First Round playoff win over the No. 3 overall Dallas Stars. Hughes logged an average of 27:54 per game in his 48 regular-season games with Minnesota, the highest figure in the NHL over that span, and tallied 5-48—53 to set franchise records for assists and points in a season by a defenseman. Hughes joined an already-strong Wild roster that Guerin had built serving as Wild GM since 2019, including 50+ point scorers Kirill Kaprizov (89; who Guerin signed to an eight-year extension prior to the start of the season), Matt Boldy (85), Mats Zuccarello (54), Joel Eriksson Ek (51) and Brock Faber (51). Other additions to the Wild included summer acquisitions Vladimir Tarasenko and Nico Sturm and Trade Deadline moves for Bobby Brink, Nick Foligno and Jeff Petry.