The Detroit Red Wings front office isn't the best in the league. Yet, anyway. If the Yzerplan ultimately looks like a genius move, then the Wings will have one of the best in hockey if they make annual playoff runs and add to their repertoire of Stanley Cups.
But until then, if I had to give it a grade, it'd be an 'incomplete,' and ranked near the middle of the pack. I wouldn't call Yzerman a 'good general manager' at the moment, because his rebuild hasn't helped the Wings break their playoff drought, even if it's gotten close over the past two seasons.
I can't call it bad, either. While the Wings regressed from 91 to 86 points between 2024 and 2025, they still played meaningful games throughout March and into April. That's more than I can say for some other NHL front offices.
Which ones are those? Before we talk about the smartest, let's talk about those front offices that need to be replaced.
The worst front office in hockey belongs to...the Buffalo Sabres
I know I've said this somewhere before, but they're the Pittsburgh Pirates of hockey. The JJ Peterka trade wrote that one home when Josh Doan and Michael Kesselring were the returns here.
Sabres fans also can't be happy that they saw Jack Eichel or Sam Reinhart win Stanley Cups in each of the past three years, with Eichel taking it in 2023 while Reinhart hoisted it over the past two summers. If Tage Thompson broke out just one year sooner, we might be writing a different article.
Anyway, there's also the underwhelming draft picks of the Kevyn Adams era besides Peterka. Owen Power has yet to look like a No. 1 overall pick, Peterka's in Utah, Matt Savoie's in Edmonton, and neither Zach Benson nor Jiri Kulich have lit up the league, even if they have potential.
Runners Up: The Nashville Predators did the exact opposite of the Sabres when Barry Trotz tried to buy success with aging free agents. Turns out, it was a bad idea, and the Preds may do nothing again this season.
The Calgary Flames probably wish they didn't host a borderline 'fire sale' over the past three seasons. This was a team in contention all year long, only to miss out on the playoffs. Imagine if they still had Matthew Tkachuk, Elias Lindholm, and Nikita Zadorov to go with some of the up and comers.
The best-run franchise in the NHL isn't even a contest and Red Wings fans know it
It's the Florida Panthers, hands down. Bill Zito has put on a clinic of how to keep a team together and put them in the best position for a three-peat. I mean, the guy maintained his core, with Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand, and Aaron Ekblad returning.
Just about every other front office would've been left scrambling to replace these guys. As for Zito, he's scoring 'hat tricks' when there are no games played. That's not the easiest thing to do in any sport.
Runners Up: Kelly McCrimmon has the Vegas Golden Knights on the cusp for a Cup once again with the Mitch Marner trade earlier this summer. Don't be surprised if (or when) the Knights square off in a rematch wtih the Panthers in June 2026, and it might just be the most memorable series in recent history.
Doug Armstrong showed the entire league how to retool a team and immediately get them back into the playoffs. He's been in Arch City forever, and it shows. He's calm, calculated, and cunning. But you know what? It works, and look at where the Blues are now.
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