BriseBois, Drury, Sakic finalists for Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award

TAMPA, Fla.- Julien BriseBois of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Chris Drury of the New York Rangers and Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche are the three finalists for the 2021-22 Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, the National Hockey League announced today.

Voting for this award was conducted among the NHL general managers and a panel of League executives, print and broadcast media at the conclusion of the Second Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The winner will be announced at the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft, July 7-8 in Montreal.
The NHL General Manager of the Year Award was first 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.
Following are the finalists for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, in alphabetical order:
Julien BriseBois, Tampa Bay Lightning
Faced with several departures from the Lightning team that won a second consecutive Stanley Cup in 2020-21, BriseBois' roster management has helped Tampa Bay achieve yet more regular-season and playoff success. The Lightning went 51-23-8 in 2021-22 for 110 points, the third-highest total in franchise history, and continue their quest to become the first team since the 1980s New York Islanders to 'three-peat.' A quartet of forwards acquired by BriseBois since the Lightning last won the Stanley Cup - LW Nick Paul, LW Brandon Hagel, LW Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and RW Corey Perry - have contributed 15 goals during the team's current playoff run, including a pair by Paul in Tampa Bay's 2-1 win at Toronto in Game 7 of their First Round series. Hagel scored the game-winning goal in Game 2 vs. Toronto, Bellemare notched the game-winner in the series-opener at Florida in the Second Round and Perry scored in each of the first three games of the four-game sweep over the Panthers. BriseBois, who had served as Lightning Assistant General Manager under Steve Yzerman for eight years prior to his promotion to GM in September 2018, is a Jim Gregory finalist for the second time (2nd in 2019-20). He is vying to join Yzerman (2014-15) as the second Tampa Bay GM to capture top honors.

Chris Drury, New York Rangers
Named Rangers GM on May 5, 2021, Drury made a transformative move fewer than six weeks into his tenure by hiring head coach Gerard Gallant on June 16. Gallant became just the second head coach in franchise history to win 50+ games in his first season, guiding the Rangers (52-24-6, 110 points) to their best record since capturing the Presidents' Trophy in 2014-15 and a berth in the Eastern Conference Final. The team's overall League position (7th overall) represented its third-best finish in the past 25 seasons. Drury's roster adds included the 2021 summer trades for C Barclay Goodrow, RW Ryan Reaves and LW Sammy Blais, free agent LW Dryden Hunt, and the acquisition of D Justin Braun and C Andrew Copp, C Tyler Motte and C Frank Vatrano near the trade deadline. Drury joins Glen Sather (2nd in 2014-15) as Rangers GMs voted a Gregory finalist. He also is the third 'rookie' GM finalist in the past six seasons, joining Ottawa's Pierre Dorion (3rd in 2016-17) and Florida's Bill Zito (3rd in 2020-21) and is seeking to become the first rookie GM to capture the award. Over his 12-season NHL playing career, Drury captured the Calder Trophy as the League's top rookie in 1998-99 and won the Stanley Cup in 2000-01.

Joe Sakic, Colorado Avalanche
Under Sakic's direction the Avalanche recorded their best regular season in franchise history in 2021-22, posting 119 points (56-19-7), and are making the deepest postseason run since winning their last Stanley Cup in 2000-01. Their 308 regular-season goals (excluding shootouts) were the most since the inaugural season in Denver (326 in 1995-96). Sakic acquired starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper in a trade on July 28, 2021, and signed free agent C Darren Helm the following day. He strengthened the team further as the trade deadline approached, adding D Josh Manson on March 14 and LW Artturi Lehkonen and C Andrew Cogliano on March 21. Other key additions in Sakic's eight-year GM tenure include RW Mikko Rantanen (2015 draft), head coach Jared Bednar (2016), D Cale Makar (2017 draft), D Samuel Girard (2017 trade), D Bowen Byram (2019 draft), C Nazem Kadri(2019 trade), LW Andre Burakovsky (2019 trade), RW Valeri Nichushkin (2019 free agent) and D Devon Toews (2020 trade). Sakic is a Jim Gregory finalist for the first time. In his 20-season Hockey Hall of Fame playing career, all with the Colorado/Quebec franchise, Sakic won the Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award, Conn Smythe Trophy, Lady Byng Trophy, NHL Foundation Player Award and two Stanley Cups.

For more on the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, including a list of past winners, click
here
.