Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin secured second place in the voting for the 2023-24 Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, as announced Monday afternoon. The voting was conducted by NHL Club General Managers and a panel of NHL executives and media at the end of the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The NHL General Manager of the Year Award, first introduced in 2009-10, was renamed in 2019-20 to honour Jim Gregory, a 2007 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee who served as the Toronto Maple Leafs general manager and a League executive for four decades.
Allvin steered the Canucks to a Pacific Division title and the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, finishing with the third-highest point total in franchise history (50-23-9, 109 pts). A pivotal factor in the team’s success was the hiring of Rick Tocchet in January 2023. Tocchet, in his first full season with the club, won the 2023-24 Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top head coach.
Allvin bolstered Tocchet’s roster with several key moves last offseason, including the summer signings of free agents C Teddy Blueger, D Ian Cole, D Carson Soucy, and C Pius Suter, along with in-season trade acquisitions C Elias Lindholm, D Nikita Zadorov, and C Sam Lafferty.
Allvin received 66 points in the voting, while Bill Zito of the Florida Panthers (64) followed closely behind, edging fourth-place Chris Drury of the New York Rangers (61) in a closely contested race for second place.
Jim Nill of the Dallas Stars claimed this year’s award as a Jim Gregory finalist for a record fourth time and joins Lou Lamoriello (2019-20 and 2020-21) as the only GMs to win the award in consecutive seasons. Nill’s Stars (52-21-9) topped the Western Conference with 113 points, their highest total since the Stanley Cup-winning 1998-99 squad, and reached the Western Conference Final for the third time in five seasons, falling to the Edmonton Oilers.
With the offseason just weeks away, Allvin is expected to remain busy as Vancouver looks to build on their historic season. The Canucks GM will face tough decisions as many players are free agents heading into July.
