Dallas Stars’ Jim Nill On Winning GM Of The Year 3 Times Straight

Dallas Stars’ Jim Nill On Winning GM Of The Year 3 Times Straight

what does it mean to you to win the GM of the year award Third year in a row only GM in history to do so
Well it it’s a real honor but I really think it shows uh the people uh the commitment that everybody has in this organization because really it it’s an organizational award Uh it’s it’s not a one-man thing And I’m I’m very fortunate Um you know and and I I appreciate the other GMs in the league There’s some great GMs in the league A lot of good GMs in the league And and I’m not I’m not naive to that So it is a real honor but it’s it’s a real compliment to the organization right from the top right from ownership on down through management to coaches and players
Doesn’t matter that it was voted on by GMs and the panel because they were talking about the Dallas Stars and the respect they have around the league Yeah I I think you know our organization we we burn that respect U you know we try to we don’t always do things the right way all the time You try to as much as you can and uh that’s just how we try to operate
What were special challenges this year Obviously you made a trade for me that was I don’t want to say unusual but you guys had never been in that water before
Yeah it every year is unique Every year’s got something different you know we you know we’re just you know we’re getting prepared for free agency coming up and you have all these BL great schemes and stuff and we were kind of talking about how last year how we had all these plans and how we you know missed out on about four or five players So you don’t every year is different and you know injuries come into play Um so many different factors What did it mean to you to be able to share that award and be surprised by your wife and kids
Yeah that that that was kind of special Yeah when uh we what we had last night was our uh every night before the draft uh we always have us we get the whole staff together have our staff kind of to get ready for the draft and that and uh so I had no idea and uh all I got tap on the shoulder my wife and I’m like what are you doing here and the way we went from there and then to see my kids uh to be able to share this with my kids they flew in two of them flew in from Detroit came in yesterday and uh that was special the only downside was they didn’t bring their grandkids is with him So but that’s that’s the way it goes
That hurts grandpa’s heart
That does That does Since we got to here can you give us any update on the coaching search and just the whole
Yeah Yeah Really no update We’re still in the process It’s been a real good process Uh we’re still interviewing people and uh you know we’re getting it narrowed down and uh I’d like to get buttoned up here I’m not going to put a time frame on it but you know you got July 1 coming Uh there’s a lot of work to be done and whoever is going to be the coach and you know it’s going to have to hire some staff as we’ve seen Uh we’ve had some people leave for different reasons and stuff So lots of work to be done So something I’d like to get buttoned down as soon as we can but I’m not going to rush it just for the sake of a deadline
As you look towards free agency second round of the draft all that good stuff You got a lot of work to do to fill out a a roster here I guess what’s kind of the key considerations for you heading into these next couple days
Yeah Uh you know actually the roster’s kind of coming together maybe a little better than we thought It’s kind of things will fall into place So So we’re happy that way Now I know some things that you guys don’t know So uh but it’s it’s things have come together pretty good Uh there’ll still be some work to do but uh you know we’re just going through it methodically here Um you know making some some decisions and uh July 1st you don’t know where things are going to go But we’re going to monitor that Uh so we’ll just uh
see what the process is When those free agency windows open and you start hearing the ask getting around there’s always a lot of numbers
out there
Yeah
I guess where do you draw the line for yourself and the organization when it comes to what you’re willing to pay or how far you’re willing to go to get the player you want
We have a pretty good feel for that You know we you know first of all there’s a cap So you know there’s a limit Uh uh but then you you you know you take calls you field calls somebody might have a trade and that so that can train change your cap I guess cap pitcher anytime So we have to we have to listen to those Um it it’s it’s always evolving It’s it’s ever evolving You know July 1 you got to be careful It’s a can be a dangerous time Um it’s not one of those years where we’re going to be chasing a lot of big names You know we’ve we made a lot of our decisions were made during last year a little bit You know when you you had a Mo Ranton uh you had a you know we signed Wyatt Johnson we signed Jay Gotener Essa Lindell So a lot of those decisions were made during the year and part of that reason was so that we didn’t have to get in this situation where you got to sign certain things too So a lot of that was taken care of during the year Uh now there’s still the moves we have to make Uh we we know that but a lot of that work was done during the season Also
how much sleep do you get between now and July 2nd
Yeah it’s a busy time but once again I know we got a great staff We’re organized Uh we’ve been through this before and uh there’s a calmness We actually enjoy this time of year It’s enjoyable

Dallas Stars General Manager Jim Nill reacts to becoming the first GM to win the NHL General Manager of the Year Award three consecutive times. Hear Nill’s thoughts on building a championship-caliber roster, the Stars’ playoff journey, head coaching search, and what’s next for the team.

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