Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill has completed the three-peat.
Nill was named the 2024-25 recipient of the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award during the 2025 NHL draft on Friday. It’s the third straight season Nill has won the honor.
Nill is the first person to win the award three times. He and Lou Lamoriello were the only two to win twice after Nill won his second straight last season and Lamoriello won in consecutive seasons with the New York Islanders in 2020 and 2021.
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“He operates with such a humility,” Stars’ assistant GM Mark Janko said about Nill. “He’s very humble, has high character, and it just filters through everybody that works around him and underneath him. It’s a desirable [organization] for people to work at or play at. I get emotional almost thinking about all the people that he’s touched.”
To complete the three-peat Nill beat out two other finalists: Bill Zito of the Florida Panthers and Kevin Cheveldayoff of the Winnipeg Jets. Nill finished with 139 points in the voting results compared to Zito’s 102 and Cheveldayoff’s 52, with the Stars’ GM getting 17 first-place votes, 17 second-place votes and three third-place votes.
Nill arrived in Dallas in 2013 and is the longest-tenured GM in Dallas Stars history. He has built a roster that has reached three straight Western Conference finals appearances.
His most notable move during the 2024-25 season was the March blockbuster trade with Carolina for forward Mikko Rantanen. On the same day, Nill signed Rantanen and Wyatt Johnston to long-term contracts.
“The Mikko trade was Jim,” Janko said. “We talked to Carolina three, four, five days before the [trade] deadline. It didn’t necessarily look like it was going to work out in terms of what the trade was going to be. Jim just kept circling back and circling back. When he gets his eye on something like that, he operates in a manner that is very unique but really excellent in the sense of he figures ways out to get there.”
Nill also acquired Mikael Granlund and Cody Ceci in a trade with San Jose on Feb. 1.
With NHL free agency around the corner, Nill has already been hard at work, reaching deals to re-sign captain Jamie Benn and veteran forward Matt Duchene. In addition, he traded forward Mason Marchment to the Seattle Kraken.
Nill is still searching for the Stars’ next head coach after parting ways with Pete DeBoer at the end of the season. Dallas has already interviewed former head coach Glen Gulutzan for the role.
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