What You Need to Understand about Jim Nill, Three-Time General Manager of the Year

Being a leader is much more than being a manager

During an excruciating and tedious first round of the NHL Draft on Friday night, the Dallas Stars got one moment to celebrate, regardless of the fact that they didn’t have a first-round pick.

That moment, which had been teased on Twitter Thursday by Stars President and CEO Brad Alberts, was the announcement of Jim Nill’s winning his third straight GM of the Year award.

This year, the NHL is surprising a lot of award recipients, and Nill was no exception. His wife and children (who flew into Dallas without his knowledge) crashed a team dinner to present Nill with a trophy he’s become quite familiar with in recent years. Give it a watch, if you haven’t. It’s quite touching.

This year, the voting was very close, but Nill narrowly beat out Bill Zito, who runs the two-time Cup champion Florida Panthers.

Voting takes place after the end of the second round of the playoffs, which has been a very good time for the Stars for three years in a row. The Stars have come off two straight overtime Game 6 wins in their last two second-round clinchers, and Nill’s moves have been a big part of the Stars’ success each time.

In 2022-23, Wyatt Johnston was a key part of the Stars’ success after Nill and Pete DeBoer kept Johnston up in the NHL as a teenager, right out of the OHL. Thomas Harley also acquitted himself quite well late in the season after being sent back down for most of the year up to that point to work with Neil Graham and company on rounding out his defensive game. Johnston scored a crucial Game 7 goal to get Dallas past Seattle in the second round, and Harley showed he was every bit worthy of the responsibilities he had been given.

In 2023-24, Nill made a shrewed trade for Chris Tanev after also signing Matt Duchene for a steep discount in the summer. Logan Stankoven likewise made his NHL debut that season, demonstrating how much depth the Stars had amassed though Nill’s drafting. Duchene scored the double-overtime goal to eliminate Colorado in the second round.

And this year, Nill had to figure out how to address significant injuries to key players in a season with a severely condensed schedule. He also brought Thomas Harley along for another coming out party with Team Canada at the Four Nations tournament, while his big trades to acquire Mikael Granlund, Cody Ceci, and Mikko Rantanen all looked like sheer genius after two of those players had (a) hat trick(s) in the Stars’ first two rounds.

Of course, Zito made big moves in Florida, too, like acquiring Seth Jones and Brad Marchand, to name but a couple. But through two rounds, when voting took place, Rantanen was looking like a Conn Smythe candidate, and Granlund’s hat trick against Winnipeg only served to reinforce just how deep the Stars team had become after Nill’s in-season moves. The Stars summarily took out two of the favorites to win the West (and the Cup) in Colorado and Winnipeg, and so it’s not hard to see why Nill ended up with the honor once again.

In summary, Nill’s moves weren’t just impactful through two rounds; they looked downright crucial to getting the Stars deep into the playoffs. And with a dramatic Harley overtime goal against Winnipeg in Game 6 fresh in voters’ minds, it’s not hard to see how Nill’s work earned yet another trophy.

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But what happens with regard to the hockey team’s playoff record is only one part of Nill’s job. Being a General Manager of any organization is a big responsibility, as evidenced by the word “general” in the title. You are responsible for basically everything, and that usually means such managers have to operate in one of three ways.

The first way is a fear-based management style, where everyone knows what the GM says goes, and you’d better steer clear of them if you’re not in their good graces. I’ve certainly worked for managers like this before, and it’s pretty rough. Even when things are going well, you always know that you’re only as valued as your most recent success. And when things take a turn, fear-based managers tend to look for others to blame, using intimidation and implicit (or explicit) threats to make sure everyone is working their hardest.

That way can guarantee a high floor of performance, I think, because people who stay in such organizations usually live in fear of being seen as slackers or dead weight. People work hard to distinguish themselves, and it can create a very competitive environment. But the fear is rank within those offices, and it usually ends up bubbling to the surface (or exploding) when the anxiety levels reach critical mass.

The second way mangement can do things is with wishful thinking. I once had this method described to me as the equivalent of a boss bringing donuts to an underperforming group, hoping the treat would convince people to work a little harder and slack off less out of gratitude. Usually these managers are conflict-avoidant, and it’s hard to really know where you stand with them, becuase they seem genuinely pretty nice to everyone, though they’re probably somewhat cagey about what they really think. They can even seem like they’re afraid of their own authority, sometimes looking for a reason to make a decision because of external factors rather than own up to making the call.

There’s nothing wrong with showing appreciation—donuts are good—but wishful management like this can be just as unpleasant as fear-based management, in the long term. Because everyone knows that there are standards, and that there are consequences for mistakes. And no matter how nice or aloof a manager might seem, you can reach a point where you almost wish they’d chew you out once in a while just so you had some kind of idea about what they thought of you. People want to know where they stand.

The third method of management is pretty obvious, really: