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General Manager of the Year award coming soon

Red Wings Hockey

Detroit Reds Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom, left, of Sweden, talks with team general manager Ken Holland after taking a team photo Monday, June 15, 2009 in Detroit. The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Detroit Red Wings 2-1 in Game 7 and win the Stanley Cup on Friday night. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

AP

Get your “Fire Glen Sather” jokes ready, because the NHL might introduce an annual award for the league’s best general manager, according to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun.

The first annual General Manager Award will indeed see the light of day this year.

You may remember this was Brian Burke’s idea a few years back and, finally, after careful vetting at the proper levels, the award is a go, a source told ESPN.com Saturday. Always made sense to me; if there’s a Jack Adams Award for coach of the year, why not a GM Award?

All 30 GMs had a ballot sent to them over the past week. It’s not clear at this point, but other people may also vote on it. What’s also not clear is when the award will be presented, whether it’ll be with the other awards in Las Vegas on June 23 or at a separate function.

But one thing’s for sure: There will be a GM Award for this season.

Who do you think should win it, then? Do you judge it by wins alone or just look at what that general manager had to work with in a given season? My inkling would be to consider someone like Vancouver’s Mike Gillis, but then again, Brian Burke is the guy who drafted the Sedin twins and Dave Nonis traded for Roberto Luongo.

It might be weird to reward a GM when most of those results are part of a multi-year process, but I love the idea of the award. More on that as the information leaks out.