Dallas Stars: Jim Nill wins the Jim Gregory general manager of the year award

On Monday, the NHL announced that Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill has received the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year award for the 2023-2024 season. The NHL’s announcement marked Nill’s second consecutive year receiving the annual award recognizing the work of a top NHL general manager. Nill joins Lou Lamoriello as the only CEOs to win the award multiple times.

– said Dallas Stars owner and governor Tom Gaglardi NHL.com: “Earning this award for two consecutive seasons is a testament to the work that Jim and his entire staff have done over the past decade…Year after year, he continues to position our franchise to compete for championships with his expertise in drafting, development and talent acquisition. We will work together towards the goal of winning another Stanley Cup for Dallas.”

In his eleventh season as general manager of the Dallas Stars, Jim Nill’s Stars scored 113 points in the 2023-24 NHL regular season, compiling a record of 52-21-9. Since moving to Dallas in the 1993-94 season, the Stars have scored the second-most points in the regular season, one point behind the team that won the Stanley Cup in 1998-99. They scored the most points in the Western Conference and finished the season one point behind the Presidents’ Trophy winner New York Rangers. They advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the second year in a row and third in the last five seasons. Their 54 postseason wins under Nill are tied for third in the NHL with the Rangers, and their total of 104 postseason games ranks fourth.

Jim Nill started the 2023-2024 season by strengthening the Stars’ lineup and signing veteran Matt Duchene to a one-year, $3 million contract. Duchene finished the season third in team scoring and fifth in goals. And at the 2024 trade deadline, Nill acquired veteran defenseman Chris Tanew, who quickly raised the Stars’ bar and played an important role in the Stars’ path to the Western Conference Finals.

JimNill helped the stars in the NHL draft. Wyatt Johnston, the Stars’ first-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, led the Stars in goals, shared third place in points and finished seventh in assists in 82 games in 2023-24. In the playoffs, Johnston led the club in goals and was the first points scorer in 19 games. Logan Stankoven, the Stars’ second-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut in 2023-24 and scored goals in three straight games, becoming the fifth Stars rookie in the last five years to record a streak three goals in a row. In 24 regular season games, Stankoven recorded 14 points, 51 shots and a plus-10 rating.

During Jim Nill’s tenure, the Stars compiled a 455-301-107 record and made the Stanley Cup Playoffs seven times. Nill received his first General Manager of the Year nomination in 2015-16 after the Stars finished first in the Western Conference during the regular season. He was nominated for the second time after the 2019-20 NHL season, when the Stars reached the 2020 Stanley Cup Final before losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games.

The Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award is an annual award recognizing the work of a top NHL general manager. After the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, voting takes place among the NHL’s 32 general managers, a panel of NHL executives and the print and broadcast media. The award was first presented in 2010. It was renamed in 2019–2020 to honor longtime NHL executive Jim Gregory.