Six NHL general managers under the most pressure in 2025-26

Every NHL general manager ultimately shares the same goal of winning, but the path to building a roster worthy of a Stanley Cup can take many forms. 

There are many pressure points along the way. It’s with that in mind that we’re taking a closer look at six general managers who find themselves staring down a season that holds a little more pressure than most. Whether it’s about showing signs of life in the playoff hunt, winning it all, navigating a star-studded puzzle or signing on the dotted line, these six GMs each face a unique kind of pressure heading into the 2025-26 campaign. 

Bill Armstrong, Utah Mammoth

With all the challenges that came with moving and rebranding an entire NHL franchise in a single summer, the actual hockey that followed almost felt like a bonus last year. Still, the squad made an excellent first impression in Salt Lake City and while they didn’t make playoff hopes a reality, the chance to show their fans meaningful hockey down the stretch did much to garner excitement and set up the 2025-26 campaign. 

Along with a new name this season (Hello, Mammoth!) comes new expectations that this rebuild is in the books. It’s time for GM Bill Armstrong to ice a team that’s ready to contend. 

Ryan and Ashley Smith spared no expense in getting this team to Utah and building the club a new practice facility to call home, and now that they’ve brought NHL hockey to the state, they have made clear their expectations of bringing playoff hockey to the market, too — and fast.  

The blockbuster trade for JJ Peterka this past summer marked the second straight off-season the Mammoth have made a big splash on the trade market (they brought in Mikhail Sergachev ahead of Year 1) and you can bet that when trade rumours arise over the course of this upcoming campaign, Utah will be in on them. 

The momentum is there. Can Armstrong capitalize?

Kyle Dubas, Pittsburgh Penguins

Unlike most of his peers, Dubas isn’t staring down a mountain of playoff pressure this season. The Penguins are clearly hitting the reset button heading into 2025-26, with win projections sitting… well, they’re pretty low. 

It’s those low expectations, though, that bring high pressure to this situation — because this is a roster with a Stanley Cup-winning, Hall of Fame-destined core of Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, and of course Sidney Crosby. 

Dubas is either looking at a season in which the final year(s) of this foundational trio is frittered away on a pile of losses, or facing the possibility of trading away a franchise icon and one of the best players to ever lace up the skates. 

Questions are already circulating about whether Crosby could be traded, but this is an incredibly delicate situation with no easy answer — and a lot of pressure, either way.

Kevyn Adams, Buffalo Sabres

It’s not just the fact that the Sabres are in sole possession of the NHL’s longest playoff drought — it’s the fact that, of their 14 playoffs-less seasons since the franchise lost to the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 7 of the 2011 Eastern Conference quarter-finals, there’s been very little evidence the team is moving in the right direction. 

Adams has been at the helm of the front office for five of those years, his tenure opening on a hopeful tone but ultimately devolving into fans chanting in-game for his dismissal. Top talent has come and gone. More has arrived. His frustrations have been obvious, thanks to comments like last season’s, “we don’t have palm trees. We have high taxes.” True as that statement may be, it earned him the ire of Sabres faithful (hence the chants).

Last spring saw the Sabres lose their spot in line as fellow Atlantic Division rebuilders in Ottawa and Montreal leapfrogged them in the standings to jump out of their own rebuilds and into the post-season. What’s it going to take for the Sabres to challenge them?

There’s no more room for moral victories in Buffalo. The only measure of success is a playoff berth. If Adams can’t build a team that gets there, we’re most likely looking at another off-season of change in Buffalo — including in the front office. 

Stan Bowman, Edmonton Oilers

Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin just dodged a season-long string of questions about Kirill Kaprizov’s contract status with the record-setting $136-million extension signed Tuesday. 

You’re up next, Bowman. 

With back-to-back berths in the Stanley Cup Final ending in back-to-back heartbreaking losses, there’s no market in the league with more pressure to finally win it all. And yet the contract status of Connor McDavid, who is scheduled to hit unrestricted free agency July 1, is the biggest story in Edmonton — and across the league — as the team prepares for the season ahead. 

McDavid has preached a patient approach when he’s spoken of negotiations. Whatever deal he does sign next will surely set new standards in the league — and, considering Kaprizov’s $17-million AAV, that’s a particularly tall order now — and send new ripples around the NHL. 

Should McDavid open his contract year without an extension, the questions and speculation will only grow louder, with any struggles out of the gates amplified. How will Bowman navigate locking down the best player in the game? 

Steve Yzerman, Detroit Red Wings

Detroit has missed the playoffs nine straight seasons, seven of which have been with Steve Yzerman at the helm. We all knew the franchise would be in for a total rebuild when he took over in the spring of 2019, but after a few years of false starts and failed launches, questions about when this team is ready to contend grow louder. 

Each year brings another injection of youth, and greater expectations that the team will finally click and jump into the post-season. But instead, the club remains stuck in rebuild mode, and while Yzerman appears to have endless patience, the same cannot be said of the players. Last spring, Dylan Larkin admitted to reporters it was hard to see the team stand pat at the deadline — especially seeing Atlantic rivals like Montreal and Ottawa emerge from their own rebuilds to claim a playoff spot the Red Wings should’ve been pushing for. 

Is this the year they finally make the jump? And what happens if it isn’t?

Barry Trotz, Nashville Predators

Last summer’s shopping spree was supposed to launch the Predators into serious contention but instead the team went in the complete opposite direction. Scoring dried up despite bringing in elite players like Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, and questions have cropped up ahead of 2025-26. Is a bounce back in store? 

GM Barry Trotz could have a puzzle (and a salary cap conundrum) ahead of him if early-season returns don’t show signs of improvement. A handful of no-move clauses complicate what action Trotz can take, but if the Predators find themselves near the bottom of the standings come mid-season, this could become a messy situation.