Much is made of the jobs NHL GMs do. Either they’re getting ripped for a bad signing or trade, or they’re being ridiculed for drafting a player too high, or they run a team that hasn’t lived up to expectations, so the team’s fans blame them. Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. They do get occasional credit when a trade, a signing, or a draft works out, but that moment is a lot more fleeting. 

However, that’s just what fans see. What an NHL GM actually does is far more intricate. In fact, the trades, signings and drafting are actually a rather small part of what they do. As the late Ray Shero once told me about the job of NHL GMs, he said, “We manage people.” 

Sounds simple, but it’s really not. Every day brings new challenges and things to handle. From needing a new workout room for the players, to the design for a new set of jerseys, to fielding complaints from players about one thing or another – the number of decisions they have to make is limitless. 

And that’s what’s so fascinating about Doug MacLean’s new book, “Game Day: The Uncensored Life Of An NHL GM.” MacLean and co-author Greg Oliver spoke with approximately 50 present and former NHL GMs, team presidents, front office executives and others to explore the true stories behind what it’s actually like being the General Manager of an NHL team. 

Originally, we were going to tell his story in the confines of a typical feature or column. But after my roughly 20-minute conversation with MacLean about his book, a Q&A style made a lot more sense. 

*Editor’s Note: Questions and Answers have been lightly edited for clarity. 

Question: Why did you decide now was the right time to write this book? 

MacLean: “I don’t know if there’s ever a right time. I had done ‘Draft Day’ and it was a really popular book with hockey fans and draft people. I guess sports people really seemed to like it. It’s funny, I teach a course with Sports Management Worldwide. I do it once a week, a GM-Scouting course and I get a call from Ricky Curran, the agent, two and a half years ago. 

“He said, ‘Doug, I do an agent course for this group out of Portland and they’re looking for a guy to do the GM course.’ And I said, ‘Oh yeah, why are they looking for a guy?’ And he said, ‘Well, Harry Sinden did it for 19 years, every Wednesday, and he retired from doing it at 94 years of age.’ Automatically, when I heard that story, I said, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna, I’ll do it. If Harry Sinden did it for 19 years, why wouldn’t I?’ He was one of my idols. So anyway, it’s an eight week course and one of the weeks the topic is the role of the General Manager. 

“I’ve been doing the course for, like I said, two and a half years, and I kept seeing changes to the job and evolving the job and the importance of the job. And I thought, gee, that’s kind of an interesting topic. And that’s where it came from. That’s why I decided to do it. I talked about it every course, every eight weeks. 

“We changed students every eight weeks. Every class, the GM comes up in the GM-Scouting course. And I thought, well, maybe it’s time to tell what the GM really does. And the job’s evolved over the years too. I don’t know if the job’s evolved, but the staffing’s certainly evolved. 

“My first year in The NHL, in 1987, we had nine people in the hockey operations department with the (St. Louis) Blues, including the GM and the coaches. Nine people. And today, the (Toronto Maple) Leafs have like 95 people in their hockey operations staff. So, the GM job has evolved, as well as the hockey operations departments have evolved. So I thought it was a good time to write it.” 

Question: What are a couple of changes your fellow GM brethren mentioned while talking to them for this book? 

MacLean: “There’s been a couple of things. Managing the cap has always been a major challenge, for every team, because it’s such a critical part of every organization. I’ll give you an example. Detroit Red Wings were $11 million below the cap last year. So you think, okay, that’s good business. If they hadn’t missed the playoffs 10 years in a row, it’s good business. 

“But what it does, it bothers your players and it bothers your fan base when you’re $11 million below the cap, especially when you’re a critical hockey market like Detroit is. It’s one of the big markets in The NHL. So the whole cap management part of it, it is one thing going to the cap, but most teams have problems as to what to handle when we’re at the peak. What strategy you can use when you’re at the peak to work in other players? We’ve seen that over the past. 

“Teams have won Stanley Cups because of it; with the injury component and all those types of things. Where Tampa won The Cup and they’re X amount over the cap. Vegas won The Cup and they’re X amount over the cap because of injuries. And then that’s been changed. So the whole manage of the cap is a critical area. 

“I talked to George McPhee in the book about it. I mean, their Capologist in Vegas is one of their most important guys, because of every nuance they can find to work around cap issues. Toronto right now, if you talk to the Leafs, they’re in a little bit of trouble because they got their tagging problem going on where they can’t add anybody right now. 

“People are blaming it on inexperience in the Capology department because they had let Brandon Pridham go, the guy that had been there for 12 years before. But the other big issue is the whole analytics department. Not a big issue. The addition of that. People have always had degrees of that, but not the way it is today. 

“What’s been really intriguing is the buy-in of analytics from the scouting community and the GM office. The buy-in of that. And the buy-in of the analytics people to respect the hockey people. So I think that’s been a very positive thing. I think those are the biggest changes I really see in the job.” 

Question: Given the nature of a GM’s job, what are one or two of the more interesting regrets that you found out about while writing this book? 

MacLean: “I think one regret, for a lot of people, and I’m speaking for myself here too, because I was in the chair for 11 years. I watch how people today are not ‘managing up’ well enough, because there’s all kinds of people wanna get in your owner’s ear. Whether it’s media people, friends of the owner, the owner’s accountant, the owner’s barber, whoever it is. 

“Managing up is one of the most important things that a GM has to do. As I said to my best friend, Jim Clark, we’ve been friends since second grade and he was my Assistant GM…he worked with me in Detroit, he worked with me in Florida, he worked with me in Columbus. I said to him when I got the job in Columbus, I said, ‘Jim, you’re now my second best friend.’ And he said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Mr. McConnell is now my new best friend.’ And when I said it, I wish I would’ve said it and really reacted and did it. 

“So managing up is a really critical thing. There’s no denying that, especially with the owners of today. A lot of them are data people that have made huge amounts of money in their businesses and data was a big part of their business. So, a lot of them are looking that way. That’s one thing: managing up. 

“I think the second issue that everybody eventually runs into, and it’s a really challenging one, is dealing with the media. The message that you put out; when you’re a GM and you’re in a confrontation with a player, 99% of the time, the media support the player and the fan base then support the player. 

“So, the messaging has gotta be really critical. It’s something I regret. I wish I would’ve worked at Sportsnet for a number of years before I got into management, because at the end, in Columbus, the media thing was a real vicious situation. It was like they were trying to get me fired. The owner of (one of) the newspapers was a (part) owner of the team and he was heavily involved with me getting fired. 

“So that’s something I regret. But it’s so hard to do, because the things that are said about you and you read about are many times so inaccurate, and lots are accurate. But a lot are inaccurate. So those are a couple things that I think every GM thinks about and talks about.” 

Question: So much of how a GM/Team President/Front Office Executive does their job is shrouded in secret, for good reason. So what was the challenge like of trying to get them to open up for this book? 

MacLean: “I think a big part of the book is, when I did ‘Draft Day,’ it wasn’t about ripping people. That wasn’t the gist of the book. So many books are written with the idea of dirt. I had a call from a former GM when I wrote ‘Draft Day,’ and I saw the phone number pop up and his name pop up on my screen. 

“I was a little nervous because I’d said a few things, and he said, ‘Doug, I gotta tell you, you were very fair to me and my GM in ‘Draft Day.’ I really appreciate that.’ And he said, ‘It’s one of the most accurate sports books I’ve ever read.’ He said, ‘As a matter of fact, you’re even kind to people I know you hate.’ So I thought, ‘Oh, okay, that’s an interesting take.’ But these guys, when I talked to them, I think there was a trust factor there that they trusted me that I wasn’t gonna put BS in there. 

“I was just gonna try to tell it the way it was. I don’t know if there’s any more to say than that. Did I also give people an opportunity to change their quotes? Yeah, I did. I contacted, with quotes that I thought were a little off. 

“I thought I should give them the opportunity to adjust them before it went to print. And they appreciated that. Some of them changed a little bit, like a word, but a lot of them didn’t change anything. But it’s not a controversial book. It’s just what the job it entails and the challenges of the job more than anything.” 

MacLean’s insights are quite revealing as they give a peek behind the curtain into the world of NHL General Managers. With that in mind, it’s easy to see how the book became an instant bestseller in Canada with The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. For those interested in learning more about the daily lives and jobs of NHL GMs, the book is available here:  

As MacLean said, “Every hockey fan, in every city, has major questions about their General Manager and the job he’s doing and what he’s doing with every aspect of the organization. This book explains every detail and every part of the job that a GM has to do. Whether it’s dealing with media, with fans, the owner, coaches, players, and all the interactions with agents. It covers everything.”