Crack open a tall can \u2013 or two \u2013 of Monster Energy drink.<\/p>\n
The Ducks\u2019 Pat Verbeek, known for his affinity for the caffeinated beverage, was named as one of three finalists for the NHL\u2019s Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Verbeek, 61, joined Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin, who like Verbeek had a formidable playing career, and the Colorado Avalanche\u2019s Chris MacFarland as the last three executives standing.<\/p>\n
All three of the hopefuls have their teams in the second round of the playoffs. Colorado led Minnesota 3-1 in their series and the Ducks were deadlocked 2-2 with the Vegas Golden Knights ahead of Tuesday night\u2019s Game 5.<\/p>\n
Yet only the Ducks are something of a surprise to remain alive at this point. Colorado, who won it all in 2022, went wire-to-wire as the Stanley Cup favorite this season. Minnesota has made the postseason in 12 of its past 14 campaigns, and raised its profile in December when it dealt for dazzling defenseman Quinn Hughes in perhaps the biggest blockbuster in recent memory.<\/p>\n
The Ducks, on the other hand, had missed the playoffs seven years in a row<\/a>, the longest drought in the Western Conference. They were down to the low 20s in terms of their percentage of making the playoffs on MoneyPuck as recently as mid-January.<\/p>\n Verbeek took control of the front office in the thick of the 2021-22 season. He was brought in to mop up a mess made by Bob Murray in the final years of what had been a strong tenure.<\/p>\n Murray\u2019s era included runs to the conference finals in 2015 and 2017, as well as three consecutive nominations for GM of the year and one win.<\/p>\n Verbeek was aggressive in his approach, stacking assets in the form of draft picks and prospects while keeping expenditures low in terms of both player and coaching personnel.<\/p>\n With even his highest draft picks, he was also unafraid to go off the board, selecting Beckett Sennecke at No. 3 overall<\/a> in 2024 and Leo Carlsson at No. 2 overall<\/a> in 2023. He swung an elaborate and painstaking trade<\/a> to land another recent top-5 pick, Cutter Gauthier, after the former Boston College star refused to sign his entry-level deal with the Philadelphia Flyers.<\/p>\n This season, Gauthier, Carlsson and Sennecke finished first, second and third on the Ducks in scoring.<\/p>\n Last year under Greg Cronin, the first coach that Verbeek hired, the process began to bear fruit with a 21-point leap year-over-year. Over the summer, he installed Joel Quenneville<\/a>, the supremely qualified but recently disgraced head coach<\/a> of three Stanley Cup champions in Chicago.<\/p>\n Now, the Ducks are on the verge of reproducing the result that Quenneville got in his first year with the Blackhawks \u2013 there, he inherited a team that already had Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Patrick Sharp in place \u2013 when he reached the conference finals in Year 1.<\/p>\n