Members with most GM tenures

[Victor 11,009]

We are all familiar with the single-franchise records set by Seattle's Blake Campbell and Riga's Benjamin Zeptenbergs but their loyalty has meant they have largely been tied to the same two franchises. Apart from the Bears and the Reign, the duo only managed one other franchise each – the VHLM's Bratislava Watchmen. By contrast, some of the GMs in the league's history have bounced around multiple VHL franchises, had several stints with the same team, often decades apart, and dabbled in both the VHLM and VHLE. Below is every single GM to have gone at at least 5 separate GM stints over the years.

 

• Zack Gagnon - 11 @InstantRockstar

  VHL (2): S24-S25 Riga, S83-present Los Angeles

  VHLE (1): S80-S82 Rome

  VHLM (8): S21-S22 Kolari, S24 Oslo, S31-S35 Bern, S38-S42 Minot, S43-S45 Ottawa, S61 Las Vegas, S66-S76 San Diego, S77-S79 Miami

 

Started off as GM during his first VHL career as Zack Gagnon, rising quickly through the ranks to take over the embattled Riga Reign before facing player revolt and public criticism and stepping down after less than 2 seasons. Gagnon then resumed making his name in the VHLM, which he did while managing probably his most successful player to date, S32 playoff MVP Radislav Mjers. Gagnon then entered five players from the S46 to the S56 drafts, none of whom got much further than 100 TPE – this was also the period of his GM hiatus. The modern era for Gagnon began in S66, one season into Denver Wolfe's career, and has included an almost uninterrupted steady rise through the VHLM to the VHLE with Rome and finally the dream role in charge of LA which he holds to this day.

 

• Joey Kendrick – 9 @Kendrick

  VHL (3): S1-S2 Seattle, S17-S22 Helsinki, S31-S36 Cologne

  VHLM (6): S2 Fresno, S9-S11 Gothenburg, S14-S16 Brampton, S19 Kolari, S39-S41 Saskatoon, S55 Ottawa

 

Much of Kendrick's VHLM involvement came from his roles at the VHL parent organisation during the affiliation era in the minor league from S2 to S20. He co-managed Seattle and Fresno in S2 and helped his GMs in Riga and Toronto by overseeing VHLM operations in Gothenburg and Brampton whilst Torsten Schwarz and Malcolm Kelly suited up for the Reign and Legion respectively. Shortly after becoming Helsinki GM, Kendrick spent a season also GMing Kolari in the last season of the affiliation system in S19. He did dabble in the minor leagues again in their current guise towards the end of his original run in the league. Despite bringing a few players into the league since S55 there has been no sign a return to management is forthcoming.

 

• Chris Miller – 8 @Advantage

  VHL (4): S33-S46 New York, S50-S55 Stockholm, S56-S57 Cologne, S66-S70 Malmo

  VHLE (1): S80 Cologne

  VHLM (3): S20 Kolari, S28-S32 Kolari, S77-S79 Mexico City

 

Best known for his time in the “old” VHL, Chris Miller was particularly well respected for his tenure in charge of New York, leading that franchise through their greatest ever successes. He also tried his best to get Stockholm an elusive Continental Cup in the early 50s. Modern audiences will know him as the founding GM of Malmo and first GM of the resurrected Cologne in the VHLE (having been the last GM of the VHL version). Generally Miller has GMed in all of his stints in the VHL in some capacity so interestingly he has not yet picked up a role in his current comeback – perhaps his GMing run ends here?

 

• Frank Chadwick – 7 @Frank

  VHL (4): S24-S26 Davos, S37-S40 Quebec, S51-S58 Quebec, S84-present Vancouver

  VHLM (3): S28-S31 Vasteras, S42 Ottawa, S82-S83 San Diego

 

Frank has been around for so long it's easy to lose track of all his roles. He's most associated with the Quebec/Vancouver franchise where he is currently in charge for the third time and is probably indisputably the organisation's greatest ever GM, with 2 Continental Cups to show for his efforts. Less remembered is his very first GM stint, as the third GM of the S19-S25 Kanou/Brekker Davos dynasty, leading the team which featured as many as 7 future Hall of Famers to back-to-back championships. He also broke the VHLM Vasteras' Founder's Cup drought in S28 and had a couple other appearances in the VHLM to bulk up his CV.

 

• Tyler Barabash – 6 @Bushito

  VHL (3): S27-S31 Davos, S38-S43 Seattle, S56-S57 Stockholm-S58-S72 Calgary

  VHLM (3): S20 Brampton, S35-S37 Bern, S53-S55 Oslo

 

The man, the myth, the legend. Barabash was never the most loved GM in the VHL and his first two stints in the big leagues ended with him going inactive and the interim GM winning the cup that very season. Perhaps that was a sign of good team-building but not being able to see it through, but an inability to keep locker rooms satisfied continued even during a vindicating reign with Calgary. Barabash left the Wranglers under a cloud and has not been seen since. His numbers are bulked up by short VHLM tenures primarily used as a springboard for a VHL role.

 

• Greg Harbinson – 6 @gregreg

  VHL (3): S20-S28 Seattle, S34-S37 Seattle, S45-S54 Cologne

  VHLM (3): S17 Saskatoon, S30 Syracuse, S31 Oslo

 

Before Bana, Greg was the man associated with Seattle, having been in charge of the franchise on two separate occasions, most impressively during the “Seattle Six” era which captured the S28 Continental Cup (until the late 60s/early 70s dynasty this was the most recent run of sustained success for the Bears). Harbinson also dabbled in the VHLM, albeit always in very short-term bursts, before trying his hand at turning around the fortunes of the Cologne Express but bowing out with just one finals appearance – the franchise's last.

 

• Vince Wong – 6 @STZ

  VHL (3): S37-S41 Helsinki, S56-S60 New York, S92-present New York

  VHLM (3): S31-S36 Bratislava, S44-S45 Bern, S90-S91 Houston

 

Another old-timer in the line of those who have made multiple stops in the same organisation. Wong's current challenge is restoring New York's fortunes to at least the level they were at during his first stint, and ideally to the franchise's glory days which preceded that. He does however have history with other teams as well, being the founding GM of the Bratislava Watchmen and kicking off their run of VHLM success. That led to promotion to Helsinki where his first-gen, Ethan Osborne, made his name. Upon his most recent return, Wong also made a quick impression in the VHLM much like many of the other old names who resurfaced and wanted to prove themselves again.

 

• Zach Arce – 6 @Arce

  VHL (1): S14-S18 Vasteras/Madrid

  VHLE (1): S84-S86 Vasteras

  VHLM (4): S10-S13 Toledo, S14-S16 Vasteras, S83 Houston, S88-S91 San Diego

 

Arce has the unique distinction of having managed Vasteras in three different leagues, all made possible by one of most unexpected comebacks to the VHL after some 60 seasons away. He's also been a GM of both of the league's Spanish franchises having earned his stripes in charge of Davos' VHLM affiliate Toledo while Arce the player was embarking on a Hall of Fame career in Dynamo colours. Madrid probably should have won the cup with Arce in charge and history would have been different but instead they ended up back in Vasteras in S21. Toledo had moved to Bern by that point. In his comeback Arce actually spent more time in the VHLM and earning a good reputation as a development GM in the process.

 

• Jason Glasser - 5 @diamond_ace

  VHL (2): S26-S41 Calgary, S68-S80 Prague

  VHLM (3): S20-S25 Ottawa, S43-S45 Oslo, S59-S64 Ottawa

 

• Victor Alfredsson - 5

  VHL (3): S15-S16 New York, S34-S38 Davos, S65-S76 Moscow

  VHLM (2): S14 Ottawa, S49-S50 Yukon

 

• Ryan Power – 5 @Devise

  VHL (4): S30-S32 New York, S42-S44 Cologne, S51-S55 New York, S63-S69 Toronto

  VHLM (1): S27-S29 Brampton

 

• Brett Slobodzian – 5

  VHL (2): S1-S2 Calgary, S23-S24 Helsinki

  VHLM (3): S2 Minot, S8 Gothenburg, S37-S38 Saskatoon

 

• Davey Jones – 5 @Da Trifecta

  VHLM (5): S36-S37 Minot, S41-S42 Turku, S43 Bratislava, S51-S52 Bern, S63 Oslo

 

• Shawn Howard – 5 @TheLastOlympian07

  VHLM (5): S18-S19 Gothenburg/Oslo, S44-S49 Moscow, S50-S52 Oslo, S54 Saskatoon, S57-S58 Yukon

 

• Mickey Dickson – 5 @samx

  VHL (1): S90-S95 Helsinki

  VHLE (1): S81 Geneva

  VHLM (3): S79-S80 Halifax, S82-S84 Halifax, S89 Mexico City

 

The rest of the list is made up of those with 5 GM tenures so I won't dwell much further on this as there's only so many ways to say the same things over and over again. We have three people no one will be surprised to see on the list (diamond_ace, Devise, and yours truly), and an ancient name in Slobodzian who actually has very few seasons of GMing, but a surprisingly high number of separate tenures. It's quite interesting to see two on-and-off members who have appeared and disappeared many times over 90 seasons in Shawn Howard and Davey Jones, and fittingly they have only managed at the VHLM level, never convincing the powers that be that they will stick around long enough for a VHL GM role. And finally we have one member of what I would call the modern, post-S60 generation in Sam, with some leeway on the Halifax/Geneva/Halifax situation which may have inflated the number overall. I'm sure some of Sam's contemporaries will be joining the list in due course.

[Lemorse7 1,021]

Im at 4 

 

I just wants to be included

[Lemorse7 1,021]

Technically 5 too 

[Lemorse7 1,021]

Also 6 I was pretty much Malmo gm for 2 weeks when Dom was not available 

[Victor 11,009]

18 minutes ago, Lemorse7 said:

Also 6 I was pretty much Malmo gm for 2 weeks when Dom was not available 

I mean no. Also what 5 have you done?

[jacobcarson877 2,558]

2 hours ago, Victor said:

I mean no. Also what 5 have you done?

Miami, Philly, Philly, Vasteras, Riga is my count

[Beketov 9,095]

0 gang represent!*
 

*Unless you go by the official GM list but I call that list a liar because VHL teams were still in charge of the M at that time so I was just placed in charge but only for one season and don’t recall actually doing anything.

[Frank 5,245]

1 minute ago, Beketov said:

0 gang represent!*
 

*Unless you go by the official GM list but I call that list a liar because VHL teams were still in charge of the M at that time so I was just placed in charge but only for one season and don’t recall actually doing anything.

So guys with no experience doing the hiring for GM's. Explains how I got a position so many times. 

[Spartan 4,530]

1 hour ago, Frank said:

So guys with no experience doing the hiring for GM's. Explains how I got a position so many times. 

Yeah they gave Josh and Acyd mandatory GM rolese to claim experience!

[Lemorse7 1,021]

4 hours ago, Victor said:

I mean no. Also what 5 have you done?

 

2 hours ago, jacobcarson877 said:

Miami, Philly, Philly, Vasteras, Riga is my count

This 

[Lemorse7 1,021]

But Philly Vasteras Miami Philly Riga correct order 

[scoop 3,447]

Apparently I have six. Toledo, New York (x2), Yukon (x2) and apparently Ottawa. I literally do not have any recollection of being GM of Ottawa, but it is on the list.

[Victor 11,009]

11 hours ago, Lemorse7 said:

But Philly Vasteras Miami Philly Riga correct order 

Yeah fair enough you're on the list (you're not because I can't be bothered to edit it but you are in my heart x)

 

11 hours ago, scoop said:

Apparently I have six. Toledo, New York (x2), Yukon (x2) and apparently Ottawa. I literally do not have any recollection of being GM of Ottawa, but it is on the list.

Hmmm yeah I'm gonna blame your changing usernames for that omission. Even though it's pretty consistently Streetlight on the list so 

[Spartan 4,530]

@Victor has there ever been a GM who has changed teams in consecutive seasons but not to a freshly created expansion team? Aka the GM finishes a season GM'ing one team, then switches to GM another team for the next season?

[scoop 3,447]

1 hour ago, Spartan said:

@Victor has there ever been a GM who has changed teams in consecutive seasons but not to a freshly created expansion team? Aka the GM finishes a season GM'ing one team, then switches to GM another team for the next season?

Bushito went from GM of Stockholm (S57) to GM of Calgary (S58). This doesn't really count, however, because that was the last season of Stockholm, and there was an entire swap of the two teams' assets as part of the removal of Stockholm.

 

Advantage went from GM of Stockholm (S55) to GM of Cologne (S56), however he did not start S56 as GM of Cologne.

 

I don't feel like looking anymore.

[Victor 11,009]

2 hours ago, Spartan said:

@Victor has there ever been a GM who has changed teams in consecutive seasons but not to a freshly created expansion team? Aka the GM finishes a season GM'ing one team, then switches to GM another team for the next season?

Not in the VHL that I recall but plenty in the VHLM, some which you guys have enforced quite recently.

[Spartan 4,530]

1 hour ago, Victor said:

Not in the VHL that I recall but plenty in the VHLM, some which you guys have enforced quite recently.

Ah yes sorry, meant in the VHL. Interesting, thanks for the confirmation

[BOOM 8,809]

And people call ME a mercenary!

[Victor 11,009]

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[Victor 11,009]

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