As caught by the Thrasher Backer blog, Thrashers general manager Rick Dudley is NHL.com’s mid-season pick for general manager of the year:
↵↵It’s never easy to sacrifice young talent or draft picks when one attempt to improve his hockey club in quicker fashion, but Rick Dudley went for it last summer. So far, it’s paying off.
↵Dudley, who surrendered the likes of Jeremy Morin and first- and second-round picks to land Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd from the Chicago Blackhawks during the offseason, and had the courage to give a 60-year-old his first head-coaching gig in the National Hockey League, is mainly responsible for the Thrashers’ 180-degree turn in 2010-11.
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