from Sean McIndoe at Sportsnet,

We’re closing on the quarter mark of the NHL season. How secure is your favourite team’s front office feeling?

Unlike with coaches, it’s exceedingly rare to see a team make a mid-season GM change. While the Panthers shifted Tom Rowe behind the bench last year, you’d have to go back to Calgary’s Jay Feaster and Buffalo’s Darcy Regier in 2013 for the last time a GM was outright fired during a season. So when we talk about GMs being on the hot seat, that’s not to say they’re a bad week away from cleaning out their offices.

But it’s still true that some GMs are in better shape than others. Some guys are so secure that it’s almost impossible to imagine their team with someone else at the helm anytime soon; others might need a big season to save their jobs.

Today, let’s run through the entire league and take our best guess at whose seat might be feeling frosty, and whose could be starting to smoke.

Group No. 1: The ice-cold seats

These are the GMs who are basically untouchable right now, based on their team’s recent track record of success. We’re including them for the sake of completeness, but barring something ridiculous happening they’re not worth worrying about. That group includes Jim Rutherford (Penguins), David Poile (Predators), Stan Bowman (Blackhawks) and Steve Yzerman (Lightning).

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