I believe we started putting builders into the Hall of Fame far too quickly. I also feel like ultimately it's hard to put builders in the Hall of Fame in a league such as this due to a lack of accountability held on GM's due to the lack of ownership and agency over teams. The only people who have the power to fire someone is head office and it is only after a breach of the rules, not for poor GM'ing. This is why I feel GM's like Wasty do not belong in the Hall of Fame despite longetivity, but that's not what I am getting into today. I am getting into the first two GM's inducted into the Hall of Fame. Joe McKeil and Tyler Brace.

Tyler Brace was a good GM. Don't get me wrong. He was an expansion GM for a team called the Texas Crew originally, changed to the Texas Renegades. He used his connections within an organization in the SHL called "The Crew" to recruit some of the top players in the league to join his team. He only GM'd for roughly 5 seasons and was able to procure a Challenge Cup. Pretty good, but back in the early days of the SHL it wasn't difficult to make a great team right out of expansion. Hell, LA and Minnesota both made the finals the year AFTER they were expansion teams. So why was Tyler impressive or exceptional? Spoiler, he wasn't, and really the only thing he had going was he was good in FA, but again, as someone in Crew it was only because of the blatant tampering going on at the time.

Joe McKeil is another case. He took over in Hamilton and GM'd for roughly 7 seasons, bringing home a single Challenge Cup. I love McKeil, he was one of the my favourite players I've ever drafted in the SMJHL, but his GM tenure isn't overly impressive. It's weird to have him in the Hall next to incredibly successful GM's like Leafs and Tez.

Both of these GM's were early entries, so it's understandable, but it does feel like it drags down the quality of the builder hall in the HOF