Sounds to me like BargainBin was trying to get the crème of the crème and would always end up of with scraps or fringe NHLers over the years. These players would somehow outperform themselves on a bottom feeder, barely capable of making the playoffs. When he inherited this team, a few players stood out and he couldn't manage to build a solid group contending for a championship.
A younger Price saved his job several times, but Jesus Price (as the organisation loves to brand him, but not officially), is older and has six years left before retirement at best.
Drafting was poor under Bergevin, reminiscent of the Peanut days. His short term fixes didn't allow for a proper rebuild, and the young group of promising players he inherited and he build around, are older.
This off season, the stars were aligned for MB to get creative. This was his big moment afterall to shine and he met expectations. After bringing in Toffoli and Anderson, fans are now starting to realize how overrated most players are on this team.
After MB gets canned, his successor would have to find ways to circumvent the cap and get rid of several bad contracts including Weber (seems like he no longer has any gas left in the tank), Price (terrible performances that are nowhere close to being paid 10.5 mil./yr), Byron (has no gas left in the tank), Drouin (having his best season since being acquired), Gallagher (likely the final years will be painful to watch for a player his style) and Anderson (still young but long contract).
Signing Byron to a 4 yr contract worth upwards of 3 mil per was a terrible mistake by BargainBin. Now, he needs cap flexibility and with this pandemic, teams have no room to absorb his contract. Hopefully, with the Seattle expansion and upcoming off season, the Habs can get creative with all this dead weight flowing around.
