The feeling I get is that Bergevin did what he could to get a scorer but GMs wouldn't budge from their incredibly high asking prices so talented players just didn't move, to anyone.
Guys like Chayka in Arizona I'm sure thought he did the right thing by not bending and trading a player for less but in the end they still won't make the playoffs and they cost themselves an asset at the draft where they really need them. Why he or other GMs in that situation wouldn't sell for whatever the bestboffer was is beyond me. It's not like other GMs would think "ok, we can just low ball him in the future and he'll cave" as every year is different as are the circumstances.
In any case, I think once it was clear the Habs weren't going to get scoring help they had to pivot to plan B. Not as sexy but went from a Chicago/Pittsburgh model to a more robust LA/SJ model and bulked up. Hoping they bigger more worker like guys could spark the smaller and more talented players and help insulate them and allow them to do their thing and Price do his. With Weber, Benn, Emelin, Ott, Shaw, King, Martinsen, McCarron etc it'll be a lot harder to get through these guys to get to Price.
Not ideal and not planned but you have to give them credit for the "in draft adjustment" to try and make this team a tougher opponent in the playoffs to play against. On top of all the meat they added, those players are all very good defensively as well. So we have a lot more size, physicality and better defensive ability than we had to win out close games now and into the payoffs. Price will need to be our saviour now more than ever.
This going as far back as 2013-2014.
