Bergevin remains the author of the Habs misfortune. Last season, despite ample salary cap space, the Habs elected not to resign/extend Patches, which sent a clear signal that the Habs believed that Patches was in decline. Next, Bergevin misread the market at the TDL and failed to trade Patches, who promptly suffered an injury and further reduced his value. Next, Bergevin misread the offseason market by failing to take into account the availability of UFA scoring forwards (Kovy, Neil, etc.), who could be signed without giving up assets. To make matters worse, Hoffman, an established scorer with 2 years remaining on his contract, got traded for a song right before the draft. At that point, Bergevin was left with 2 bad choices-- trade Patches for what he can get now or keep Patches in hope that his trade value improves next season.