But when in Montreal, the team sold him so well that he re-signed. With Alzner, the visit he had in Montreal was enough for him to cancel meetings with other teams because he felt it was the perfect fit. Brendan Shanahan met with the Habs, was going to come sign, had a flight issue, decided to take a meeting in New York and signed with the Rangers. Steven Stamkos had a bunch of meetings with teams, including Montreal, had his meeting with Toronto, got shook by how big of a meeting it was, and decided to cancel all other meetings and re-sign with Tampa. That doesn't mean the other teams had bad offers.
The talk around the league at free agency was that Karl Alzner was the second best defenceman on the market that summer behind Shattenkirk.
Hockey News had him as the #3 Free Agent on their Top 30 list:
When Montreal signed him, it was 90% positive on Sportsnet and TSN about how he was an upgrade on Emelin and proved he could be a top pairing defenceman due to his days with Carlson. It was really
folks like myself and others who were on here bashing the signing from day one, which is why those threads are so funny to read.
Maybe Alzner is the last time a GM takes a big chance on a defence only player... oh wait, Erik Gudbranson got three years at $4M from Vancouver. Nope, dumb GMs exist everywhere, and they will always make mistakes. Eventually the five years that Moore got in Boston and three years Oleksiak got in Pittsburgh will be looked at as dumb, but at least those were at half the price.
Alzner is Montreal's problem, but if their pitch wasn't as strong, he would have become someone else's problem, at pretty much the same contract. Marc Bergevin not being the only idiot doesn't diminish the fact he's an idiot here.