You're right, elite offensive talent is usually from the draft, but chances to acquire established #1 centres or wingers have not been taken advantage of. They haven't had anyone as good as Pacioretty or Plekanec (who isn't exactly a #1c). Drouin may have been a highly drafted pick, but he had never performed at an elite level. Heck acquiring him using your best prospect who happens to be a puck moving defender, after losing your two best puck moving defenders in Subban and Markov shows how poor his vision is. Suzuki was a touted prospect as well and not exactly elite offensively in terms of potential.
As for the Price argument, I'd still stick by my argument mate. Price was signed for a gargantuan amount, an older #1 veteran defender was acquired for a younger #1 defender, in addition to trading away key prospects positionally/talent wise like Sergachev. Bergevin has built his team from the net out and done that rather poorly. Deals like the Toffoli signing were good, but after 9 years in, its just a hamster wheel of moves imo.
Ok so you agree that Elite offensive talent is usually obtained from the draft, either by a high pick or finding a gem like Kucherov, Stone, etc. But once they have that gem, teams aren't looking to trade them! IF they do, they will ask for elite pieces like in Dubois' case, it required Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic... Could the Habs match that offer? lol not even close... Kotkaniemi and Caufield doesn't do it. It would have been Suzuki, Romanov and a 1st. Habs weren't ready to do something like that.
Toffoli this season has been every bit as good as Pacioretty was for them for years. Tatar has been very good for them too, Pacioretty has been more than replaced, it's not been a problem. And while Plekanec was a great 2-way center, Danault has been providing the exact same thing the last few years.
Not sure why you talk about Drouin, I already made that same point, it might be the ONLY bad trade for Bergevin... And it's not like Drouin is an awful player, he's still a good playmaker capable of 50-60 pts per 82 games.
Getting Suzuki, Tatar and a 2nd for Pacioretty was a killer trade. I hope you agree because that's what pretty much everybody on the hockey planet thinks.
Again, not sure why you feel that you need to counter my Price argument, as... I have basically said the same thing? You have a weird concept of debating ideas lol
When you say "
An older #1 veteran defender was acquired for a younger #1 defender", are you talking about Weber vs Subban? You're late by 2-3 years... This was the thought the first two years but now everyone and their dog think the Habs easily got the more beneficial return, kinda confirmed by Nashville "dumping" Subban's contract.
I'm not sure how you can debate that list of trades I provided, these are FACTS, not opinions. It's pretty clear wins each and every time, unless you think guys like Anderson, Petry, Danault, etc are not good hockey players and more a detriment to their team.
Yes you are right, their team results have not been great, but it's certainly not because of Bergevin trades which was your INITIAL point that I needed to refute because it's simple NOT TRUE. So tell me, off that list I provided, which weren't good trades exactly? OUTSIDE of Drouin/Sergachev of course.
