Sometimes, what makes a GM great is the deal he didn't sign.....for instance Ryan Clowe, or David Clarkson, or Benoit Pouliot....I can go on and on and on with these stupid long term high dollar deals for aging declining players. Bergevin understands this and has yet to cripple his team or bent under the pressure of its fan base...especially in the hockey Mecca of the world.
He's overpaid for young players like Emelin and Eller, but these guys were signed at a young age while their contracts will terminate before they hit 30-31. It was a miss calculation yes, but the players are not declining, they've merely just plateau'd. He's not perfect, no GM is, but his pros out way his cons by a country mile...NHL GM's and hockey Canada know this, only here do you see people bashing our GM for they have the hockey vision of a mouse, many people don't get the BIG PICTURE
Not making obvious mistakes isn't what makes a GM great. That's a requisite.
Bend under the pressure? No one wanted us to sign these guys to these terrible contracts, and Bergevin has had a very smooth ride since he was hired.
The media has been on his side and never confronted him about anything. This year was the first time they brought up a possible issue with the center position and he looked like a twit saying Thornton was the last center traded and this isn't Playstation. He's right though, maybe he should spend less time on his PS and come back to reality where Thornton ISN'T the last top center to have been traded.
And after that, the Therrien question was brought up and Bergevin looked like he was about to cry. He acted incredibly surprised that anybody would be doubting the oh-so-great Therrien but somehow he had a bunch of stats ready to defend his coach.
It was beyond lame.
Bergevin had no pressure. He came in and said there was a lot of work to do, it was going to take some time. Team finished higher than probably everybody imagined. The following year, we finished high again and went to CF, so again, no pressure on him.
This year, we finished 2nd in the East, but then early exit. We finished the season with Weise having played regularly on the top 6 and no winger was brought in to help. Team had issues scoring 2 goals in the POs, and the PP has been terrible for 2 years in a row now. The guy he drafted and repeatedly said he's the future center of this team, well, he's still playing wing and ended on a bad note.
So finally, some issues were raised, and he didn't handle things well at all.