What I don’t understand is everyone on here including myself wanted a rebuild/reset, we got it and it was faster than I expected but now everyone is belly aching that it wasn’t fast enough. Look at the forums from two offseasons and everyone wanted a rebuild. Trade price, trade everyone. Draft draft we need a better prospect pool.
Fast forward two years and we added Kotkaniemi, Suzuki, Poehling, Romonav, and Caufield among others.
This team needs Kotkaniemi to breakout and lead the charge from center ice, and a boost to the power play and we are shoe ins for the playoffs.
This offseason isn’t over yet so I expect another move of significance to address the power play and depth. A top player to push guys down the lineup. If Bergevin sits on this current group as is right now the only progress we will see is in individual players growing. Ie, Kotkaniemi
But circling back to my first point, I can’t understand the moaning in these boards about our standings. We clearly went into a reset and all knew that would take more than 2 years. It’s what everyone was clamouring for, the reset is ahead of schedule but now y’all are moaning it’s pathetic for this legendary franchise to not make the playoffs. The blind hatred of Bergevin on here is pathetic.
First off, what the majority of fans wanted is to commit to a plan. Bergevin literally said last year that he wanted to vye for the playoffs while saying they were doing a reset. That's not a plan. A plan is what the Rangers did, they committed. Bergevin is unable to commit.
Secondly, no one ever put a specific timeline on the reset. Even Bergevin never said what it entailed. We've had to guestimate what reset is and how it compares to a rebuild. It was purposely left as an ambiguous notion. Even when Bergevin was pressed about it and what his plan was, he came back with a snarky answer about how only he and Geoff knew what the plan was and how other teams might be listening.
The Rags didn't care who was listening, they went ahead with a proper rebuild. The Rags and Habs both started at the same place two years ago. One had an overt plan, the other was playing coy. One followed through on their plan and ended up in a favorable position at the draft with the 2nd overall pick. The other is winging it, being reactive rather than proactive and espousing the absurd notion that he doesn't believe in windows.
Not everything the Rags did since they announced their rebuild, worked out. But they picked a direction and stuck to it. Bergevin is unable to commit to anything. Sure, he's amassed some prospects along the way but none of them are of Kaapo's caliber. Bergevin gutted the left side of his D a couple of summers ago, including making a senseless trade for Drouin and lunged for Alzner and Streit as replacements. He's carried forward an empty hole at first pairing LD which still exists going into a third off season. Please don't give me Mete as a first pairing D -- they rushed him and he can't score. He has no business there -- there is no first pairing D in the league that can't score.
Most fans did not want a reset, they wanted a rebuild. Secondly, they wanted Bergevin to be upfront about what he was going to do. And third, they wanted him to commit to what he was going to do. MB is the king of mixed messages. He's got veteran players who want to win now and want additions to get them over the top. Price has sent MB a clear message about how the time is now. Bergevin is responding by adding more picks and prospects, which is fine but it's not going to work with his franchise goalie unless he does what he's already done earlier in his tenure and hasn't worked -- which is unload futures for immediate help and set back his reset efforts.
If Bergevin is not going to make the playoffs and fails to make them 3 out of the last 4 years, and he's supposedly doing a reset, then he should not be ending up in no man's land with the worst lottery pick in the draft this summer. Of course it's pathetic every time this team doesn't make the playoffs, we've been spoiled historically but now it's been 25 years and we've entered Year 8 of MB's tenure and fans are rightfully holding the team to account.
Others have argued it and it bears repeating. Pick a direction and stick to it. That's the problem right there. MB wants to be everything to everyone and ultimately he will achieve mixed results that will please no one. MB's hands are tied by not being able to go for quick fixes via the UFA market so he needs to score with his amateur scouting and development and that, by definition, takes time.
Price's voice matters and he's used it in a public way. MB needs to respond. If he won't put the team in a position of contention, then he needs to trade Price and begin a new blueprint. He can't both try to please Price and do some kind of reset while vying for the playoffs.
MB's paralysis at the TDL was quite telling. While he didn't spend to add any impact player, neither did he sell off any assets to help the reset he was supposedly doing. He tried to patch up holes by adding Weal and Weise, again, sending a mixed message. He didn't want to completely let go at a chance at the playoffs but neither did he really want to go for it either. Bergevin wants his cake and eat it too -- it doesn't work but somehow, he seems convinced that you can get a different result by trying the same middle of the road lack of commitment to any particular strategy approach.
I don't know any setting where that has worked but why let facts get in the way of a guy who acts like someone whose job is somehow never on the line, no matter how ludicrous his decision-making may be.