Marc Bergevin Part II: Better Than Expected

[habsgirl5000]

People are happy with the positive momentum we have with our current team and the prospect pool. Why shouldn't we be? Cause we are not a top 5 contender?

why shouldn't we be?

because we WERE A TOP 5 CONTENDER only a few years ago....thats why!!

people are giving this dumb GM credit for being a wild card team, when we used to be the top team in our division and conference, its mind boggling,

the man has not improved this team, he has brought it down, how can people not see that?

 

[Habs Halifax]

Montreal better have a legitimate chance to win the cup if they are in the playoffs if not then the idiot GM just wasted another year with Price and Weber.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall listening to the potential trades we are in on. Some think we need to stay the course and look to the future and don't make any major moves. But I'm not 100% on this bandwagon cause I don't believe we are guaranteed to be a better team in 5+ years than we are today. And I am high on our prospect pool.

I think letting Weber's window go and not making any moves is not smart. This team does not have elite level superstars on our current core (aside from Price and maybe Kotkaniemi) and we are not likely to gain a "Crosby" talent anytime in the near future. However, If we were to add a Muzzin this year and Stone is the off season, I think we could very well be a top 5-10 team and yeah, we need a little luck but why can't we win like the Kings and Bruins?

I rather try than not try. I'm not trading our top prospects either. We have plenty of other tools in the toolbox to use. 2nd round picks, Juulsen or Fleury (maybe Ylonen), Evans, Lindgren, Olofsson, Ikonen, etc. Work a deal to acquire Muzzin and if it's a price we can afford, ask to talk to him and if he would consider extending his contract to play with us after July. You would get a good feel about his intentions and excitement level to play in Montreal.

 

[Habs Halifax]

why shouldn't we be?

because we WERE A TOP 5 CONTENDER only a few years ago....thats why!!

people are giving this dumb GM credit for being a wild card team, when we used to be the top team in our division and conference, its mind boggling,

the man has not improved this team, he has brought it down, how can people not see that?

We were never a top 5 cup contender, not for a very very long time. Not with that center depth. I like our current team better than anything we had in the last decade. Our PP is holding us back and we finally have a great prospect pool. We have the assets to yield even better results now and in the future IMO.

Build us to win like the Preds. We have cap space (Stone or Panarin or someone else that becomes available down the road) and we can get in on Muzzin.

 

[habsgirl5000]

We were never a top 5 cup contender. Not for a very very long time. Not with that center depth.

doesnt matter.....fact is, we were top of our division and conference,

we will not be finishing anywhere near there this season,

numbers dont lie....we have not improved one bit, we have regressed

giving MB credit for being a wild card team is rediculous

 

[jaffy27]

why shouldn't we be?

because we WERE A TOP 5 CONTENDER only a few years ago....thats why!!

people are giving this dumb GM credit for being a wild card team, when we used to be the top team in our division and conference, its mind boggling,

the man has not improved this team, he has brought it down, how can people not see that?

We were a top team because Price was playing like god.....but of course everyone forgets this. If Price wasn’t posting .937 save percentage, we’d been a bubble team. This team had weak centres and a week prospect pool with no pure goalscorers that make it count in the playoffs .

 

[Habs Halifax]

doesnt matter.....fact is, we were top of our division and conference,

we will not be finishing anywhere near there this season,

numbers dont lie....we have not improved one bit, we have regressed

giving MB credit for being a wild card team is rediculous

Not top 5 contenders. Maybe top 10 when we were at our best. Saying we were top 5 cup contenders is exaggeration to prove something that don't fit. I respectfully disagree.

That center depth we had was horrible. Now we are missing Markov and our PP sucks. I think this would hold us back but not sure how much.

 

[habsgirl5000]

Not top 5 contenders. Maybe top 10 when we were at our best. Saying we were top 5 cup contenders is exaggeration to prove something that don't fit. I respectfully disagree.

That center depth we had was horrible.

we still finished top of our division and conference,

we are lower then that now....much lower, and that means we have regressed, and that is on MB

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

we still finished top of our division and conference,

we are lower then that now....much lower, and that means we have regressed, and that is on MB

The only reason why habs finished that high was because of Price. Club was not scoring.
Lately the same thing is happening , goalies are saving games and offensively we are bad or struggle to score 2 goals. Let's not talk about our D-squad whos awful.

 

[habsgirl5000]

The only reason why habs finished that high was because of Price. Club was not scoring.

if thats the only reason, then why aren't we at the top of our division today?

is it all Price's fault then?...cause that's basically what your saying,

are you saying this team is a division and conference winner if Price plays well?

cause thats the way your post reads

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

if thats the only reason, then why aren't we at the top of our division today?

is it all Price's fault then?...cause that's basically what your saying

Because Price was god garbage until Early December.
having .888 and 3.20 dont make u a top team.

 

[Be a Hab]

I don't think we're competitive even with Rad and Subban and I know for sure those trades don't get made if we're a bubble team which I firmly believe we would have been. No KK and likely no Ylonen or Romanov either.

I don’t know how you can be so sure that Pacioretty and Galchenyuk don’t get traded if Subban and Rads are on our team.

Pacioretty and Galchenyuk were traded not because of lack of talent but because of lack motivation to play in Montreal or because of “bad character” or contributed to a toxic environment.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

why shouldn't we be?

because we WERE A TOP 5 CONTENDER only a few years ago....thats why!!

people are giving this dumb GM credit for being a wild card team, when we used to be the top team in our division and conference, its mind boggling,

the man has not improved this team, he has brought it down, how can people not see that?

We were a top 5 contender because we were on top of a weak division?

 

[Be a Hab]

1) neither are 29 other teams
2) They certainly got more entertaining. Better than they were and probably better in terms of their future prospects (not players but prospects of winning) than they have anytime in MBs tenure. That is subjective too I know. Centre position looks good-something it hasn't looked since Damphousse left
3) so is "worst prospect pool- I'd rather have the one that people are calling one of the best though.
4) maybe last year was a bad year much like the 2000's were a bad decade

I get that you are not happy with the team or MB, but credit where credit is due - the man has made some great moves recently.

You say the team is now more entertaining. When was the last time this team was entertaining to watch? I’ll give you a hint: PK Subban.

MB has made to many horrible moves to justify him still being GM of our team. Moves that keep setting us back 5~7 years.

 

[DangerDave]

I don’t know how you can be so sure that Pacioretty and Galchenyuk don’t get traded if Subban and Rads are on our team.

Pacioretty and Galchenyuk were traded not because of lack of talent but because of lack motivation to play in Montreal or because of “bad character” or contributed to a toxic environment.

Patches is not a toxic person bland as he may be. I'm sure if raduliv was still here he'd play better and if you're going to compete, why would you trade your top scorer.

No way the Habs trade their captain if they are going for the cup.

 

[Sorinth]

Ahh google said it was second but that's probably factoring in Juulsen and such.

Depends on what you qualify as old. Regardless, what I'm saying is we have a good core of guys that can play good hockey for the next few years.

We'll need our prospects to pan out well. I'm pretty optimistic about this group of prospects. Last time I was this optimistic was when we had Price, Subban and Patches coming up. I wouldn't be surprised if 3 of them became quality NHL players.

That's the thing, it's not about how many old players we have right now, it's how many current core players will be old by the time that group of prospects become impact NHLers.

If we are looking at say 2 years before the prospects make the NHL, and then another 2-3 years for them to become impact players. And then on top of that you have the contending window, if you want to be a contender for several years in a row then you also have to factor that in, say a 3 year contention window. We are talking about 7-8 years, so anyone who you would consider old 7-8 years from now can't really be considered as part of the core that will be with the prospects. So sure Gallagher at 26 isn't old, but we'll be trying to compete during his 30-34 years, for Petry and Price it will be 35-39, Weber 37-41.

 

[Runner77]

Patches is not a toxic person bland as he may be. I'm sure if raduliv was still here he'd play better and if you're going to compete, why would you trade your top scorer.

No way the Habs trade their captain if they are going for the cup.

MB showed that the fact of Pacioretty was captain would not stand in the way of how he'd ultimately manage the team:

"It is said that Bergevin makes life particularly hard for players who have difficulty on the ice," De Foy reports, as translated from French. "It goes so far as to say that he makes it a personal affair. He ignored Pacioretty for months last season. Yet he is his captain and one of his team's deans in terms of years of service."

Of course, when we think of saga behind the scenes in Montreal, the names of veteran players like Andrei Markov and P.K. Subban come to mind. Subban was reportedly traded because of a dressing room issue, and Markov approached the Canadiens to return last November and was disrespected by his former club and its GM.

Stastny spills the beans on Habs' messy situation and why he signed elsewhere!

 

[BLONG7]

No matter how you slice it........this guy is not a good GM. He is on the payroll for a couple of more seasons, deservedly so or not.

Let's hope a suitable replacement is found very soon. One who will not be in over his head all the time. Or better yet, just hire a hockey president to oversee the day to day operations and keep MB from making any more bonehead moves. The law of averages say the next couple, will not be in our favor.

 

[jaffy27]

we still finished top of our division and conference,

we are lower then that now....much lower, and that means we have regressed, and that is on MB

Our division at the time also stank, it was the worst.......now.....it’s the best.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

MB showed that the fact of Pacioretty was captain would not stand in the way of how he'd ultimately manage the team:

"It is said that Bergevin makes life particularly hard for players who have difficulty on the ice," De Foy reports, as translated from French. "It goes so far as to say that he makes it a personal affair. He ignored Pacioretty for months last season. Yet he is his captain and one of his team's deans in terms of years of service."

Of course, when we think of saga behind the scenes in Montreal, the names of veteran players like Andrei Markov and P.K. Subban come to mind. Subban was reportedly traded because of a dressing room issue, and Markov approached the Canadiens to return last November and was disrespected by his former club and its GM.

Stastny spills the beans on Habs' messy situation and why he signed elsewhere!

It's possible but they make it out like Stastny 'spills the beans'. All Stastny appeared to say is "I want to play with max but he may not be there".

I'm reading De Foy's original article now.

Stastny seems to be irrelevant and didn't spill any beans. Markov apparently was unhappy in Russia and apparently asked his former teammates to let MB know he wants to come back and MB didn't listen. Isn't that fishy? Why would Markov have to tell other players to tell MB that he wants to come back? Why not say it yourself? Why not use an agent? Have his demands changed?

I think it's possible that whatever conversation MB/Molson and Pacioretty had about a trade may have put their relationship on ice.

 

[DAChampion]

MB showed that the fact of Pacioretty was captain would not stand in the way of how he'd ultimately manage the team:

"It is said that Bergevin makes life particularly hard for players who have difficulty on the ice," De Foy reports, as translated from French. "It goes so far as to say that he makes it a personal affair. He ignored Pacioretty for months last season. Yet he is his captain and one of his team's deans in terms of years of service."

Of course, when we think of saga behind the scenes in Montreal, the names of veteran players like Andrei Markov and P.K. Subban come to mind. Subban was reportedly traded because of a dressing room issue, and Markov approached the Canadiens to return last November and was disrespected by his former club and its GM.

Stastny spills the beans on Habs' messy situation and why he signed elsewhere!

It's unfortunate that Bergevin has a poor reputation around the league. That will make it harder for the Habs to bring in UFAs.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

No matter how you slice it........this guy is not a good GM. He is on the payroll for a couple of more seasons, deservedly so or not.

Let's hope a suitable replacement is found very soon. One who will not be in over his head all the time. Or better yet, just hire a hockey president to oversee the day to day operations and keep MB from making any more bonehead moves. The law of averages say the next couple, will not be in our favor.

At this point MB's last 12+ months have been okay-ish.

I am very pleased with how we've stocked draft picks the last 2 drafts:

1st rounder: Kotkaniemi, Suzuki, Poehling
2nd rounder: Ylonen, Romanov, Olofsson, Brook, Ikonen
3rd rounder: Walford, Fleury, Hills, Harris

Suffice to say you're supposed to have 2 of each round on average(for 2 years) and we have 3,5,4 in top 3 rounds. Add in fact we have our 1st, 2 2nds and 3rd next draft thus far and we should be stocking talent.

So right now I am happy with his recent work but habs desperately need a competent president to keep this guy in check and make sure he's doing the right things.

 

[DAChampion]

Our division at the time also stank, it was the worst.......now.....it’s the best.

Really? The best?

 

[jaffy27]

Really? The best?

Who’s got a better top 3??

 

[DAChampion]

Who’s got a better top 3??

Who's got a weaker bottom-3?



Basically your comment boils down to Tampa Bay being the best team in the league this year.

 

[jaffy27]

Who's got a weaker bottom-3?



Basically your comment boils down to Tampa Bay being the best team in the league this year.

FFS.....

Who’s got a stronger top 5??