This is Bergevin's 9th season as Montreal GM; his first was the 2012-2013 season.
Comparing the Canadian teams during that time:
- The Canadians have made the playoffs most often (6 times). (Leafs are next with 5, Oilers are worst with 2).
- The Canadians have won the most playoff series (5 and still counting this year). (Jets and Sens are next with 3 each, Leafs are worst with a big fat 0.) NOTE: I did not count last year's best of 5 play-in before the playoffs.
- Canadiens have made the semi-finals most often (2 times). (Jets and Sens are next with 1 each, the others have 0.)
Right now every other Canadian team wish they were still in this years playoffs. Regardless of what happens next, we have Canadian bragging rights for the next year!
And comparing with the entire league with that time, the Canadiens haven't won the cup in the last 8 years and they have missed the playoffs 3 times in the last 9 seasons (counting this year), but they share that with 80% of the teams in the league (only 6 0f 31 teams have won the cup in the last 8 years and only 6 of 31 have missed the playoffs fewer times).
And I don't buy "if it wasn't for the pandemic" arguments. In the world we happen to live in, there was and is a pandemic, and the Habs took advantage of the extra opportunity it presented to make the playoffs last year. This year every team knew this was going to be a weird season. We should expect GMs and teams to plan accordingly. Can anyone blame Bergevin, coaching staff, and the players beginning with Carey Price for being so opportunistic?
None of this is proof of anything other than the Habs track record during Bergevin's time is actually better than average over most teams and certainly better than all the other Canadian teams. So if we are going by a team results, which is how most GMs are first evaluated, Bergevin is no genius but it certainly looks to me like he isn't the absolute fool so many on this board make him out to be either.
FWIW, I would have fired Bergevin a couple different summers during the past 9 years too, but he is still there and this team would likely not be where they are sitting right now without a whole number of circumstances and actions, starting with Carey Price. So yes, praise begins with Carey, but lets not forget the contributions of others, right down to 3rd/4th liners like Armia and Lehkonen who scored huge goals. And where would they be without Toffoli, Edmundson, Anderson, Allen and Perry, all of whom Bergevin acquired in the past year.
GO HABS!