HF Habs: Montreal Canadiens Hockey Ops - Part 2

[Boss Man Hughes]

Add 3 years as a scout, 1 year assistant coach, 2 years director of player personnel.

None of which gives experience in contract negotiation. building a team. dealing with other GM.s etc.
Of course Hughes didn't have all those things either. Contract negotiations, dealing with player and GM's but no experience in building a team.

 

[Treb]

None of which gives experience in contract negotiation. building a team. dealing with other GM.s etc.
Of course Hughes didn't have all those things either. Contract negotiations, dealing with player and GM's but no experience in building a team.

But all of which give valuable experiences for a GM, whether it's prospect/player evaluation, player relationship, coach point of view...

There is no such thing as a rookie GM that tics all the boxes.

 

[dcyhabs]

My understanding from what Savard said is there was a gap between what Bergevin said during the interviews and how he actually acted as a GM

Savard was 20 years out from when he was a GM and he'd already started ignoring the team as he managed his business interests in his last years on the habs payroll. Asking him to be part of the GM search was not a smart move. Don't get me wrong, Savard is a bright guy, and he had great years as a player and as a GM, but once he was done he was done. Bergevin might have been able to do the job in Savard's time when fewer GMs had a clue.

Bergevin was never going to develop deep smarts but he might have been able to do something if he'd been able to figure out humility. He took credit for successes that he only minimally contributed to and deflected blame for the many things that were completely on him. MB probably controlled his arrogance a little in the interview.

MB's record: some good trades, a good signing or two like Radulov, some bad trades, a lot of bad signings and non signings, and really terrible coaching hires. Above all no plan and no ability to fill needs. Getting centers is hard. Getting decent second pairing D-men is hard, until he finally got some, years too late. He did some good stuff, but the consistent whiffs on the relatively easy transactions that were key to team success just doomed his tenure.

 

[tazsub3]

Savard was 20 years out from when he was a GM and he'd already started ignoring the team as he managed his business interests in his last years on the habs payroll. Asking him to be part of the GM search was not a smart move. Don't get me wrong, Savard is a bright guy, and he had great years as a player and as a GM, but once he was done he was done. Bergevin might have been able to do the job in Savard's time when fewer GMs had a clue.

Bergevin was never going to develop deep smarts but he might have been able to do something if he'd been able to figure out humility. He took credit for successes that he only minimally contributed to and deflected blame for the many things that were completely on him. MB probably controlled his arrogance a little in the interview.

MB's record: some good trades, a good signing or two like Radulov, some bad trades, a lot of bad signings and non signings, and really terrible coaching hires. Above all no plan and no ability to fill needs. Getting centers is hard. Getting decent second pairing D-men is hard, until he finally got some, years too late. He did some good stuff, but the consistent whiffs on the relatively easy transactions that were key to team success just doomed his tenure.

He was a dispicable arrogant man and hired a coach the same way , then hired the worst coach in history .
This fool was a disgrace for the logo and the history of the franchise .
Yes i hated him as a Gm based on performance but once I know some of the stories regarding the alums , it became personal .
Who the f are you to be taking on the beliveaus , laflaurs even Carbonneau who bled for this franchise . I honestly hope he rots in hell and fail at all the nhl
Jobs he gets . (Don’t wish him any personal harm just professional) lol. But I’m sure the habs ghosts will take care of that hahahah . Well they might have already with pld (whom he always had a man crush on )

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

But all of which give valuable experiences for a GM, whether it's prospect/player evaluation, player relationship, coach point of view...

There is no such thing as a rookie GM that tics all the boxes.

True but you can hire someone who has already been a GM or an Assistant GM for years.

 

[MXD]

OMG that is the stupidest penalty

 

[Treb]

True but you can hire someone who has already been a GM or an Assistant GM for years.

Such as? Not a lot of guys out there that both fit that and being good choices.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

Such as? Not a lot of guys out there that both fit that and being good choices.

True. I don't know who might have been available when MB was hired. There must have been AGM's that had been doing that job for a few years but MB might have been one of the few candidates who spoke French.

 

[Vachon23]

True. I don't know who might have been available when MB was hired. There must have been AGM's that had been doing that job for a few years but MB might have been one of the few candidates who spoke French.

They did interview Jim Nill but he withdraw from the race

 

[salbutera]

They did interview Jim Nill but he withdraw from the race

Never interviewed him, he declined Habs offer to go through the process due to his wife’s illness, but then took the Stars job in the middle of her treatment the following year

 

[Adam Michaels]

 

[angusyoung]

I checked for a couple of upcoming games. Where I would prefer to sit there are only resale tickets and not under 500$. Are they delusional? Direct sale tickets are still over 200 hundred but not a choice location. Talk about having balls to charge that for the crap team they are presenting. The Rocket is sounding better but neither are that compelling considering how bad they both are, definitely not worth my patronage.

 

[Tyson]

The guy who recommended signing Karl Alzner. How he still has a job is hard to comprehend.

I checked for a couple of upcoming games. Where I would prefer to sit there are only resale tickets and not under 500$. Are they delusional? Direct sale tickets are still over 200 hundred but not a choice location. Talk about having balls to charge that for the crap team they are presenting. The Rocket is sounding better but neither are that compelling considering how bad they both are, definitely not worth my patronage.

In a tough economy I try to understand how people can still attend NHL games. This is one of the reasons season tickets are down in Winnipeg.

 

[Vachon23]

The guy who recommended signing Karl Alzner. How he still has a job is hard to comprehend.

Hard to tell if it’s really him that wanted Alzner

 

[Adam Michaels]

The guy who recommended signing Karl Alzner. How he still has a job is hard to comprehend.

To be fair to the guy, he's done fairly well with the pro scourting of Danault (I know MB had prior knowledge on Phil also), Toffoli, Anderson, Domi (who did real well here), Shaw, Kulak, Tatar, and Edmundson.

And under HuGo: Dach, Newhook, Barron, Monahan, Matheson, Heineman (who was in Europe then, but part of his job is scouting players in Europe).

Also in the 2022 draft video, Crawford is telling the room that teams that have success have defensemen like Hutson.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Also wanted to add that for years, Crawford worked with Riendeau and Reid Simpson. It was a team of 3. Under HuGo, they added Purcell, Clark, and Little. So they're a team of 6 now.

And while guys like Laine, Lehman, and Krupa are listed as amateur scouts, which is their main function, they do some pro scouting for European players, as well, since it's their territory and are more familiar with the players there.

 

[Sorinth]

The guy who recommended signing Karl Alzner. How he still has a job is hard to comprehend.

Did he actually recommend Alzner or did Bergevin simply do whatever he wanted. There were plenty of success stories, so are we also crediting him with Danault, Dach, Tatar among others. And it's not just the moves we made but the non-moves, was passing on PLD because our scouting staff was saying he's not that good?

In the end there's too much we don't know which is why the GM bears responsibility for things because if the scouting he's getting from his staff is bad, he's the one who needs to hire better ones.

Anyways in terms of the article itself, glad to hear that they are working closely with the analytics department and the focus isn't just on whether someone is good/bad but they are looking at the environment, how going to Habs would impact the player, and how a player fits into where we are in the rebuild.

 

[Vachon23]

Also wanted to add that for years, Crawford worked with Riendeau and Reid Simpson. It was a team of 3. Under HuGo, they added Purcell, Clark, and Little. So they're a team of 6 now.

Bergevin was doing more scouting by himself then HuGo though

 

[Whitesnake]

Hard to tell if it’s really him that wanted Alzner

hard to imagine that the boss wouldn't agree with an acquisition.

 

[Vachon23]

hard to imagine that the boss wouldn't agree with an acquisition.

I mean if Bergevin and Mellanby wanted him, nothing Crawford could have really done

 

[Adam Michaels]

Bergevin was doing more scouting by himself then HuGo though

Yes. But that still wasn't enough because MB had other things he was responsible for so he couldn't devote all his time to scouting. Now, the 6 in place are doing that job full time.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Sedgwick extended for multiple years. And although he was unofficially the GM for the Rocket, he is now officially named for that role.

 

[Schooner Guy]

To be fair to the guy, he's done fairly well with the pro scourting of Danault (I know MB had prior knowledge on Phil also), Toffoli, Anderson, Domi (who did real well here), Shaw, Kulak, Tatar, and Edmundson.

And under HuGo: Dach, Newhook, Barron, Monahan, Matheson, Heineman (who was in Europe then, but part of his job is scouting players in Europe).

Also in the 2022 draft video, Crawford is telling the room that teams that have success have defensemen like Hutson.

I used to chum around a bit with Crawford many years ago. He's intelligent, educated and has been involved in all facets of hockey. Unlike his brothers, he didn't go the OHL route and he played Canadian university hockey. He coached a bunch of levels before getting his foot in the door with the Canucks organization. He'd fit in well with HuGo as he has a modern age hockey mind.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Sedgwick extended for multiple years. And although he was unofficially the GM for the Rocket, he is now officially named for that role.

Next step - get Houle the f*** out of here.

 

[Sorinth]

Next step - get Houle the f*** out of here.

I don't watch too many Laval games but he can't be doing that bad of a job, everyone coming up or who got sent there for a stint seems to have done well. Strubble came in seamlessly, Xhekaj benefited from his time there, Roy did well, last year Barron seemed like he developed while in Laval, etc...

Obviously he doesn't deserve all the credit for kids developing but the results kind of point to him doing a decent enough job.