Well, for one, all we keep hearing from the 'Bergy tried' contingent is that he's the hardest working GM around, he's always WORKING THE PHONES, and such and such. For two, as we sit here NOW, even us keyboard warriors have circled in on Washington as a team "ripe for the picking" given their cap space situation and our bounteous surplus of cap. So not sure why a room full of team execs at the Bell Centre couldn't have deduced that Washington was going to need to trim salaries about one minute after the Oshie and Kuz contracts were done. And thirdly, I find it a bit of a reach that Washington would outright refuse to trade a player here. Deal him to Pittsburgh? Perhaps you have a point. Highly, highly unlikely Washington is side-eyeing our club and saying 'uh oh, can't trade him THERE.' Maybe Bergy wasn't that enamored with Johansson but it's a stretch to claim he didn't know or that Washington wouldn't trade him to us.
And I'm not that bummed that Johansson didn't come here. There were equally decent UFAs like Hanzal and Bonino who aren't world beaters, but I'd rather Hanzal (i.e an actual centreman) as UFA vs. Johansson for similar AAV but costing picks. But at some point now MB has to trade *something* to get some sort of improvement in his centre depth.
At some point he does, or he's a lame duck GM if he doesn't. And by lame duck, I mean in real danger with his owner, not just with disgruntled fans who might not have the same expectations or the same level of tolerance with their hockey people.
But personally, I don't care about Johansson, Hanzal or, even, Bonino, because I'm not high on any of those players and I don't think they were a solution for the Habs.
The whole Bergevin missed out with Johanssen makes me laugh. It's just fodder for disparaging the GM some more.
You might actually be right that knowing he was available on a team with Cap problems was likely easier to find out than not. My point remains about not knowing about every available player, but WASH's players were likely not the best example for that point as not many players are untouchable on that team, with most likely on the trading block (apart from maybe their G) IMHO.
However, I take a stance that MTL and its scouting staff didn't have that much interest in the player (who isn't a true C, IMO) over WASH wouldn't trade him to us. While I'll relent that there likely isn't a team that will categorically refuse to trade a player to another team, the demands from one team in another conference, for example, might not be as high as from a team in the same conference, and definitely not from a team in the same division.
The pressure on the GM not to lose out in a trade closer to home, sort of speak, is too high for them not to ask more so that the margin of error is much lower, IMO.
Thanks for the input.
The bolded is exactly how I want my team built, it has proven to be a successful model and I wish we had of drafted Kopitar, things would be different now. The most important position(s) in the NHL are number 1 and number 2 C.
