Which Former GM would you hire?

[WetcoastOrca]

Benning, Bergevin and Chia were all awful.
The one thing about Bergevin is that he made decent trades but he left the team with no real super star type talent despite some high picks.
Maybe Fletcher if I was forced to pick one.

 

[The Nuge]

Chia if I’ve got a good president to talk him down from his occasional crazy idea. Otherwise I’d go Bergevin

 

[Connor McConnor]

I wouldn't be so quick to give him credit (especially given what we know of his abilities as a GM).

There were pretty well-circulated murmurs that Gradin pushed heavily for Pettersson and Brackett (and even Weisbrod) pushed heavily for Hughes.

Gradin is known for being an expert on Swedish prospects and Brackett is known for his affinity for US prospects.

It's no surprise that the Wild have one of the best prospect pools in the league ever since Benning pushed Brackett out of the organization.

Canucks have always drafted Swedes well, that connect was clearly there before Benning imo. Hughes also fell into his lap but he made the right pick. The biggest thing with evaluating Vancouver GMs is the knowledge that their ownership might be the most meddling of all when it comes to key decisions.

 

[wintersej]

I'd go Bergevin easily. Bergevin was good at a lot of things, he just lacked direction and failed at some key aspects of team management. A team with him as a GM but a competent President of Hockey Ops above him likely would do pretty well.

Did Bergevin ever build a D group like Chara, Boychuk, Seidenberg, Ference, Kaberle and McQuaid?

 

[Chainshot]

None of 'em.

 

[Jyrki21]

Benning has flaws (he also suck at negociating) but at least he can draft (which would help, since Bergevin put us at the bottom of the barrel)

Unfounded rumors. Benning sucked at drafting as well. He got two (!) successes with high picks because (1) his president overruled him to take Pettersson, and (2) Hughes fell to the Canucks as a slam dunk because two teams went off the board in the top 7.

 

[rypper]

Benning was a generationally bad general manager. Just look at his stretch through 2015-2017. Hell look at his whole tenure.

People will point at his drafting but a handful of the better picks he had to be talked into. Also Virtanen over Nylander/Ehlers. Juolevi over Tkachuk. Trading consecutive 1sts from a non playoff team. Trading for OEL.

Generationally bad.

 

[stl76]

Chia has his name on the Cup and was the reason Chara came to Boston. Poll results are insane.

Yeah, Chia gets a lot of shit for his mistakes in Edmonton, and deservedly so...but I would take him here pretty easily.

 

[Just Linda]

Did Bergevin ever build a D group like Chara, Boychuk, Seidenberg, Ference, Kaberle and McQuaid?

No but he did build a d group that made it to the finals.

 

[amnesiac]

Habs fan saying Benning

Bergevin was great at trading players but he sucked at negociating and made unforgivable sins like loosing for nothing Danault and Romanov, and did also "other stuff" (like, you know, drafting Logan Mailloux)

Benning has flaws (he also suck at negociating) but at least he can draft (which would help, since Bergevin put us at the bottom of the barrel)

Pretty sure Romanov for Dach is working out great

 

[Xspyrit]

Bergevin sucked because of Trevor Timmins. He should have replaced him right away when he took the job and revamp the whole scouting department. Habs drafting really sucked from 2008 to 2017

 

[Mrb1p]

Anybody saying Bergevin literally has me crying right now. Humanity cannot be this cruel.

He signed Gallagher for 6.5 millions when it was obvious he was slowing down, at 28 and cried on TV saying that Gallagher was the heart and soul of this franchise and "deserved" this money.
He traded Lars Eller for two 2nd round picks and then traded those picks for Andrew Shaw.


The whole KK/Danault/Dvorak/Aho debacle saga is completely unhinged and probably the worst mismanagement of assets ever seen in the history of the league.

-He picked KK, a well known project, because his team needed C depth, brought him up at 18, when he was one of the greenest player Ive seen. He had a plug-and-play second liner in Tkachuk right behind. He traded Pacioretty for Suzuki a few months later, creating a strength in the C position and an organizational need for a big winger.​

-You can add in the mismanagement of KK.​

-He tried to sign Aho to a cheap ass offer deal that would see Aho be paid bargain money for a 1C two years later. This created some kind of rivalvry between Canes owner and Bergevin.​

-This lead to KK being offersheet, which was okay in retrospect, cannot blame the canes, Bergevin and KK in this one. Fair deal for everyone, KK wasn't in the plans, KK was in the Canes plans and the compensation was good. First and third round picks to the Habs. Everyone is happy.​

-Bergevin lowballs Drano, decides to not sign him.​

-Bergevin, panicking, decides to flip the first rounder from KKs OS to the Coyotes ALONG with a 2nd rounder for freaking Dvorak, who is a worse player than anyone in this debacle, and older than KK.​

 

[goonybird]

I'd rather dip my foot in hot lava

 

[centipede2233]

Anybody saying Bergevin literally has me crying right now. Humanity cannot be this cruel.

He signed Gallagher for 6.5 millions when it was obvious he was slowing down, at 28 and cried on TV saying that Gallagher was the heart and soul of this franchise and "deserved" this money.
He traded Lars Eller for two 2nd round picks and then traded those picks for Andrew Shaw.


The whole KK/Danault/Dvorak/Aho debacle saga is completely unhinged and probably the worst mismanagement of assets ever seen in the history of the league.

-He picked KK, a well known project, because his team needed C depth, brought him up at 18, when he was one of the greenest player Ive seen. He had a plug-and-play second liner in Tkachuk right behind. He traded Pacioretty for Suzuki a few months later, creating a strength in the C position and an organizational need for a big winger.​

-You can add in the mismanagement of KK.​

-He tried to sign Aho to a cheap ass offer deal that would see Aho be paid bargain money for a 1C two years later. This created some kind of rivalvry between Canes owner and Bergevin.​

-This lead to KK being offersheet, which was okay in retrospect, cannot blame the canes, Bergevin and KK in this one. Fair deal for everyone, KK wasn't in the plans, KK was in the Canes plans and the compensation was good. First and third round picks to the Habs. Everyone is happy.​

-Bergevin lowballs Drano, decides to not sign him.​

-Bergevin, panicking, decides to flip the first rounder from KKs OS to the Coyotes ALONG with a 2nd rounder for freaking Dvorak, who is a worse player than anyone in this debacle, and older than KK.​

Yeah Timmins basically negated any good trades M.B. Did. Bergevin should have fired timmins. He didn’t and got fired himself. Hopefully this is a lesson he’s learned to have a scope over all functions of an NHL franchise and not be complacent and let incompetence remain to sobetage your team. He had no problem firing coaches, should have fired his amateur scouts

 

[Mrb1p]

Yeah Timmins basically negated any good trades M.B. Did. Bergevin should have fired timmins. He didn’t and got fired himself. Hopefully this is a lesson he’s learned to have a scope over all functions of an NHL franchise and not be complacent and let incompetence remain to sobetage your team. He had no problem firing coaches, should have fired his amateur scouts

Timmins before Bergevin:
Price, Subban, Mcdonagh, Pacioretty, Emelin, Gallagher, Streit, Latendresse, Halak, Kostitsyn2x, Grabovski, Lapierre, Weber, Beaulieu

Timmins after Bergevin: Caufield, Guhle, Roy, farrell, Kidney, Mailloux, RHP

Timmins during Bergevin: Lekhonen and Romanov. Evans.

During Bergevin but got traded before Bergevin got his hands on him: Sergachev.

Pretty sure the overwhelming trend here is the development being absolutely horrible during Bergevins tenure and not the scouting staff.

 

[jetsforever]

Benning
He did some decent things

 

[centipede2233]

Timmins before Bergevin:
Price, Subban, Mcdonagh, Pacioretty, Emelin, Gallagher, Streit, Latendresse, Halak, Kostitsyn2x, Grabovski, Lapierre, Weber, Beaulieu

Timmins after Bergevin: Caufield, Guhle, Roy, farrell, Kidney, Mailloux, RHP

Timmins during Bergevin: Lekhonen and Romanov. Evans.

During Bergevin but got traded before Bergevin got his hands on him: Sergachev.

Pretty sure the overwhelming trend here is the development being absolutely horrible during Bergevins tenure and not the scouting staff.

Yup, I stand corrected, you are correct. The absolute core of success for an NHL franchise is drafting and development. Trades in a cap world, especially a flat one, can not undo the damage bad drafting and development does. of the 4 candidates I listed, Bergevin likely has the worst track record in this area. Which leads me to me being a bit surprised he is winning this poll so lopsidedly

 

[Mrb1p]

Bergevin still owes his whole career to Carey Price. What a goat.

 

[banks]

Benning made a lot of bad moves. Mostly throwing money around in free agency. But he was also stuck doing the bidding of VAN ownership. He never got to pick the direction.

If he wasn't forced to try and win with a flawed roster, he might have a chance.

 

[Painful Quandary]

Bergevin was really good at picking waiver wire guys and free agency leftovers who provided value, so I feel like he would be the best at puttitng together an expansion team.

 

[WhiskeyYerTheDevils]

I'd rather 5 years of any of these guys vs 1 year of Milbury

 

[wintersej]

Seguin, Hamilton, Chara, Seidenberg, Boychuk, Ference, Kaberle, McQuaid, Horton, Peverly, Kelly, Recchi, Ryder, Campbell, Paille, Thornton all came in under Chia’s watch and that team won a Cup. He didn’t get the memo that the league had moved on from slow, rough and tumble play when he went to Edmonton. And the Seguin deal was rough. But none of these guys come CLOSE to the positive accomplishments.

And yes I know Chia was technically not the guy that signed Chara’s contract, but we all know what happened there.

edit: Forgot Ryder and McQuaid

 

[ricky0034]

Chia has his name on the Cup and was the reason Chara came to Boston. Poll results are insane.

he also hit a level of bad in Edmonton that nobody else in this poll touches

 

[Voight]

Seguin, Hamilton, Chara, Seidenberg, Boychuk, Ference, Kaberle, Horton, Peverly, Kelly, Recchi, Campbell, Paille, Thornton all came in under Chia’s watch and that team won a Cup. He didn’t get the memo that the league had moved on from slow, rough and tumble play when he went to Edmonton. And the Seguin deal was rough. But none of these guys come CLOSE to the positive accomplishments.

And yes I know Chia was technically not the guy that signed Chara’s contract, but we all know what happened there.

Seguin deal was bad but IIRC Neely told him he had to trade the guy. Seemed like they just wanted him gone and settled for whatever they could.

But yes, Chia deserves some credit here. He did a great job with Boston, brought in the right guys they needed even if they weren't splashy moves.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Didn't Chiarelli build the Bruins Cup Winner?