The Montreal Canadiens hired Marc Bergevin to be the team’s general manager in 2012. Seven years later he has proven to be a polarizing figure. Here, we take a look at five trades he would like to have back.
The Montreal Canadiens bottomed out in the 2011-12 season. A year earlier. they pushed the the eventual Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins to overtime in Game 7 of their opening round series. One season later they were nowhere near the postseason.
The team hired Marc Bergevin to replace Pierre Gauthier to run the team. Bergevin had served in several roles with the Chicago Blackhawks for the previous seven seasons, and the team had plenty of success in that time. Most notably, they had won a Stanley Cup in 2010 with Bergevin as the team’s assistant general manager.
It became clear early on that Bergevin was not going to tear things down by sending out established players for draft picks, nor was he going to go all-in right away either. He was very cautious in his trades and was keeping a really close eye on the salary cap. Though he rarely spent in free agency, he shipped out players like Travis Moen, Brandon Prust and Rene Bourque in moves that helped the team open up cap space.
Even his bigger trades were typically one-for-one deals that minimized risk. He shipped P.K. Subban out in a massive trade, but received Shea Weber in return. There were no draft picks, prospects or even salary retained in the deal. He simply replaced a top pairing right defence man with another top pairing right defenceman.
It may sound a bit “homer-ish” but it is difficult to find many terrible trades when analyzing Bergevin’s resume. A lot of people did not like the Subban trade, but was it really awful that he acquired Shea freaking Weber? No. The Alex Galchenyuk trade was unpopular at the time but a year later, Max Domi has made it look like a steal.
However, there are a handful of deals that I am sure Bergevin would like to take back if he could. Here, we count down the “top” five worst deals Marc Bergevin has made as general manager of the Montreal Canadiens.