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Montreal Canadiens: Marc Bergevin’s 5 Best Trade Deadline Moves

By Ken MacMillan

MONTREAL, QC - JANUARY 07: General manager of the Montreal Canadiens Marc Bergevin speaks with the media prior to the NHL game against the Minnesota Wild at the Bell Centre on January 7, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Minnesota Wild defeated the Montreal Canadiens 1-0. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - JANUARY 07: General manager of the Montreal Canadiens Marc Bergevin speaks with the media prior to the NHL game against the Minnesota Wild at the Bell Centre on January 7, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Minnesota Wild defeated the Montreal Canadiens 1-0. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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The Montreal Canadiens enter the trade deadline as clear sellers this year. It will be Marc Bergevin’s eighth trade deadline day and so we look back at his five finest deadline moves.

The Montreal Canadiens enter today’s trade deadline as clear sellers this season. They had some good moments and stretches throughout the year, but a pair of eight game losing streaks is far too much to overcome in the NHL, especially with the amount of parity in the league lately.

Right now, the Canadiens are six points back of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. It doesn’t sound like a lot but they are also four points back of the Florida Panthers and have already played two more games than the Panthers. The Buffalo Sabres also won yesterday to tie the Habs in the standings and have also played two less games than Montreal.

So, the Habs need to be better than three different teams while playing less games than all of them down the stretch. The chances on that happening are extremely thin which is why we find ourselves at the trade deadline and the Canadiens are sellers.

The Habs haven’t been sellers very often during Marc Bergevin’s tenure as general manager. This is his eighth trade deadline day with the Canadiens, but really only the third where he is definitely going to be selling. Carey Price was injured in 2015-16 and the team collapsed without him and were far from the postseason. In 2017-18, Price was hurt again and it became obvious they would be selling.

Both of those years, Bergevin did some good work to turn aging veterans on expiring deals into future assets for the organization. Hopefully he is able to do the same thing today.

Bergevin also made some shrewd trades to add at the deadline over the years, but has done his best work when selling. It should give us hope that he can make some great trades today that impact the future of the Canadiens in positive way.

While we sit around waiting to hear what trades the Canadiens will make today, let’s take a look back at Bergevin’s five best deals that came in just before the trade deadline over the years.

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