Montreal Canadiens: Should Marc Bergevin’s Job be Safe in the Playoffs?

You’d be hard-pressed to find an NHL general manager that is more polarizing than Marc Bergevin of the Montreal Canadiens. He is not among the elite of the general managers like Steve Yzerman or Joe Sakic, but he’s not among the worst like Pierre Dorion or Jim Benning.

Every person has their go-to’s. The things that they keep coming back to again and again for whatever reason. Darryl Sutter likes to say that something hasn’t happened “…since Christ was a child.” (number 2). More than once. He even changed it up by once saying “…since Jesus was a baby.” (number 21). Evgeny Kuznetsov has his weird, awkward-looking eagle celebration.

Bergevin is no exception. He loves saying that anything can happen once you get in the playoffs. He also likes bald face lying to the media and then doing the thing that he said that he just said he wasn’t going to do. A lot. Like a lot a lot.

He has added a new one this year, “We should make the playoffs.” With that comes a whole different look at expectations for the team, and how hot his seat is. Fans and media have been alternatively praising and asking for his head for years now, and the thought seemed to be if Montreal did not make the playoffs, Bergevin might be in trouble with losing his job.

Well, we are coming up to the final weeks of this regular season that has been anything but regular, and the playoffs are no guarantee for the Habs. This offseason was a good one for Bergevin, but could this be the end – should this be the end of Bergevin’s tenure?

Bergevin was hired in 2012 after a lengthy stay in the Chicago Blackhawks’ organisation. His predecessor, Pierre Gauthier, had a short, but interesting tenure as the GM of the Canadiens.

The Predecessor

Pierre Gauthier became general manager in 2010 and was relieved of his duties in 2012. The trades were not the most interesting parts of his tenure, more as how they happened.

Gauthier’s first trade was Dominic Moore for a draft pick that turned into Matt Nieto. Moore played only one year with Montreal before moving on but performed well as a depth option. Nieto never played for the Florida Panthers.

2010 was the year of the miracle run for the Canadiens. Coming up against the President’s Trophy winner Washington Capitals, Montreal stole the first game on the back of a Tomas Plekanec overtime goal. Then, the Habs lost 3 in a row and it looked like it was all over.

That year Montreal ran the tandem of Carey Price and Jaroslav Halak. The goalies pretty much split the regular season, Price playing 41 games and Halak playing 45 games, and neither stealing the crease from the other. That all changed with game 5 of the first round of the 2010 playoffs.

Washington dominated and lost the game. Then, game 6 came and Washington dominated and lost. Halak had one of the greatest single games in recent memory, making 52 saves in the win. And Montreal won the series.

The problem was with the upcoming decision. Price or Halak? Gauthier picked the high draft pick over the recent success of the playoff run, and it is hard to say he got it wrong.

He traded Halak to the St. Louis Blues for prospects Lars Eller, who had a decent little career in Montreal before being traded to those Washington Capitals mentioned earlier for Joni Ikonen and Olivier Rodrigue. Also coming to Montreal in the Halak trade was Ian Schultz who never played an NHL game for anyone.

Then comes the strange Mike Cammalleri trade. Cammalleri was signed to a big 5 year $6 million dollars per year contract in 2009, coming off of his best year, 39 goals in 81 games in Calgary. Cammalleri drove the offence in that 2010 playoff drive, scoring 13 goals and 19 points in 19 playoff games, but outside of that never reached his previous heights.

In 2012 Cammalleri was not having his best year, scoring only 9 goals and 13 assists in 38 games. He was traded back to Calgary along with Karri Ramo and a 5th round pick that turned into Ryan Culkin (never played an NHL game) for Rene Bourque, Patrick Holland, and a draft pick that became Zachary Fucale.

Ramo played 3 full seasons in Calgary and put up decent numbers. Bourque was nothing special in Montreal outside of a great postseason in 2014 where he scored 8 goals and 11 points in 17 games. Fucale and Holland never played for Montreal, but they got out of that huge Cammalleri contract, but still isn’t what you would call a great trade. But that wasn’t what was strange about it.

Cammalleri was traded mid-game. Apparently, it couldn’t wait until the game ended and Cammalleri was asked off of the bench and couldn’t play anymore, as he was now a member of the Flames. It wasn’t the first time this has happened. It happened to Dion Phaneuf when he was traded away from the Senators, and Matt Duchene. But it is not exactly common.

That is not the strangest part, naturally. That came when Cammalleri asked for the jersey he wore in his last game in Montreal, and Gauthier said “Sure, for $1,250.” Cammalleri did receive the jersey, but no word has come out whether he had to pay for it or not.

The last of the notable Gauthier moves was firing Jacques Martin and hiring interim head coach Randy Cunneyworth. This was a problem, because Cunneyworth is a Torontonian, and doesn’t speak a lick of French. It was a firestorm for the Francophone media in Montreal and is probably the reason that there is skepticism in hiring a coach or general manager that doesn’t speak french.

And so, it was into that Bergevin was tossed and asked to right the ship. He was given a pretty good chance, with the third overall pick in the upcoming draft, which became Alex Galchenyuk. And we all know how that turned out.