Montreal Canadiens: Marc Bergevin Finished Second In GM of Year Voting

Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin has had an odd year of ups and downs.

He was a busy man in the offseason leading up to this season and received lots of praise. He added Josh Anderson, Tyler Toffoli, Corey Perry, Joel Edmundson and Jake Allen. The team suddenly had far more depth than the previous year.

The Canadiens got off to a sizzling 7-2-1 start and Bergevin looked like an absolute genius.

Then, as the season dragged along, the Canadiens stumbled and couldn’t find their footing. They lost far more often than they won and they started to drop in the North Division standings. Bergevin wasn’t looking so hot any more in the eyes of Habs fans who were tired of the low scoring losses.

Then, the trade deadline came and Bergevin let Victor Mete walk for nothing on waivers. He replaced him with one dimensional Erik Gustafsson and added defensive minded Jon Merrill on the blue line for very little in return. He also added depth at centre by acquiring Eric Staal.

Staal did not fit in well early on and looked slow on the ice. Merrill was in the same slow moving boat and Gustafsson had a hard time getting into the lineup at all. Also, Bergevin added just enough cap space that they didn’t have room to call up Cole Caufield right away and ended up having to send Alexander Romanov to the taxi squad for a few games just to save space.

It was a bit of a mess and when the Habs finished the regular season with five consecutive losses, there were more fans calling for Bergevin to be fired rather than crowned GM of the Year.

The odd thing with the GM of the Year Award is that it is not voted on until after the second round of the playoffs.

Well, when the second round ended, the Canadiens were on a seven game winning streak after coming back from down 3-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs and dismantling the Winnipeg Jets in four games.

Once again, like the offseason and after about ten regular season games, Bergevin was looking pretty smug. His additions, especially Toffoli and Edmundson, were playing big roles and Staal and Perry were giving the Canadiens excellent depth up front as two-thirds of a terrific fourth line.

So, when the voting was done, Bergevin was looking pretty good. Good enough to be named one of three finalists for the General Manager of the Year.

The winner was announced tonight, but it went to New York Islanders General Manager Lou Lamoriello. However, Bergevin actually had one more first place vote than Lamoriello.

It seems like voters either thought Bergevin was the best GM in the league, or he wasn’t all that great. Meanwhile, everyone agreed Lamoriello was one of the league’s best so he received far more second and third place votes.

It is interesting that essentially half of the voters think Bergevin is the best at his job and the other half think he doesn’t belong among the top three. That’s pretty much the vibe we get from Habs fans as well.