Montreal Canadiens general manager built this Stanley Cup Final team mostly through various trades. Many of the key performers, like Phillip Danault, Nick Suzuki, Josh Anderson, Shea Weber, Jeff Petry and Joel Edmundson were all picked up in trades over the years.
Of course, Carey Price, Cole Caufield, Brendan Gallagher, Artturi Lehkonen, Jake Evans, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi were drafted by the team.
But today is July 1st and that day is (almost) always reserved for free agent signings. In Canada, the day has become known just as well as Free Agent Day as Canada Day.
There won’t be any free agent signings today and there were none on July 1 of last year either. That is because Covid-19 stuck an enormous wrench in the NHL’s plans and pushed the playoffs well into the summer months for the past two years. Still, when a hockey fan looks at the calendar today, they will be reminded of past free agent frenzies.
So, we are going to look back on past UFA signings. Bergevin has had some hits and some big misses when he goes shopping for free agents. We all remember the Karl Alzner signing and the year he thought ancient Mark Streit could replace Andrei Markov and Ales Hemsky could still be a top six winger.
But we aren’t here to dwell on the negatives. The Canadiens are in the Stanley Cup Final after all. Since today is normally for talking about free agents, and we want to keep things positive, let’s look back at Marc Bergevin’s five best unrestricted free agent signings.