Montreal Canadiens: It Really Looks Like This is Marc Bergevin’s Final Season With Habs

Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin has been at the helm of the Habs since 2012.

He took a team that fell to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and helped it return to the postseason the following year. He is heading into his 10th season in the high profile position and is still a pretty polarizing person in Montreal.

There are plenty of fans of the team who think the lack of return from first round picks during Bergevin’s tenure is enough to give him the boot.

There are many who look at his trade record and think the man is a pure genius. How else could he get Phillip Danault and Alexander Romanov for Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann. Or Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar and Mattias Norlinder in a deal for Max Pacioretty. How did he know Alex Galchenyuk and Max Dom were about to bottom out just after they were traded from the Canadiens?

A trip to the Stanley Cup Final last season really hasn’t settled the debate. Many thought he built a team that was too big and slow on the blue line to make the playoffs, and they were almost right. But then when the team did hang on to that final playoff spot, they pushed aside the Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights en route to the Stanley Cup Final.

Those who aren’t fans of Bergevin like to point to the team’s mediocrity for long stretches of the postseason, but those who like him think he built a team for the playoffs and did it quite well.

Bergevin’s effectiveness as the team’s general manager could be debated for years to come, but it is starting to look like that tenure will only last one more year.

Bergevin has one year left on his contract and back in July when he was asked about it he said he would honour the final ear and take it from there.

Yesterday, the team released a brief statement saying that they are going to wait until the end of the season before making a decision on Bergevin’s future.

Well, the thing is, if they wait until the end of the season before making a decision, it shows they have really already made their decision. It is quite rare that general managers have to go into a season with just one year left on their deal. Bergevin’s counterpart from the Stanley Cup Finals, Julien BriseBois, was heading into his final year as well but he signed an extension already.

Bergevin? It sounds like he hasn’t even been offered a contract. I don’t know what the team’s plan will be for a successor as it can be hard to find a French speaking general manager who can handle the role with the Canadiens.

However, it sounds like they are planning on moving on from Bergevin when the season ends. Whether that feeling is mutual, or simply a team decision in unknown, but it would be surprising if Bergevin is back for 2022-23 at this point.