Marc Bergevin’s Five Best Moves as Canadiens General Manager

#5: Shea Weber Trade

Marc Bergevin dipped his toes into the trading waters for a few years early in his tenure with the team. He acquired depth pieces and made moves that helped the long term salary cap but he didn’t make a huge blockbuster deal during his first couple of seasons with the team.

His biggest trade in his first season was to deal Erik Cole to the Dallas Stars for Michael Ryder and a third round pick. His second season saw him pick up Thomas Vanek at the trade deadline, but only when the price tag dropped to a second round pick and prospect Sebastian Collberg. Vanek was a great add, but at that price tag the risk was low.

Bergevin was a buyer again at the 2015 trade deadline and picked up Jeff Petry, but again the price tag was low enough that he wasn’t really putting his reputation on the line.

That all changed when he finally threw caution to the wind and dealt P.K. Subban for Shea Weber in June of 2016.

Subban was coming off a 51 point season in just 68 games and had won a Norris Trophy three years earlier. He was just 27 years old at the time of the trade and among the highest scoring defenders in the game.

Weber was about to turn 31 at the time of the deal and had just scored 20 goals and 51 points in 78 games for the Nashville Predators. He was signed through 2026 to an enormous contract, though his cap hit was about a million less than Subban’s.

It was widely believed that Subban had many more years of production in front of him than Weber and that the Weber contract would begin to look horrible in a hurry.

But it didn’t quite work out that way. After two productive seasons in Nashville, Subban’s gave fell off dramatically and he was traded for a couple of depth prospects and a pair of second round picks in 2019.

Meanwhile, Weber continued to shut things down defensively and continued to pile up goals for a defender while leading by example and being an enormous presence in the dressing room. Weber proved to still have plenty of value as recently as last season when he played a huge role at even strength, on the power play and the penalty kill as the team made a run to the Stanley Cup Final.

Without Weber’s guidance and minute munching abilities, there is no way the Canadiens even get past the first round of the playoffs last spring.