Montreal Canadiens: What Will Be Marc Bergevin’s Legacy?

Love affair with defensive D

As previously stated, Marc Bergevin, as a hockey player, was a tough and physical defenceman that didn’t put up very many points. I think I can see a little pattern in the defensive players that Bergevin liked to sign and trade for.

The clearest example of this is the Subban – Weber trade. Say what you will about the trade itself, but it was an offensive player for a defensive player. Weber has the hardest shot in league history, and is able to get it off pretty reliably, but it is very one-dimensional and is only really seen on the powerplay. Subban is bad in his own end, everyone knows that, but during his time in Montreal, Subban was great offensively.

In my opinion, the trade worked out well in Bergevin’s case, but it builds a blueprint for the type of defenders that Bergevin usually sought out.

One of the worst decisions that Bergevin ever made was signing Karl Alzner to a big contract. $4.625 million for 5 years and a modified no movement clause. That is almost double Alzner’s previous contract with Washington. And in Washington he was pretty good. Nothing special, especially in the offensive zone, and he had a nice little iron man streak going, 622 straight games played.

But that was ended when he was healthy scratched in his second year in Montreal. Soon enough, he hit the waivers, and played in the AHL with the Laval Rocket for a while. All respect is due to Alzner, who took the demotion like a champ and played in Laval instead of refusing. Its not his fault that Bergevin offered him a terrible contract. Who wouldn’t sign that?

But look at Montreal’s current defensive corp. Shea Weber is injured, possibly for good. Then there’s the first pairing of Jeff Petry and Joel Edmundson when healthy. Second pairing of Ben Chiarot and David Savard. And then a handful of third pairing guys including Sami Niku, Alexander Romanov, Mattias Norlinder, Brett Kulak and Chris Wideman.

Notice anything about that top 4? There are three of the slowest, most physically imposing d-men you can find in the NHL today. 6’5″ Joel Edmundson who has topped out at 20 points in a season. 6’3″ Ben Chiarot who has similarily only scored 21 points in his best offensive season. And 6’1″ David Savard, who had a massive outlier of a season in 2014-15 with 36 points.

The outlier is Jeff Petry, who can play with the puck on his stick and in the offensive zone; he has had over 40 points in the last four seasons. But Petry cannot play 60 minutes and start every rush up the ice.

There are some interesting pieces in the bottom pairing, but they are mostly wild cards, and there is a reason that they bottom pairing. Chris Wideman has been decent, with 8 points in 17 games on the bottom pairing. Niku is an interesting young player, but his Montreal career was derailed quickly by a concussion in the preseason. Norlinder is really exciting, but is in the NHL much too early, and should be definitely be in the SHL. Romanov is another fun prospect, but isn’t looking to be an offensive player.

The best defenders in Montreal are big and defensive. The forwards are stranded to create offence all on their own, and it is a big strain, especially on zone entries and fast breaks. In the playoffs last year, the first Montreal defender to register a point was Jeff Petry in Game 6 against Toronto. That is 5 games that the Canadiens got absolutely zero offence from their defenders. The first defender to score a goal in the playoffs was Erik Gustafsson in game 4 of the second round against the Winnipeg Jets.

That has summed up Bergevin’s relationship with defence. “Let’s get the big, burly defenders, like I was back when I was a player, and then fill in the bottom pair with some interesting offensive weapons.” But they aren’t good enough to shoulder the brunt of the offensive output, or aren’t given enough time on the ice to contribute meaningfully.