Montreal Canadiens: Marc Bergevin No Longer Out of Work

The Montreal Canadiens fired general manager Marc Bergevin at the end of November after a disastrous start to their season.

Though the team was in the Stanley Cup Final in July, they played so poorly to begin this season (6-15-2) that the organization had no choice but to remove Bergevin and his assistant, Trevor Timmins.

The Canadiens are yet to announce a replacement general manager for Bergevin, though Jeff Gorton is at the top of the Canadiens managerial ladder.

Before the Canadiens have even found a new general manager to replace Bergevin, the former Habs shot caller has found himself a new gig. The Los Angeles Kings announced this evening that Bergevin will be the new Senior Advisor to the General Manager for the Kings. The Kings managerial staff includes Rob Blake as the general manager and Lub Robitaille as the team’s President.

They are a star studded front office considering those two Hall of Famers are there, but Bergevin adds more experience in a management role and had to deal with the ups and downs of running the Montreal Canadiens for nearly a decade.

Bergevin certainly had his fair share of ups and downs during his tenure with the Canadiens.

As mentioned, the team was in the Stanley Cup Final just a few months ago. He made some great trades to acquire players like Shea Weber, Phillip Danault, Josh Anderson, Tomas Tatar and Nick Suzuki. He signed Tyler Toffoli.

He also guided the team to its 6-15-2 start to this season. He let Danault, Tatar and Corey Perry walk away as free agents last offseason. He signed a bunch of defensive defencemen to long term contracts. He had two third overall picks and came away with Alex Galchenyuk and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. He also controversially drafted Logan Mailloux in the first round last summer after he asked not the drafted at all.

So, he has his supporters and his detractors in the city of Montreal. It is interesting that the Kings announced this hiring on a Sunday evening, just as the Los Angeles Rams were playing a football game that would determine their playoff fate.

It is also interesting that Bergevin found a job faster than Gorton found someone to take his old job.