‘WE’RE NOT GOING TO BLOW UP THIS TEAM’: BERGEVIN
Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin faces a busy off-season, but some of his key players are showing a willingness to make his job easier.
Carey Price, Alex Radulov and Andrei Markov all expressed a desire to remain in Montreal as the team gathered in Brossard Monday to clean out their lockers after a season that ended with a disappointing loss to the New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs.
But it will be a while before any sign new contracts and none addressed the team’s most pressing need for a No. 1 centre.
That was the role envisioned for Alex Galchenyuk when he was the third-overall pick in the 2012 draft. Five years into his career, the Canadiens are still asking the question: is he a centre or a winger?
“Hopefully, he took a step back to take two steps forward next year,” Bergevin told the media in his post-mortem. “I think he’s open to play wherever he thinks he helps the team. That’s what Claude (Julien) will have to decide where he can help.”
“Ideally, we’d love to have him play centre, but I think he realizes the things that we realize,” said Julien. “As a centre, it’s one of the toughest jobs there is because you have to be all over the ice, but you have to be good at both ends and you have to be responsible. Right now, he’s not at that stage. As we speak, we have to put a guy in a position where he can help himself and the team.”
The bottom line is Galchenyuk will start next season on the wing and, if he wants to play centre, he’ll have to work hard to prove he belongs in the middle. Meanwhile, he’s a restricted free agent and it will be interesting to see if he gets a raise on the $3.1 million he made this season. It’s a sure bet he won’t get the long-term deal he failed to get two years ago.
Bergevin conceded he’s working on finding help up the middle, but flatly rejected the idea of trading Price for a first-line centre. Price has one season remaining on his contract and there’s some urgency to sign him to an extension before he can become an unrestricted free agent.
“I don’t have any worries about it,” Price said. “I’m sure it will all take care of itself. I love playing here and I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
When asked whether he would be willing to take a hometown discount so Bergevin could sign other key players, Price said: “That’s part of the business, right? That’s a tough question to ask me right now. Put me on the spot, huh? Like I said, I want to stay here. I know we’ll figure out a way to make all the pieces fit and bring a championship here.”
The Canadiens can’t sign Price to an extension before July 1.
When Bergevin was asked what would happen if Price wasn’t signed and there was a possibly of losing him to free agency, he said: “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Radulov said he was grateful to Bergevin for giving him a chance to return to the NHL and wanted to stay here.
He said his one hope was a deal longer than the one-year contract he signed last summer.
As for the 38-year-old Markov, he expressed a desire to stay here “for the rest of my life.”
The bottom line from Bergevin: “We’re not going to blow up this team because we’re very disappointed in the way the season ended. We didn’t finish first in our division by accident. We’ll be patient.”