Geoff Molson must shoulder blame
At this point, whatever more damage Marc Bergevin might do to the Canadiens is on owner Geoff Molson, not the general manager.
Molson, the Canadiens’ owner/ president, is the one who decided to keep Bergevin in place for Year 7 as GM after the team missed the playoffs for the second time in three years and finished 28th in the overall NHL standings. The Canadiens’ 29-40-13 record this season was seven points worse than the 31-35-16 mark they had in 2011-12 when they also finished 28th. Molson fired Pierre Gauthier as GM after that season and hired Bergevin.
Bergevin’s first major move as GM was to select Alex Galchenyuk with the No. 3 overall pick at the 2012 NHL draft and on Friday night he traded the 24-year-old — a former 30-goal scorer — to the Arizona Coyotes for Max Domi, who scored nine goals this season, including four empty-netters. Galchenyuk scored 19 goals, only one into an empty net.
When asked during a media scrum Saturday morning at the Bell Centre how trading a 19-goal scorer for a nine-goal scorer can make a team that ranked 29th in offence better, Bergevin said: “I think there’s more than Max’s just nine goals. I think he brings more … there’s intangibles there that we like. Alex is a goal-scorer … he did score. But also I see Max (who had 36 assists) has potential to produce also. I think points per game, they’re pretty close, so there’s some untapped potential. I believe it’s still there because he’s still a young player (23).
“Long term, short term, I think we’re a different team, different look. We did want to make some changes and that’s part of it. I like what (Domi) brings. He plays a fast game, he plays with energy. He moves the puck well and wants to play in Montreal, so that means a lot for us.”
The situation now with the Canadiens reminds me of when Réjean Houle was GM. Houle’s five-year reign from 1995 to 2000 was more the fault of former team president Ronald Corey, who hired a man with no experience as a GM and then sat back and watched as franchise player Patrick Roy was traded away and then won two more Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche. The Canadiens have never really recovered from that deal.
Now it’s Molson sitting back and watching Bergevin.
Two summers ago, Bergevin traded P.K. Subban — Montreal’s most popular athlete — to Nashville and then watched the Predators advance to the Stanley Cup final in the defenceman’s first season there. This year, Subban is one of three finalists for the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenceman, while Lars Eller — traded by Bergevin five days before Subban — scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Washington Capitals.
Canadiens fans can now watch Galchenyuk play centre for the Coyotes next season, probably wondering what might have been after they were told by Bergevin he can’t play that position. Maybe Bergevin will be proven right, but when it comes to Bergevin’s trades, it’s a good bet to take the other team on who will be the winner. The Galchenyuk trade came on the first anniversary of Bergevin dealing top defence prospect Mikhail Sergachev to Tampa Bay for Jonathan Drouin and the Lightning are the early winners on that one.
When asked if Molson had to sign off on the Galchenyuk trade, Bergevin said: “I have total (authority) to make hockey decisions. But he’s aware of what’s going on before. That’s how I operate. But I have full authority to make hockey decisions.”
As for Canadiens fans who are upset about the trade, Bergevin said: “I guess I understand to a degree because they don’t know Max. He’s played out west. They’re welcome to watch him and to get to know him. And I think once he’s here they’ll watch him play and appreciate what he brings to the hockey team.”
Hopefully, Domi brings a good attitude along with his intangibles.
Molson seemed to buy Bergevin’s excuse that the players’ bad attitude was the big problem last season, not the work of the GM who brought those players in the locker-room. Now Galchenyuk is gone and you have to wonder if captain Max Pacioretty is next.
Bergevin will definitely be making more moves this summer and hopefully he has a better plan than last summer when he watched Alexander Radulov and Andrei Markov leave and then started the season $8 million below the salary cap, a problem he never fixed. Bergevin has 10 picks at next weekend’s NHL draft, including No. 3 overall, and according to CapFriendly.com now has just over $14 million in projected salary cap space. What happens between now and July 1, when the free-agent sweepstakes begin, will determine the future success of this franchise and right now the Canadiens look lost.
But Molson still believes Bergevin is the man to fix his own mess. Or maybe he just doesn’t want to eat the remaining four years of the GM’s contract.
Whatever it is, it’s on Molson now.