Throughout his tenure as Montreal Canadiens General Manager (2012-2021), Marc Bergevin was always one of the more aggressive team builders in the NHL. With his willingness to make bold moves, the Habs were a consistent playoff team under his leadership where they were able to make deep playoff runs to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2014, and the Stanley Cup Final in 2021 which helped the team come close to bringing the 25th Stanley Cup in franchise history to Montreal.
With him being unafraid, Bergevin made plenty of moves that may have been unpopular at the time but ended up being the correct decision. Some of the best examples being swapping out fan favourite P.K. Subban for Shea Weber in 2016, trading captain Max Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018 for a package that landed Montreal their future captain in Nick Suzuki, and taking the risk on a small 5'7 sniper with the 15th overall pick in 2019 by selecting Cole Caufield.
Unfortunately for Habs fans, not all of Bergevin's moves as General Manager ended up aging well. Two decisions that come right to the top of my mind are signing Karl Alzer to a 5-year 23 million dollar contract in 2017. Along with reaching on Jesperi Kotkaniemi with the third overall pick in 2018 while passing up on players such as; Brady Tkachuk, Quinn Hughes, and Evan Bouchard, to name a few of the elite players who were taken after Kotkaniemi.
As they say, time heals all wounds, and as a fan of this team, I have moved on with some of the moves that Bergevin made that hurt the franchise in the long term.
Well, aside from a disastrous day in June of 2017. The day Marc Bergevin, in my opinion, made the worst move he ever made as the Canadiens General Manager, one I am not sure I will ever forgive him for making.
The catastrophic deal from the Habs end was trading 2016 9th overall pick defenceman Mikhail Sergachev to hated division rival Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for forward Jonathan Drouin. Not only did Montreal end up giving up the vastly better player, but perhaps the worst part of the deal was immediately upon acquiring Drouin, Montreal signed the Quebec native to a six-year 33 million dollar contract that negatively affected the team's salary cap for years.
The deal no doubt was a big reason for the Lightning's sustained success throughout the early part of the decade as Tampa was a consistent Stanley Cup contender as the team reached three straight Stanley Cup Finals (2020-22). It allowed the Bolts to have some cap flexibility as they had an elite young defenceman on the cheap.
The deal came back to bite Montreal in the behind when Tampa Bay defended their 2020 Stanley Cup Championship by destroying the Canadiens in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, where Sergachev was a key member of one the best bluelines I can recall in NHL history. Not to mention, Drouin did not even suit up for the Canadiens throughout that playoff run due to off-the-ice reasons regarding his mental health at the time.
Eight years later, still only twenty-five years old, Sergachev is a core piece for Tampa Bay as they re-tool the roster to make another run at the Stanley Cup with some of their while Drouin left Montreal in 2023 to join his former QMJHL linemate Nathan Mackinnon where Drouin possibly would have won a comeback player of the year award if the NHL had said prize.
I do not think it is overstating to say this was one of the worst trades in the history of the most historic franchise in the NHL.
I am not sure I will get over it until there is a Stanley Cup parade going down St. Catherine's street once again.
コメント