Marc Bergevin Is Addicted To Trades And He Needs To Seek Help Immediately
So as I’m sure you all know by now, Max Pacioretty was to the Vegas Golden Knights for Tomas Tatar, Nick Suzuki and a 2nd round pick in the next draft. There are plenty of reasons to hate Marc Bergevin, but the fact that he made this trade in the middle of the night on September 10th just shot up the power rankings to #1 for me. But before I talk more about Bergevin, here are a few quick thoughts on that trade in regards to Max Pacioretty.
- First of all, I never really understood Max Pacioretty. Like yeah, he’s a decent player and all but nothing about Max Pacioretty screams “build around this guy”. I don’t know if it’s his demeanor or something but I’ve seen a lot of people saying that Vegas just fleeced Montreal in this trade. Which…I mean… yeah they definitely got a good deal. But that’s because 1) Bergevin has it lost in translation and think the motto is “buy high, sell low”. And 2) You look at what Colorado got for Matt Duchene. Granted, Duchene had a little more time on his contract that Pacioretty does at the moment. But if teams saw that Colorado got a 1st round pick for Matt Duchene and that “set the market”, well then every other team in the league realized that the market was maybe failed a little bit and Pacioretty only bringing back a 2nd is the market correcting itself. I don’t know if that makes sense or not but I feel like saying the word “market” makes me sound smarter so I’m going with it.
- In order for Max Pacioretty to really thrive at this point in his career, I think he would just need to end up going some place where he’s not “the guy”. Go to a team that already has an established culture and doesn’t need anymore strong leadership voices in the locker room. I feel like there is going to be a lot of leadership pressure on Pacioretty again now in Vegas since they’re such a new team. Hell, there may even be pressure to give him the “C”. Like I said above, I just don’t think he’s that guy. I think he’s a good hockey player but I don’t think he’s a great leader. If he could go somewhere and just focus on playing hockey? He could easily put up 30+ and help his team have success. But trying to be the main voice in a locker room? Well we’ve seen how things have worked out for the Habs. Hopefully this is a classic case of a guy just getting a change of scenery and taking off. But I just hope Vegas doesn’t rush him into a leadership role.
But now let’s move on to Bergevin because holy shit let’s take a look at the 2015-16 Montreal Canadiens roster real quick.
This was just a few very short seasons ago. Max Pacioretty? Traded like a bitch to Vegas. Alex Galchenyuk? Traded like a bitch to Arizona for Max Domi. Tomas Plekanec? Was traded like a bitch to Toronto but just re-signed in Montreal. PK Subban? Famously traded like a bitch to Nashville for Shea Weber. Their 4 top point scorers just 3 seasons ago have now all been traded. And then you just keep going down the list and see how many guys are no longer with the organization for one reason or another. Some of them just left in free agency, but others like Nathan Beaulieu were told to pack their shit and put on a one-way flight out of Montreal by Bergevin. The man has made more trades in the past 3 years than most general managers do in their entire career. And for sure more “blockbuster” trades than probably the rest of the GMs in the league combined if we are counting Alex Galchenyuk for Max Domi as a blockbuster deal.
I’m just worried about Marc is all. Nobody ever wants to see somebody spiral down this path. Not even their own worst enemies. The issue here with Marc Bergevin’s addiction is that eventually you just end up running out of trades to make. You already got rid of your top 4 players from just a few seasons ago. You’re running out of stock. It’s hard to think about a time where teams don’t want to trade with Marc Bergevin because they’ve been able to get so many bargain deals out of the guy before. But when you keep getting fleeced after fleeced after fleeced, you no longer have anybody worth anybody else’s time. The well runs dry and that’s where rock bottom is. I’m scared that Marc Bergevin is at that point and just doesn’t know it yet. So please, Marc. While you still can, get some help. We are all rooting for you. But if you don’t get the help you need soon, well then you might end having to make trades in the ECHL before the season is over because your name is on the next ticket out of Montreal. C’est la vie.
