Marc Bergevin was once fired 3 years in the past as of late by means of the Montreal Canadiens and entirely disappeared from the media glare, in the end settling into an stress-free gig with the Los Angeles Kings.
The closing way of life trade of going from the consistent family highlight as Habs GM for almost a decade to near-obscurity as senior aider and not using a family profile with the Kings generation residing in Redondo Seaside, Calif., neatly, that fits Bergevin simply effective.
“I have no regrets about my time in Montreal,” Bergevin instructed The Athletic this year. “It was a great nine and a half years, and I have nothing but positive memories. But there is certainly a spotlight there.
“Here, you go to Starbucks to get your coffee in the morning and nobody knows who you are.”
Which is precisely what he wanted. 3 years to decompress.
“After I left Montreal, I remember thinking I wanted to be a GM again right away, but looking back, it would have been the wrong thing for me to jump back right in,” Bergevin mentioned. “I needed this time to reenergize.”
It’s now not like he’s been sitting on his arms. He’s operating full-time for Rob Blake, advising and touring and doing regardless of the Kings GM wishes. However he’s been ready to do it within the shadows.
In his first media interview since his firing in Montreal on Nov. 28, 2021, Bergevin touched on plenty of subjects with The Athletic.
Let’s dive in.
Rejecting a Canadiens extension
Bergevin says Habs proprietor Geoff Molson approached him with a commitment extension proper then the staff reached the ’21 Cup Ultimate. His commitment was once expiring a yr upcoming.
“I decided that for me, it was best to move forward,” Bergevin mentioned. “Time had come. It was good for both of us to move in a different direction. Geoff was very good, very fair. But I told him, ‘Geoff, I’m going to finish my last year that’s left and then I’m going to move on.’ He was good with that. He understood.”
The truth was once that Bergevin was once nice-looking a lot fried by means of some of the game’s maximum tough jobs. And now not simply from a hockey perspective.
“COVID took a toll on me — not physically, but as you know Montreal, Quebec, was really strict with the rules on COVID, and all my kids were in the States,” Bergevin mentioned. “There was a 14-day quarantine then (once entering Quebec). I didn’t see my kids for almost a year.
“When Geoff made me the offer, I just felt there was no light at the end of the tunnel. The whole COVID thing for me beat me up, mentally, not seeing my kids.”
Because it seems, with Shea Weber taking part in his extreme NHL sport in that 2021 Cup Ultimate and Carey Value lacking nearly all of please see season, the tip of an hour for Bergevin’s staff was once taking place much more temporarily than any individual would have predicted. A 6-15-2 begin to the season resulted in Bergevin’s firing.
“I knew a change was coming (because they had mutually agreed it was his last season), but it’s always a shock even though you prepare for it,” Bergevin mentioned. “It was done the right way from Geoff’s side.”
The toll of the activity
Prior to Bergevin landed in Montreal as Habs GM on Would possibly 2, 2012, he was once recognized in hockey circles for his humorousness. All the way through his taking part in profession and after operating his method up the scouting ranks with the Chicago Blackhawks, he was once the age of the birthday celebration.
That is the fellow who as soon as picked up a plant strolling out of a GMs assembly in Florida to keep away from the cameras.
That is one ingenious strategy to keep away from being noticed. #Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin hides in the back of a plant and (nearly) slips proper date everybody. pic.twitter.com/XHEk12Ev2Z
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 6, 2017
However a decade in that Habs activity, thru all of the drama, chipped away at that personable, humorous man. The tension of the activity was once perceivable on his face by means of the tip.
“Yeah that’s fair,” Bergevin mentioned. “And it’s not like you change as a person, but you’re more on your guard because you feel like you have a spotlight on you every second of the day. And everything you said could be picked apart. So you’re more on your guard.
“But honestly, I enjoyed every second of my time there in Montreal. Even though there were times I didn’t feel like I did. But now that I can look back after a few years, yeah.”
He feels the great strikes outweighed the errors, however sure, clearly, there have been errors.
“Looking back I feel our average was pretty good,” he mentioned.
Dealer Bergevin
One of the most traits of Bergevin’s age in Montreal was once smaller to medium strikes that ended up being really useful. All of them upload up.
Obtaining Marco Scandella for a fourth-round select from the Buffalo Sabres, after flipping him to the St. Louis Blues seven weeks upcoming for second- and fourth-round selections.
Getting Brett Kulak from the Calgary Flames for Matt Taormina and Rinat Valiev.
Person who wasn’t revealed as obese on the age: Getting Phillip Danault and a second-rounder from Chicago for pending UFAs Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann. That second-round select become Alexander Romanov.
“I learned from Rick Dudley,” Bergevin mentioned. “He said once to me, ‘Berg, you can’t go for the home run all the time. Sometimes you make your team better a little bit here, a little bit there. And eventually you get to where you want to be.’ I always kept that in mind. I think we did that in Montreal. We hit a lot of singles.”
Clearly, he additionally swung for the fences on some trades, together with P.Okay. Subban for Shea Weber in June 2016.
“P.K. was a very good player, but we needed something different,” Bergevin mentioned. “To get Shea Weber, you had to give up a pretty good asset. I think it worked out for both teams. Because both teams went to the Final. Nashville did with P.K. (in 2017), and we did with Shea.
“When a trade is made, both GMs think it’s going to work out for their teams, but I think the best ones are the ones that do actually work out for both teams.”
Bergevin was once invited by means of Weber to his fresh Hockey Corridor of Reputation induction, which was once particular for him.
“I’m glad that I went,” Bergevin mentioned. “I told him, ‘I’m honored you’re asking me to go.’ And he said, ‘Berg, I want you to be there.’ That meant a lot to me.”
GO DEEPER
LeBrun: Shea Weber, David Poile input Corridor of Reputation in combination on just right phrases then long rift over industry, deal sheet
The Carolina deal sheets
The Habs made plethora information on July 1, 2019, once they signed celebrity heart Sebastian Aho to an deal sheet. The five-year, $42.295 million was once front-loaded and most commonly made up of signing bonuses, together with $11.3 million in July 2019 and $9.87 million in July 2020. The gamble for Montreal was once that Hurricanes proprietor Tom Dundon wouldn’t have the tummy to pay that cash up entrance. However Dundon didn’t blink.
Looking back, Bergevin thinks he may have carried out it another way.
“Aho was the right player to give an offer sheet to, but I wish it would have been a different offer sheet,” Bergevin mentioned. “Would I take that back? Yes. But honestly, at the time, we thought we would get the player based on the signing bonuses, which (Tom) Dundon matched. It ended up being a good contract for them.
“Lesson learned, honestly. Lesson learned. If I ever become a GM again, that’s a lesson I can use moving forward if it happens.”
The deal sheet additionally made mortal enemies, on the age, of householders Dundon and Molson. That fueled Carolina’s revenge deal sheet on Jesperi Kotkaniemi in August 2021, a one-year, $6.1 million offer.
The Habs didn’t fit.
“He wasn’t going to do a long-term deal with us because he wanted a change of scenery,” Bergevin mentioned of Kotkaniemi.
And neatly, the Canadiens didn’t really feel Kotkaniemi was once virtue $6.1 million. In order that resolution wasn’t crisp.
Carolina GM Don Waddell did achieve out to look if a industry may well be labored out in lieu. The rumor on the age was once that Bergevin attempted to get a tender Seth Jarvis again.
“That’s true,” he showed.
Waddell, now not strangely, didn’t need to journey Jarvis, who was once drafted thirteenth the former yr.
Drafting Kotkaniemi 3rd within the 2018 draft was once a call fueled by means of a determined want at heart for the Habs. Clearly taking him one spot forward of winger Brady Tkachuk, who went upcoming to the Ottawa Senators, is hard to digest for Habs fanatics now.
“I look back at that, honestly, if you remember, Brady had a really tough season at BU,” Bergevin mentioned. “He didn’t score for a long time. The skating was an issue. At the time in Montreal, all I would hear is (Filip) Zadina, Zadina, Zadina … because he was playing in Halifax (of the Quebec League).
“Obviously, now you would say, ‘Tkachuk, well of course.’”
However the wish to draft a middle was once actual.
“We didn’t have any centermen, and we were looking at a guy that was a tall, lanky center,” Bergevin mentioned. “He had some good hockey as a 17-year-old. I wish KK the best. I think there’s more there, but time will tell.”
Drafting Mailloux
Bergevin’s extreme draft as Habs GM introduced his maximum debatable future, superior the hockey international by means of taking Logan Mailloux thirty first in 2021.
Mailloux had requested NHL groups to not draft him then experiences surfaced that he was once convicted and fined in a Swedish court docket in December 2020 for disseminating offensive pictures. He had taken a photograph of a girl appearing a intercourse employment with out her consent and circulated it amongst some teammates.
The Habs took him anyway. Bergevin on the age described what Mailloux had carried out as “unacceptable,” however many felt, as The Athletic’s Arpon Basu wrote, that the select signaled that for the Canadiens, “Improving their hockey team is more important than basic, common decency.”
The tale has died indisposed over age, partially as it seems like Mailloux has installed paintings to beef up and teach himself. He residue a part of the group, has performed six NHL video games and is these days with AHL Laval.
“It’s nice to see the young man has done the necessary things, to earn a second chance,” Bergevin mentioned, declining to mention the rest at the topic.
I believe his resolution to not say extra comes all the way down to the regrettable resolution involving alternative nation round him within the group. Maximum significantly, in fact, possession signed off on it.
Regardless of the case, if Bergevin is to transform an NHL GM once more one future, he should solution this query in additional attribute as a part of his interview procedure together with his upcoming NHL proprietor.
What he left in the back of
Tide Canadiens management inherited just right younger gamers, akin to Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield, but in addition, it will have to be identified, some hefty assurances in Brendan Gallagher and Josh Anderson.
However Bergevin feels he left Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes valuable items to rebuild with.
“I never traded a first-round pick when I was there,” Bergevin mentioned. “Not that I wouldn’t, but I didn’t. And you can look at the draft picks I left them. And I’m proud of that. I didn’t put that franchise in a bad spot. People might argue that, but I don’t know where you would argue that.”
Gallagher’s six-year, $39 million extension, signed in October 2020 and expiring in 2027, is one some would level to, even if he’s had a renaissance season in 2024-25.
“He had three years of 30 goals in a row (before signing the extension),” Bergevin mentioned. “You have to pay for that. Every GM sometimes gives one or two years too much in contracts.”
And sure, the Carey Value commitment remains to be on Montreal’s books thru 2026. Bergevin signed Value to an eight-year, $84-million extension July 2, 2017.
After all it was once too a few years, however the backup was once to let the most productive goalie on the earth travel a yr upcoming.
“You had to sign him, but then injuries … nobody knew that — he didn’t know that — would happen,” Bergevin mentioned.
Prior to the extension was once signed, did alternative groups name to gauge the place issues had been with Value to look if a industry was once imaginable? Like possibly on the draft?
Nope.
“Nobody ever called,” Bergevin mentioned. As it was once unhidden the Habs had been taking to do all they might to signal Value.
Hour with the Kings
As senior aider, Bergevin travels to scout video games and spends age with the Kings training personnel each and every year.
“I’ll come in most days and be part of all our discussions as a group,” Bergevin mentioned. “I’ll watch other games, other teams, for either trades or free agency.”
Latter year, Bergevin was at video games in Vegas, Utah, Philadelphia and Chicago.
Bergevin performed with Blake and Kings president Luc Robitaille on Canada’s international championship gold medal staff in 1994. They remained akin in a while.
The Kings leased him in January 2022.
“They wanted a different set of eyes,” Bergevin mentioned.
“Marc has been a terrific addition to our staff,” Blake mentioned by way of textual content. “Really enjoys the scouting aspect of managing. Has a busy travel schedule where he watches many live games with very thorough reports on players who may or may not fit with us. His welcoming personality allows him to interact with the coaching staff on a daily basis. Sharing his thoughts on our team and what is happening around the league.”
GM interviews
Bergevin has interviewed for 3 GM openings since depart Montreal: in Toronto in Would possibly 2023 when Brad Treliving was once leased, in Pittsburgh round the similar age in 2023 when Kyle Dubas was once leased and in Columbus this date offseason when Waddell were given the gig.
“When teams reach out, it’s always good to do it,” Bergevin mentioned.
Treliving was once at all times the front-runner for the Toronto activity, however Bergevin preferred interviewing with Leafs president Brendan Shanahan.
“I knew Toronto a bit better because of my days with Montreal,” Bergevin mentioned. “But Tree is a good general manager. After the announcement was made with Tree, I ran into Shanny and said, ‘Thank you for the opportunity.’
“There’s no hard feelings that I wasn’t picked. It’s a business. I wished him the best.”
So what’s upcoming?
Disagree uncertainty there will likely be extra GM interviews, however possibly later that produces every other GM gig residue to be revealed.
“I’m in a good place here with Blakey and the staff. I really am,” Bergevin mentioned. “If it turns out that I stay here for three, four, five years instead, I’m really good with that. But do I want to try again? I think we did enough good things in Montreal to have another crack at it. But that’s not my decision.
“I’ve never stopped working since the day I got let go. I’ve stayed really in touch with the game and the players.”
Irrespective of what the age holds, he’s now higher ready to understand his age as Habs GM.
“Geoff Molson was always supportive,” Bergevin mentioned. “I have nothing but respect for him. And I wish the best of luck in Montreal. Because they have a great fan base, great ownership, and I know Kent and Gorts, and they’re good people. I wish everybody there the best. I really mean that.”
(Picture: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Photographs)
