Joined: Jul. 2018
Posts: 349
Likes: 246
This trade is both what frustrates me about Bergevin and has to admit he's made good moves.
This move is a slam dunk for a rebuilding team. Turning a 4th and some cash into a 2nd and conditional 4th in just over a month is a very nice bit of asset management. If Bergevin would just be more all in on rebuilding, I think he has the creativity to really do a lot to turn things around. Montreal has a great prospect pool, but this team has cap space they wont need for this year and next, and players who aren't likely to be part of the eventual success. Instead they have a lot of middle six forwards and useful D that are stopping them from getting to the basement and the GM seems to suggest that it's playoffs or bust each year.
If you were to grade his moves over the last couple of years purely on their own, I think he has done a great job rebuilding, just don't tell him that he's rebuilding.
With the prices what they are this year, hopefully he can turn Petry, Tatar, Armia, and/or Danault into a haul. He could even retain salary to pump up the value on any of these guys if he wanted to.