sakiqc Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 Translating an excerpt of an interview with Marc Bergevin, February 19, 1992 - Would you have liked to play for the Montréal Canadiens ? - To tell you the truth, I always tought I was not good enough to play for the Canadiens. In the bottom of my heart, I always wanted to but I know I'm not good enough. I've never considered myself good enough to play for the Canadiens. I've always seen the Canadiens in a class of its own. Wow, talk about high regards for the organization and humility. And that's from a guy who is in the league's all time top 100 for most games played. You made it to the Habs Marc, congrats and good luck! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsy Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Considering McGuire was on "our" short list for the job, seems lame to trash him now. Bergevin sure looks the part, in the way that Brian Burke has Toronto written all over him. He doesn't have much experience, but if he handles the Gomez situation well, and locks up Carey Price long term to a nice number, I'll be delighted. Trade Kaberle and he's GM of the year, I'm not saying that to stoke the fires, as the Kaberle debate has been great on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machine of Loving Grace Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Bergevin stated he will make Cunnyworth an assistant coach but the new head coach will decide his assistants. Classy move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsy Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Bergevin stated he will make Cunnyworth an assistant coach but the new head coach will decide his other assistants. Classy move. great start! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machine of Loving Grace Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 great start! Small correction, new coach can decide to get rid of him but it's still very classy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sakiqc Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 lousy translation: There's lot of great Québec players around the league. We only have 1 scout in Québec. We'll have more. I'll make sure we do everything to not miss out on players in our backyard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Timmins is staying as head amateur scout, terrific news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machine of Loving Grace Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Timmins is staying as head amateur scout, terrific news. Sad that we're in the position of waiting with baited breath on if Bergevin makes a bad move. I'm fine with him wanting more scouts in Quebec but the truth is Quebec is a dying area for hockey talent. The best players in Quebec these past few years tend to be the European imports. Finding the good Quebec players means either drafting high or having quite a few fourth and fifth round picks to spare. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commandant Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Bergevin on Trevor Timmins: "I think he did an excellent job. He will be sitting next to me in Pittsburgh." That gets a big WOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOO from me. As for wanting more scouts in Quebec, we've drafted 14 QMJHL players under Timmins, the second most of any team in the league. Add in the fact we drafted Louis Leblanc out of the USHL (another Quebecois talent), and that we have signed 1 or 2 QMJHL free agents almost every year, and we are recruiting the most Q talent in the NHL. The problem is there is less Quebec born talent than any time in the league's history, and 30 teams who want talent no matter where it comes from. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Sad that we're in the position of waiting with baited breath on if Bergevin makes a bad move. It is and it isn't. Every GM wants to bring in his people and we don't know what his thoughts about certain personnel are; most of us wanted to keep him but you never know if he knew a guy in Chicago that he wanted to bring in. Carriere is staying as Asst. GM too which I'm also happy to hear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chicoutimi Cucumber Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 He certainly shows good judgement in strongly endorsing Timmins and Carriere. I noticed that his talk about 'waiting until he can evaluate the entire organization' before making decision, etc., etc., did not apply to those two. Nor did it when it came to Price and Subban. Clearly, despite his stated diffidence, he has a good read on who the keepers are. The presser itself didn't blow me away per se. He doesn't have the presence of, say, a Gainey, Burke or Yzerman. This in no way means he is not the right guy, of course. His style is almost quintessentially ''ti gars du Quebec' (what we used to call 'a Jean-Guy' back in my Montreal days). This will endear him to the French media and probably the fans His emphasis on Quebec talent is questionable in hockey terms, although he is absolutely correct that having one scout in Quebec is ridiculous (but wasn't this Molson's decision last summer? I seem to remember us having three Quebec scouts before). The other slightly troubling thing was the emphasis Molson put on 'communication.' I understand that, after Gauthier, everybody wants a more agreeable human being running the show. But I hope we didn't choose the anti-Gauthier. It would be a mistake to allow your choice of GM be defined by the limitations of his predecessor. Anyway - reservations are moot at this point. Good luck, MB!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Machine of Loving Grace Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 People don't care who we draft from the Q as long as they see the player wear a Habs uniform and they become a star. We traded up to get Latendresse but he didn't become a star so in some peoples minds, we didn't draft a Q player. We could have had Claude Giroux and didn't draft him so that means more than the 14 players we drafted. Seriously it has very little to do with drafting Q players and has everything to do with drafting Q stars. Which is sometimes impossible to figure out. I remember the last time Montreal was in position to take a "Q Star" and we didn't. His name was Angelo Esposito. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DON Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Sad that we're in the position of waiting with baited breath on if Bergevin makes a bad move. I'm fine with him wanting more scouts in Quebec but the truth is Quebec is a dying area for hockey talent. The best players in Quebec these past few years tend to be the European imports. Finding the good Quebec players means either drafting high or having quite a few fourth and fifth round picks to spare. Dont see anything as sad? Just natural to be curious what moves/steps he will take, good-bad or neutral. And already seeing Timmins as an important and valued employee and moving Randy to assistant are good signs of things to possibly come. More, glass half-full than opposite. Francophone player pool shrinking is what it is. No big deal, smaller families, aging demographics, who knows, still lots of fine canadian kids from all over making impact in NHL? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chicoutimi Cucumber Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 I want to say that if we'd kept Ribeiro, we probably wouldn't be hearing so much about it. Then again, when we had Roy, Carbo, Denis Savard, Eric Desjardins, Patrice Brisebois and Vincent Damphousse, we were still hearing about it. The 'French talent' thing isn't an argument, it's a quasi-religious belief in the mystical link between Frenchness and the Habs and therefore defies any rational analysis. No matter how many we have, it will never be enough. Unless, perhaps, we have a francophone superstar. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Got a report that says it's a 5 year deal for Bergevin. First big surprise of the day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sakiqc Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 Got a report that says it's a 5 year deal for Bergevin. First big surprise of the day. Molson has been talking about stability and long term all along. No surprise to me there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlbalr Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Molson has been talking about stability and long term all along. No surprise to me there. If he had some GM experience already it wouldn't surprise me but the principle of giving a rookie 5 year deal is something I wasn't expecting (I figured 3 for any rookie GM). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thib46 Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Maybe the 5 years is what was the final deal maker for Bergervin, if he is to take on the heat in Montreal and there will be heat, he made sure he was well compensated. Then again we have not seen the real contract. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blonde Demon Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 If he had some GM experience already it wouldn't surprise me but the principle of giving a rookie 5 year deal is something I wasn't expecting (I figured 3 for any rookie GM). Meh, he knows the game on and off the ice well enough...I wanted Bergevin or Brisebois...I got one of the 2.. Great news for us going forward...The guy seems down to earth and players like playing for guys like him... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Chicoutimi Cucumber Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 5 years is fine with me (according to RDS, four years is the industry standard). The guy is dragging his family and kids from the US to Montreal, after all. Besides, stability in the GM's chair is highly desirable. It's all good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commandant Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 A GM needs time to put his stamp on the team, 4 or 5 years is usually the evaluation period unless its someone who was as bad as PG this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMELINATOR Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Great signing! Apparently he is close friends with agent Pat Brisson as well. (Hopefully that lands us a big name player down the road) He is supposed to be hiring both Rick Dudley and Martin Lapointe (Chicago pro scout) in some capacity as well. Now let's find us a good coach! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brobin Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Awesome move about the Québec scouts, not just because we needed more, but it tells me he understands the Québec media. By saying that, he's taking a lot of the heat off the table immediately. He also just stated on TSN that he will definitely want a bilingual coach, another read of the realities in Montreal. This contrasts with clueless PG who hires an anglophone, then apologies for it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toronthab Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 Well... seems a pretty good sort of guy to me. I like his Cunneyworth move and other first impressions. Good for him. We begin anew! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueKross Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 Awesome move about the Québec scouts, not just because we needed more, but it tells me he understands the Québec media. By saying that, he's taking a lot of the heat off the table immediately. He also just stated on TSN that he will definitely want a bilingual coach, another read of the realities in Montreal. This contrasts with clueless PG who hires an anglophone, then apologies for it. There is a lot of difference between the bpa and the best French person available. That alone will continue to figure in on the ultimate success or lack thereof of the Canadiens. Enough said, we are where we are, let's move on and support MB and pull this team out of the dumpster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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