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Bergevin's definition of a #1 center seemed to be someone that can put up 70+ points and be trusted in all situations on the ice. To his 1st and 2nd point, the list of those centermen that have been traded for or signed in free agency during his tenure is ridiculously small... Johansen, Spezza, Seguin, Ribeiro and Pominville. And it is a stretch to say they are trusted in all situations. So in that assessment, he's not wrong... #1 centremen are basically not available outside of the draft. (Mind you, Dallas traded for them twice... hmmm...) A very quick scan of the drafts under Bergevin seems to show that no #1 centermen were available at the Habs selections at the draft. This somewhat absolves him and Timmins... they haven't missed out on any centermen. But the centermen Bergevin started his first season with were Plekanec, Desharnais, Eller, and White, and there were essentially 0 centre prospects on the depth chart... so clearly the issue at centre has been a long term one. And the centremen drafted under Bergevin (as per hockeydb) are: Galchenyuk, Vail, De La Rose, Crisp, Gregoire, Audette, Vejdemo, Bradley, Bitten, and Pezzetta. At best you can say 3 of those guys had reasonable top-6 potential when they were drafted. Only one had reasonable #1 potential. By Bergevin's own metric, Galchenyuk is it. That's his one shot at a #1 center. You would think he would be doing every ####ing thing possible to make sure that potential is reached. Instead he's playing 4th line LW in the playoffs in the 5th year of his development, despite being 3rd in team scoring.

He just scores more points at C than at Wing, but he isn't a C.

What is the difference between God and a lawyer? God dosent think he is a Lawyer.

Lefebvre has coached the AHL team for what 4 years now? 5? the only prospects developped in that time who are full-time NHLers..... Gallagher, Galchenyuk, Lehkonen, Beaulieu. Gallagher spent less than half a season with Lefebvre. Galchenyuk and Lehknonen never played under Lefebvre. Beaulieu had a good couple years with him. Pateryn had a couple years with him. Thats a pretty damning list. Three of the five guys who developped into NHLers spent almost no time with him. The fourth guy is not near what people hoped of him (though some of that is on development post-call up, I grant that). Still 1 guy in five years? Pateryn i think you have to consider a success given a fifth rounder who developped into an NHLer, I don't know how much more we could ask for. McCarron might make a third guy under him, and he's not exactly lighting the world on fire either. Edit: Add Andrighetto, thanks Huzer. So if we really stretch, we get 4 prospects developped in 5 years, and none of them are worth writing home about (Pateryn, Andrighetto, McCarron, Beaulieu)­. Now, consider that with Lever, Boucher, Cunneyworth, Timmins' picks were developing into NHLers at a high rate, and I know who I'd be looking to change.

In my mind it's both. The only clear home runs they PROBABLY hit in the first round in MB's tenure are last year and galchenyuk. That's a scouting issue. What I don't know is whether going after players like mccarron in the first round is because of the size fetish is that MB or Timmons had. He doesn't fit the Timmons profile - speed and skill, so I me be biased because I've hated MB since his first three major decisions as GM - 1) hiring Le genius 2) not exactly ending Subban for 10 or 12 years when they could have prior to the lockout 3) bridge deal to Subban after the lockout. There have been other Timmons draft picks that SHOULD have been good - Beaulieu, Shreback. IMO that is a development issue. it seems that unless a player really doesn't really need much time in the AHL Gallagher, lekhonan and galchenyuk), none of the habs draftees have progressed that well. IMO that is on MB's other coaching hire in the AHL. Another one of his bum buddies, who has done squat to develop players. in the NHL, the habs had therrian who probably would have benched Gretzky for trying to score empty net goals if he had Gretzky as an 18 year old. Unless a player was confident and skilled himself, he could not succeed under le genius. Even if he was, dumb and dumber would try and break them - see Subban. To make matters worse, they have another crony that grew up with MB - daigneult- as an assistant coach. Galchenyuk was a gift at #3, but they have messed him up by flipping him up, down, left, right and centre in the lineup. So so with the incompetent coaching staff the habs hired in both the NHL and AHL, it's hard to judge Timmons. He did draft McDonough, maxpac and Subban in one friggin draft. Hudon seems like a highly skilled player, who has not been given a fair shake. Schrebak seemed like a steal. i think I'd start off with cleaning house with AHL coaching staff and Daigneult before firing Timmons.

Bergevin on centers, paraphrased: 1. They're not available, ever, and don't you forget it. 2. You have to draft them. 3. Alex Galchenyuk is a winger. So, the greatest team need isn't avaliable, and they can't develop it when they have their pick of any center in an entire draft. Sounds like he's admitting he can't do his job and he should resign.

Huge respect for Damphousse, but give me someone who has paid his dues learning NHL management (e.g. Brisebois). Of course, our last two GMs have had impeccable credentials and both have stunk out the joint, so who knows.

I've had my doubts about Bergevin ever since the Kassian and Semin ordeals. Whether or not it was correct to get rid of those players for basically nothing is irrelevant because they were simply Bergevin covering up his own mistakes either way. The Subban trade does have its negative aspects but for me I felt as though it wasn't necessarily something that Bergevin had full control over and he got a great player in return. As a result, it wasn't like I had a continual dislike towards him but my skepticism did start a lot earlier than most. With all that in place, I constantly see remarks about Bergevin not addressing our most glaring need(s). Sit in Bergevin's chair for a minute, Close your eyes. What is the most nagging comment you hear ringing in your head from the past decade when it comes to our team and our identity? Open your eyes. Half of you (who aren't actually Bergevin) will hear cries for that scoring top line center. The other half (who also aren't Bergevin) will hear cries about the Habs being too small and needing to get bigger. We're constantly "too soft" and get run over physically by other teams. This year saw the Habs lose the most physical round 1 series and the Habs themselves played a huge part of that physicality despite possessing the puck quite a bit throughout the series. Bergevin transformed this team into a more physical team this year... and it didn't work. What's the point in all of that? Bergevin did actually address one of our most glaring needs, it simply did not work out. What people who criticize Bergevin fail to assess is that not every move works out. That's not a defense of Bergevin, because the better GMs will have more successful moves over their lifespan, but it's not true to say that he wasn't actively trying to correct our most glaring needs. If Bergevin had a shot at Malkin or Toews, I'm sure he'd be all over it. Since that wasn't possible? Let's address our other need, which is to get a little bigger (no more smurf talk). Some will argue that speed is better in today's NHL, and I may agree with that as I missed our speed up front against the Rangers, but it doesn't change the fact that we've been criticized for being too small for an era. Bergevin could have acquired Eaves. He could have acquired Vrbata. He could have acquired Drew Stafford. But when those players didn't work out within our system, how would people have felt? They would have felt the same way and said that Bergevin should have acquired player X instead. There's not a single player that was acquired at the deadline with decent stats who would have produced the same way on the Habs. Eaves on Anaheim is a great fit and Stafford doesn't impress me on Boston. Half of us are pissed that Bergevin didn't do more at the deadline and the other half keep saying that there wasn't anything on the market this season. My personal opinion is that his moves sucked overall, but there really wasn't anything interesting on the market and he was one of the more active GMs in the league at the deadline. He seemingly really was trying to help the team. He's just not as good at the walk. When it comes to our centers and how Bergevin has failed to address this need, I think this is the first moment where we can officially start to have questions about Galchenyuk and his overall potential. Even then, I wouldn't be surprised for him to be able to produce like a first line center as soon as next year. He had an injury riddled season and it's always extremely unfair to judge a player based on a season like that. Next, we throw out comments about Plekanec regressing into a bottom sixer like it was fully and obviously expected but again, the evidence of its profound impact on the forward corps as a whole is only relatively recent. Bergevin did add Radulov (only luckily ) but then had a player like Plekanec regress into a bottom sixer. At the moment, we still need two more top 6 players to be a real, legitimate threat to win a Stanley Cup. Bergevin could have added two top 6 players last summer and we'd still be in a hole. Overall, the expectations are simply a bit unrealistic. He would have had to have added 3 top 6 players to have really done a great job. As for my opinion? I'm not really sure. I definitely think Bergevin has made mistakes along the way which is unacceptable and although there's been too much "new" within the organization recently, I'd be fine with him getting fired. I'm just not convinced that the constant issues people bring up about him are genuinely rational.

Eh? EH!

Damphousse was my favourite player as a kid. I don't want him anywhere near a GM role. If your organization is putting media in top roles then your organization is broken.

Or he could have acquired just one forward with skill as a deadline rental for a cheap price. Habs gave up... Sven Andrighetto, a 4th round pick, a 6th round pick, and got 1g 1a in 50 gp from 3 scrubs. anaheim gave up a conditional second rounder and got Patrick Eaves 12 goals, 5 assists, 17 points in 24 games for Anaheim. Florida gave up a third rounder and got 10 points in 20 games from Vanek Boston gave up a 6th rounder and got Drew Stafford. 10 points in 24 games, He didn't have to gut this roster to add some offence.

Havent you heard repeated ad nauseam? Bergevin is a clueless idiot, just read the last 15 pages or so of this thread and you will see it is so! Give up now, best buy that Matthews' jersey and jump on Leaf bandwagon!

Well are no all-star or #1 centres going to free agency. So will need to part with current assets and you want a top six centre, so what are you willing to part with (aside from typical garbage people propose), that will "REALISTICALLY" make a Sakic or other GM part with a top quality centre? Which would start with offering up Sergachev and may need to also include Lehkonen, or Gallagher? Tell me what a Non-Dummy would deal away and for which centre? Go big with a Pacioretty, Galchenyuk? (Beaulieu isn't worth much, but could be good toss in)

Dallas trading for 2 good centres...at the expense of having a shitty defense who cant defend and were 29th and 25th in goals against then missing playoffs this year. And you are saying that is good model you would like to see Bergy follow?

You must be running out of things to call him eh?