Commandant

Dudley doesn't handle the AHL team. Bergevin does. Which goes to show we know little of what Dudley is doing too. Quick.... What does Bill Guerin do for Pittsburgh? What is his role and how is it different than Jason Botterill? What does Ron Fishman do for Washington? What are Randy Lee and Daniel Alfreddson's responsibilities in Ottawa? What is Chris Drury's job with the Rangers? Thats the four teams alive in the East. What is the job description and duties of these guys and how is it different from Mellanby? Yeah we have no clue what Mellanby does, but that applies for most AGMs. Of all those guys, Jason Botterill is the one we know the most about? Why, cause he is about to get the Buffalo job. No one writes about what these AGMs do, unless they are about to be imminently hired by another organization. There is just no interest in the media on a story about Scott Mellanby's day to day duties.

Its impossible to know what duties go to which assistant GM. Not many teams tell you this stuff. The reality is, that at the end of the day MB is the boss. If what is happening is good, he gets the credit and if what is happening is bad, he gets the blame. The AGMs do their jobs outside of public view for the most part... with the occassional leak from an insider about it, but even those are rare.

There are also rumors that Stephane Quintal would like to transition for DOPS into NHL team management, like his old boss did. Marty Brodeur is woking his way up in management in St. Louis.

The problem goes back further than 4 off-seasons, no doubt. I just said 4 cause that is how many years Bergevin had to do it. I wasn't going to pin the failings of Gauthier, Gainey, etc... on him.

From this draft, I have no interest in the 6th overall pick for Carey Price. This draft is garbage after the top 2 picks, and even the top 2 picks are not at Auston Matthews/Connor McDavid level of the last two years. Also with the combo of Carey Price on Vegas, and the draft lottery I have no guarantee that next year's pick is going to be top 2 or 3 high. Vegas is not guaranteed anything next year. Their pick will be determined the same way every other NHL team's picks are determined. So no, a package of Vegas' draft picks doesn't entice me. Not for Price anyway.

And they don't happen in the previous 4 offseasons when he needed a centre and didn't get one.

Auston Matthews hadn't played one game in the NHL before last season. He was terrible for the Leafs. I know you defend him no matter what, but the defences are getting weaker and weaker.

Lets forget about the taxes, lets forget about wanting to play elsewhere for other reasons than money. Those were both blown out the window today. According to Engels His agent called the Habs to gauge interest. Bergevin DID NOT EVEN MAKE A COMPETITIVE OFFER. if we were in the race and lost, ok fine, we lost cause he wanted to play somewhere else. He wasn't even in the race. Thats a problem.

How does Vegas offer us a package that is tempting for Carey Price? Why do the Oilers think their elimination was because of goaltending? These are two questions I don't know the answers to.

Its pathetic. Absolutely pathetic that we didn't put in a competitive offer. Seriously we should have outbid the 4.5. He might still have picked vegas, who knows. But to completely and utterly fail to make an offer? He's gotta go. The GM has GOT TO GO. Can't trade for a centre Can't draft a centre, and the one guy he does draft he plays on the wing Doesn't make competitive offers for an available free agent centre No solutions. He has no solutions.

Told you he ####ing failed.

I wouldn't spend a lot of money on Dadonov, but i don't think he's the same player at 28 that he was at 22 either. We've already seen the effect of maturity on one a Russian winger we signed last year. My issue is that it can't be a lot of money, cause almost all cap space this year needs to be prioritized to fixing the gaping hole at centre. Upgrades at wing are fine, but they aren't the biggest need. At the deadline I said get a winger cause we needed more goals and it became clear that once Minnesota made the Hanzel deal we werent getting a centre. But the offseason needs to be about centre. Assuming Radulov is back and Galchenyuk is not on the wing, we have. Pacioretty - Radulov Lehkonen - Gallagher Byron - Shaw Hudon as wingers With Scherbak in the system. Putting Chuck on the wing just adds even more Adding Dadonov gives more than enough depth at the wing, its an extra luxury to have, but its not a priority that a lot of capital should be spent on.

By all reports, Bergevin didn't even try. Wasn't even playing the same game.

"Shipachyov is mulling big offers, Bergevin is looking elsewhere" - Engels. That reads an awful lot like Bergevin doesn't wish to top the big offers that were on the table. You give him a million extra per year, and a 3rd year on the deal, and you don't think that at least has him "mulling" your offer???

If Bergevin can't get the job done, can his ass. All the arguments are what Bergevin wasn't willing to do. Which means its on Bergevin.

If he took 2years 9 million. Offer him 3 years and 15. you make him an offer he can't refuse. If he still doesn't come fine, but I want to hear that the Habs had a MUCH better deal on the table, cause that honestly was not that much.

Seriously. 2 years, 9 million. We couldn't do better than that. Really Bergevin? Really? FOR #### SAKES.

I believe he'll be fine if given time at centre. I also believe that not playing the position, means he's not as advanced defensively as he could be, if he played the position for 2-3 years. I think there are some things you can only learn on the job, by making mistakes, and growing. He has been limited in that time.

You can't honestly believe that? How a player is handled has no effect on the speed of his development. (not sure why I can't type this in the same post as the quote).

GMs and coaches are in constant communication. Daily communication. And yes some of the things the GM says, like look, there are no better centres available. We need to have chuck turn into a number 1 centre, cause acquiring one is hard. (things he's basically said in press conferences), need to be said to the coach. Look, if we are ever going to win, this guy needs to be a number 1 centre, and needs to develop into that role. If he isn't impressing that on his coach, thats the real recipe for disaster... not just sitting back and watching.

I do think its bergevin's job that he allowed Galchenyuk to sit on the wing for 3.5 years, to not develop his defensive game, and then think everything would be fine when they threw the guy into the fire. Yes. At some point you have to tell the coach, play him at centre. Live with the growing pains and lets build this. And no one expected Plekanec to fall off the cliff. But he's also 34, and he had no Plan B for a 34 year old regressing. And when the deadline came, he got three players who scored a combined 2 points in 50 games. With Desharnais and Andrighetto out, he managed to downgrade the offence of a team that can't score.

The big thing for me is asking what has Bergevin has done to solve the team's biggest problem in the last 5 years. The big thing is that on Day One of his tenure he had a problem that his top 3 centres were Desharnais, Plekanec and Eller. Five years later his top 3 centres are Danault, Plekanec (who is the ghost of what he was 5 years ago), and Shaw. We went four of those five seasons with Desharnais, Plekanec and Eller starting the year as our top 3 centres, doing absolutely nothing to fix the problem. Sure we had drafted a guy, but he sat on the wing. We started in the middle of year 4 trying to convert that highly drafted centre, back to centre from a spot on wing. We also acquired Danault towards the end of the year. We traded away Eller and acquired some picks. Traded some other picks to acquire Shaw. In year 5 we started the season with a top 3 of Galchenyuk, Plekanec and Desharnais. We ended it with Danault, Plekanec and Shaw (Flynn in the final game cause Shaw was hurt, but lets say Shaw cause MB doesn't control injuries, nor should he be expected to). Galchenyuk was back on the wing cause they didn't have the patience to ride out the growing pains of moving him to centre (which could have been done years earlier)... and our Centre situation was just as big a problem at the end of year 5 as it was at the start of year 1. Thats not very good. If after 5 years he's done that little to address the team's biggest need, I don't know how anyone can argue he's been successful at his job.

I never know with these KHL deals. I thought I'd mention him.

Patrick roy would likely get you A decent lw with speed. An enigmatic russian powerforward wgo wouldnt live up to expectations. And a high end prospect goalie who would become an average starter and never quite live up to the hype. Oh ans youd have to make your captain a throw in to go with Roy too.