Marc Bergevin’s meticulous nature continues to improve the Montreal Canadiens at just the right pace.
With the additions of blueliner Jeff Petry and forwards Brian Flynn and Torrey Mitchell, Bergevin has brought onboard a defenceman who can play in the top four and a couple guys who will marginally improve the bottom six. Crucially, he did it without surrendering a first-round pick or prospect of any note.
Count perspective among Bergevin’s numerous positive traits, then, because he seems to have a perfect big-picture understanding of exactly where his team sits. The Canadiens have more points than anybody in the Eastern Conference and clearly have a crack at winning multiple playoff rounds. But are they really, truly there with a healthy Chicago Blackhawks team or the springtime version of the Los Angeles Kings?
Nope. Not just yet.
That’s why Bergevin wasn’t willing to go all in on a player like Antoine Vermette, who was never going to be a make-or-break piece for Montreal. The Habs just aren’t quite close enough to the hump for good-but-not great player to propel them over the top.
They did, however, push a bit further up the mountain, specifically with the addition of Petry for a second-round pick and a conditional fifth-rounder in June’s draft. The right-shooting defence likely slides in as the team’s fourth-best defenceman behind P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov and emerging Nathan Beaulieu. That’s a significant move at an easy-to-swallow price, especially considering the Canadiens have two second-round picks in 2016.
The Habs now have a ton of depth on the back end, with Alexei Emelin expected to return from a shoulder injury well before the playoffs and serviceable Mike Weaver presently taking in action from the press box. Add to that list the name Greg Pateryn, a 24-year-old who showed well lately before being sent back to the AHL in the wake of Monday’s action. Pateryn may not be a game-breaker, but he is exactly the kind of young player a lesser GM could have easily relinquished in a haze of coffee, donuts and delusional deadline-day dreams.
But Bergevin being Bergevin, he never takes his eye off the ball.
Nabbing Mitchell—a Montreal boy—and Flynn indicates the team was not satisfied with how things were playing out on the third and fourth lines. Until recently, the club was getting basically zero production out of those units. The complexion of the bottom six has now changed quite a bit when you consider Bergevin also obtained Devante Smith-Pelly from the Anaheim Ducks for fellow 22-year-old Jiri Sekac last week. With speedster Michael Bournival having already been dispatched to the minors, it will be interesting to see how the new guys impact the playing time of veteran faceoff whiz Manny Malhotra and rookie Jacob de la Rose, who scored the first two goals of his NHL career last Thursday.
The 19-year-old de la Rose is another player who could conceivably have been lost in a weak moment. Instead, he’ll be part of the team when it’s truly ready to go toe-to-toe with any team on the planet. Given the acumen Bergevin has shown for his job, that day—though not here yet—isn’t far off.