There is still one more year remaining on the contract of Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin, but that hasn’t stopped owner Geoff Molson from beginning discussions on what the future will look like and whether Bergevin will be a part of it.
During Saturday’s Headlines segment on Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said the owner and GM have sat down already and begun looking at the team’s future.
“Marc Bergevin and the owner Geoff Molson have been kind of talking about the future; how the owner feels, how the general manager feels, if there is an extension what it could potentially look like. So we’ll see where those decisions go and where those conversations go, but I think they are underway about the GM’s future with the Canadiens.”
Bergevin’s nine-year tenure in Montreal has had its ups and downs, including a rebuild in the last couple of years, which has had some success as their young players have, for the most part, developed well. Bergevin added a number of veteran players during the offseason in order to post a playoff caliber team, including adding Tyler Toffoli, Josh Anderson, Jake Allen and Joel Edmundson, but Bergevin did fire head coach Claude Julien midseason with pressure mounting for the team to make a playoff run, which they have done this year under interim coach Dominique Ducharme.
Bergevin, who signed his present contract in November of 2015, may have to wait until after the postseason to see whether he will get an extension. The Canadiens are currently the fourth seed in the North Division and are likely going to play the top-seeded Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round.
Patrick Roy inbound
Doubtful. He didn’t jive with GM Joe Sakic’s plan, and look at where the team is now. Patrick is likely too much ego for most GM’s.