Worst offseason from a GM - a Reddit thread

[Bollocks]

I've had a little too much time on my hands today while in the waiting room and started browsing NHL thread on Reddit, and this gem popped up:



The OP started the discussion with none other than Marc Bergevin. But with a twist.

The Habs made the finals at the end of 20-21 season...on November 2021 Bergevin was fired. Once I first saw his name I thought "OK, so surely this post is about the 2021 offseason". But no...the OP talks about the 2017 season. That got me interested in delving deeper into this matter...

So I read this:

Montreal Canadiens: Grading Marc Bergevin’s Offseason Moves

Marc Bergevin had a terrific 2020 offseason, unfortunately, his 2021 offseason was a tire fire that might cause the Habs to miss the 2022 playoffs.

awinninghabit.com

Up until the 2021 Entry draft everything was great. Apparently he also aced the expansion draft. Then it all went downhill...apparently. But after finishing reading this article I wondered...where is that firing offense? Was it really all about drafting Logan Mailloux? Surely not.

Then I ended up here:


And here are some quite contrasting opinions on whether the firing was merited or not. But the main takeaway I got...that he was considered a good GM to squeeze the team into the playoffs and hope for the best, thus keeping both the fanbase and owners largely happy. Sounds familiar?

As soon as there was a glimpse of a really bad season, he was fired.

So...it wasn't some big blunders that did him in but rather the fact that the team went from a final appearance to a very struggling team based on a few bad-ish/sub-par decisions regarding roster building which seemingly disrupted what worked above expectations the season before into becoming a s*** show...BUT there's also a significant bad luck factor of Weber and Price becoming LTIR after that finals run. Which is a huge downgrade when you try to ice a competitive roster. So in the end you almost feel bad for him...almost.

Because if nothing else he traded PK Subban for Weber which brought them very near the Cup (which almost surely wouldn't happen with PK). A true ballsy culture changer trade that aged somewhat badly at first with Weber's health issues and quite well in the end, as PK struggled to stay relevant only to retire at 33yo. If Shea would stay healthy this would be an absolute steal.


So, from this largely pointless rambling and research there are a few inquiring thoughts I now have:

- Perhaps the Kings upper management thought he could help Rob assemble a team that would overperform similar to 20-21 Habs team with our aging core and they chose to ignore the red flags like the 2017 offseason disaster. But I wonder how he went from a mindset to trade PK for Weber to assemble an overachieving team to a mindset to trade Vilardi for PLD which resulted in underachieving team? It makes no sense.

- I now wonder what will it take for a the Kings' upper management/ownership to overhaul the Kings front office. Will a very sub-par first half/full season 24-25 be even enough, considering average LA fanbase is likely much more lenient than Habs' fanbase?

- And perhaps the most unsettling thought is that the first linked thread is full of GM horror stories which are worse than what the Kings fans had to endure post-Kovalchuk/Desjardins/Phaneuf era (which I still consider as a planned self-sabotage by Rob in order to force at least a significant retool), which leads us to the "it's not so bad" or "it could be quite a lot worse" territory of thought...which is both good from a fan's sanity perspective and bad from status-quo-exploiting team ownership's perspective...and also bad from the perspective of having the "luck" of a very bad season, firing of Luc, Rob and Marc and...who do they replace them with, realistically?

 

[Clif]

On the first thought, it felt like Vilardi was out of favor with the team and Hoven confirmed as much in one of the KOTP episodes this summer where he said the “Vilardi project had come to an end.” Pure speculation for me but a combination of questionable attitude and especially injury history would suggest this to be accurate. The trade was a clear disaster but at this point amounts to little more than a misused asset, albeit a hell of a good asset at at that.

It makes sense, it just didn’t work.

As for what it will take to get this front office out of here, let’s take one small comfort. Blake did not double down this summer. He changed direction. And did so in a way all of us have been clamoring for: be more physical.

Luc’s Yuletide blessings was an insult but give Blake some credit for not staying culturally pat. What it means for Bergevin I can’t say. The nightmare is that Blake gets fired and the other two stick, with Bergie getting the GM spot. I’m better with all for one and one for all at this point because Blake is at least trying here.

 

[symbology]

Hoven repeated what the front office told him. It does not make it true. He has reported a few things over the years where as time goes on, it seems like they were questionable reports.

 

[Clif]

Hoven repeated what the front office told him. It does not make it true. He has reported a few things over the years where as time goes on, it seems like they were questionable reports.

Well aware. I remember his Thornton proclamation acutely. And he is mega cringe on a number of fronts, including just a year ago when he scoffed at fans for saying PLD wasn’t worth his contract by saying, “what do you care, it’s not your money.” That was peak insulting. Like we don’t know how the salary cap works!

But I do think you can read between the lines with him at times because he is a drip of information the front office is comfortable releasing. He reported the year before that Vilardi was shopped to AZ for Chychrun, and one way or another they would “use that asset.” Given Todd’s statements about Gabe and the inescapable injury issue, I believe this is a more accurate Hoven moment than others may be.

 

[Bollocks]

On the first thought, it felt like Vilardi was out of favor with the team and Hoven confirmed as much in one of the KOTP episodes this summer where he said the “Vilardi project had come to an end.” Pure speculation for me but a combination of questionable attitude and especially injury history would suggest this to be accurate. The trade was a clear disaster but at this point amounts to little more than a misused asset, albeit a hell of a good asset at at that.

It makes sense, it just didn’t work.

As for what it will take to get this front office out of here, let’s take one small comfort. Blake did not double down this summer. He changed direction. And did so in a way all of us have been clamoring for: be more physical.

Luc’s Yuletide blessings was an insult but give Blake some credit for not staying culturally pat. What it means for Bergevin I can’t say. The nightmare is that Blake gets fired and the other two stick, with Bergie getting the GM spot. I’m better with all for one and one for all at this point because Blake is at least trying here.

I'm not bashing Rob with this post. I've defended him a number of times already on this board and I think that (so far) the only real, big blunder that's squarely on him and which had quite a bad effect on the teambuilding process (and perhaps locker room, too) is the Cal Petersen contract.

Joel signing has a similar smell to it, but we'll have to wait and see how that pans out. I have doubts, though.


I wanted to spark a realistic debate about this team's current situation regarding management and what the future could look like if the team crashes and burns next season. I've noticed a lot of LGKers think as if good-great GMs/upper management people with proven track records are readily available, which I think is quite far from the truth...so I'm curious what do they think is the personnel this team could move forward with and whether they are prepared for the worst case scenario where the "new guys" end up being worse than the current bunch.

 

[Clif]

I'm not bashing Rob with this post. I've defended him a number of times already on this board and I think that (so far) the only real, big blunder that's squarely on him and which had quite a bad effect on the teambuilding process (and perhaps locker room, too) is the Cal Petersen contract.

Joel signing has a similar smell to it, but we'll have to wait and see how that pans out. I have doubts, though.


I wanted to spark a realistic debate about this team's current situation regarding management and what the future could look like if the team crashes and burns next season. I've noticed a lot of LGKers think as if good-great GMs/upper management people with proven track records are readily available, which I think is quite far from the truth...so I'm curious what do they think is the personnel this team could move forward with and whether they are prepared for the worst case scenario where the "new guys" end up being worse than the current bunch.

Got it. I honestly didn’t gather that from the post but I think that debate has been featured in roughly 80 percent of the threads on here since January this year.

I do agree there is a magic bullet mentality in wishing Blake be gone but not offering a sound theory on what comes next. Right now it looks like if he goes then Bergevin steps up which we do not want. I think the bigger question is if this season goes seriously south does Beckerman fire Luc and company before Luc fires Blake.

 

[hokiecat]

Hoven repeated what the front office told him. It does not make it true. He has reported a few things over the years where as time goes on, it seems like they were questionable reports.

Agreed. Hoven is a mouthpiece for the the Kings leadership. The Insider (post-Rich Hammond) is also the same; compare and contrast Rosen's commentary when employed with the Kings versus today.

 

[hokiecat]

I wanted to spark a realistic debate about this team's current situation regarding management and what the future could look like if the team crashes and burns next season. I've noticed a lot of LGKers think as if good-great GMs/upper management people with proven track records are readily available, which I think is quite far from the truth...so I'm curious what do they think is the personnel this team could move forward with and whether they are prepared for the worst case scenario where the "new guys" end up being worse than the current bunch.

Blake is mediocre. He's done nothing great of note in my opinion save for maybe the Danault signing.

He took too long tearing it down IMO. He never weaponized our cap space when the team sucked. Remember when Carolina took on Marleau for a first? Have you seen how many bad deals Chicago has absorbed and how they use most of their salary retention slots? Blake is the exact definition of a "Meets Expectations" employee. He isn't doing completely stupid stuff (that's JBB in Tampa) but he's also not using every single tool at his disposal to get additional assets. I feel like the Kings overpaid in the net for Gavrikov (deal to get him was OK but then salary dumps to keep him were poor) and they did the same thing with PLD. Nearly every move Blake made from trade deadline 2023 until this summer (where he improved save the Edmundson signing) is not one I would have made. I don't think he has true long-term vision for the team and asset management has been very poor. RD are actually quite rare and coveted. But Blake has let a huge assortment of them walked or traded them for less than the expected return. So now we have a team with a 2-year prospect gap that is right up against the cap, has limited upside (need Byfield + Clarke to dazzle which could happen but most likely their improvements cover up the aging of Kopi and Doughty and we net out around the same), and is most likely to just lose in the first round of the playoffs. I was optimistic about the state of the Kings in summer 2022. Today, I feel like I'll see some good hockey but we're not really a true contender.

Yes, if we fire Blake and hire Bergevin it is a step backwards. And I don't want Tre either. But if we could have grabbed Waddell this summer, I would have done that in a minute.

 

[jammer06]

There's other winners in there, I'll have to say it's hard to have a definitive opinion on just what Bergevin is responsible for in LA since he's been brought in. Publicly Rob and Luc are very good at toeing their responsibilities in pressers and on the record. That said we all know Luc is definitely a voice in Rob's ear and Marc is clearly a part of the team in some way or he'd be out the door. We're all pretty sure he's not just there to get medical insurance.