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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Bergevin New GM, Gomez a Goner

The Canadiens are holding a press conference at 2pm today to introduce their new General Manager, Marc Bergevin.

Montrealer. Former player. Bilingual.

Seems to meet the baseline criteria.

Bergevin spent the past season as assistant GM in Chicago for the Blackhawks, working with GM Stan Bowman and obviously rubbing elbows with Scotty Bowman.

He's spent the last 7 seasons with the Hawks as a scout and as director of player personnel and we can trust he has an eye for talent, given Chicago's draft record of recent years (Toews, Kane, Keith). And he knows what it takes to win in the post-lockout NHL.

Bergevin spent 20 years as a defenseman in the NHL most notably with the Blackhawks, Blues and Tampa Bay Lightning.

All I can say is, good luck! You have much work ahead of you.

Pierre McGuire and Julien Brisebois were shortlisted but ultimately it's Bergevin who won the coveted position. Supposedly he's a bit of a hybrid between McGuire's encyclopedic player knowledge and Brisebois' number-crunching prowess.

Now, we find a coach...

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And probably Bergevin's first order of business? Buying out Scott Gomez. The underperforming pivot

This is the cap hit against the team if his contract is bought out:

2012-13: $3,523,810
2013-14: $4,523,810
2014-15: $1,666,667
2015-16: $1,666,667

Hard to imagine he'd report to the AHL team, so unless Bergevin could find a dance partner for a trade, this is the only option, barring he stays with the team to have another "bounce back" year.

Gomez is only 32.

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P.K. sidelined and back in Montreal. Unfortunately our young stud d-man hurt his knee and will now miss the entire World Championships. Reports say it's minor; Subban himself didn't seem too concerned when interviewed the other day, but hey, we have a recent track record of the team underselling the severity of knee injuries. Let's hope for the best.


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