A day after the Montreal Canadiens were eliminated from the NHL playoffs, general manager Marc Bergevin did his end of season press conference in the Toronto bubble.
He started off by thanking the NHL for the great work they had done in regards to the bubble.
“First of all, before we start, I would like to thank the NHL for the job they have done here in the bubble for us the last four weeks. Every one of us missed our families and that goes without saying. The NHL couldn’t have done anything without that, we were very safe, we were very fortunate to be taken care of.”
He spoke about the situation with the draft and the fact that Montreal, after their playoff performance, are way ahead than what people previously thought.
“Well to start, with Carey and Webby obviously still on top of their game, not that we have any doubts, but people might have, but that was never the case with us,” general manager Marc Bergevin said. “You need some great leadership to build around, and when you bring in some young guys, those guys are very important to our team moving forward.”
“As far as assets, we have we 10 picks in the top three rounds and in the next couple years 25 overall, so we’re set that way and we have put ourselves in a good position to look around. What if something becomes available? We would for sure look into that, but also the cap situation with what’s happening with the pandemic.”
Speaking to preparing for the future, the Habs GM went on to say, “We have to be careful, and also the young players we have, eventually we can go out, spend and be responsible and expose ourselves to lose some key young players. We’ll be smart, we will manage our cap properly, but we are always going to look to improve our team, either to draft or sign free agents if it’s available, if it makes sense. But be on the caution side, we have to be careful with the cap.”
“You can’t go out and spend money just to spend money. We are in the right direction and have to be careful how we do it, and if we can make our team better by moving a pick or players that can make us better for a long period of time, we will do that.”
Bergevin spoke about the fact that, as of right now, the salary cap will stay flat and not fluctuate, which could dictate how free agency goes this offseason.
“It’s uncharted territory for all of us, and obviously with the cap being flat and without knowing when fans will be allowed in the stands with revenues, it affects the salary cap. It might not be as it was in the past again. It’s not something we’re making up, it’s reality. I mean, everyone is going to have to take a hit, but I don’t know the extent of it and it’s something that’s very possible.”
He touched on the situations with a potential UFA in Jeff Petry or an RFA in centreman Max Domi.
“Well, it’s what it’s all about. Like I always said and I’ll say it again, today players make decisions for us by the way they perform and how they play. So, again, we’ll have some decisions to make and I believe we only have one UFA this year, but next summer, it’s a different ballgame, and again, with the cap being flat, we have to be careful how we spend our money.”
Marc also spoke about when he will have a chance to have his end of season meeting with head coach Claude Julien and provide an update on Brendan Gallagher.
“As far as Claude, like we all know what happened, he is back in Montreal and I am going back to Montreal, so in the next few weeks, we will talk as far as Gally. Yes, he had surgery last night late and he’s on his way back to Vancouver probably in the next few hours. Everything went well for Gally, we expect a full recovery. But he was also playing with a hip issue that he did hurt against Pittsburgh (in the play-in round). He had a little tear in his hip. But you guys know him as well as I do. He’s got the heart of a lion and he wouldn’t get off the ice. But he was a little banged up.”
Bergevin also spoke on the experience his young players like Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi had during the qualifiers and first round of the playoffs. “How they performed, how they were able to bring their game to a new level, in Nick’s case, he did have a good year, but, again, in key times, even last night, two big goals and he made plays. KK, having a tough second year, being sent to Laval and bouncing back, taking his career upon himself and getting stronger. As well all know, last year many times I felt that watching him play he was falling down a lot, he was losing his balance. So whatever he did the last four or five months, working on his strength, legs. Again it has a lot to do with mental preparation and he did that. We all saw what he can bring to our hockey club and that’s what we expect from him from Day 1 at camp next year.”