Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin still has one year left on his contract, 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 have begun looking at the Canadiens' 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 the Habs' 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 Canadiens to make a playoff run, which they have done this year under interim coach Dominique Ducharme.
Bergevin, who signed his current contract in November of 2015, might 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.
More must-reads: