In a bid to improve the team's transparency, Montreal Canadiens general manager
 Marc Bergevin recently answered fans' questions. Consider it mission partially
 accomplished.

To Bergevin's credit, he was candid in some of his responses (i.e., with regard
 to how trades go down)… not so candid in some others (his most important
lesson learned). Regardless, the fact remains the questions answered from over
social media were selected from a pool of hundreds. So, the featured ones were
logically handpicked as being easier to answer. How about some tougher
ones?Marc Bergevin - (Lisa Gansky Photography)

As a follow-up to an earlier piece from years ago, here are five more fair
questions Bergevin should answer, you know, in the spirit of transparency:Is It
 True You Will Not Re-negotiate with Pacioretty?

Earlier this month, The Athletic's Marc Antoine Godin reported the Habs had
told Max Pacioretty they will not negotiate an extension with him.

If true, the issue with Habs management wouldn't necessarily be that the news
got leaked. Things like that are hard to control. The problem would be in the
nature of the news itself, namely how wise is it to close the door on
re-signing the player who's led your team in scoring every year up until last
season since 2011-12? Right before his contract year, when he could potentially
 rebound significantly?Montreal Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty - (Stephen R.
Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports)

It's obvious that Bergevin believes the team needs a change in leadership, even
 if he said just the opposite at the team's post-mortem press conference.
However, as an indirect result of the hypothetical decision to tell Pacioretty
he's as good as gone (and to potentially trade him), Bergevin will find it much
 harder to maximize the return on a perennial 30-goal scorer.

In a season they've argued they will be competing to make the playoffs no
less.How Will the Team Make the Playoffs Without Weber?

Bergevin did in fact say the team would strive to make the playoffs this coming
 season. That was always going to be a lofty goal heading in to 2018-19, as the
 team has yet to address its need for a No. 1 center or someone to play on the
left side with Shea Weber on the top paring.

Then came news a few days later that Weber would be out until December. Forget
the fact the Habs waited two weeks to announce the news (or how Bergevin
presumably knew about the development prior to making it clear the Habs would
vie for a playoff spot). In spite of how, with Weber, the team was out of the
playoff race by last mid-December when he got put on the shelf, all of a sudden
 the Habs are good and deep enough to tread water until that same point next
season?

Something doesn't add up.Montreal Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber - (Jean-Yves
Ahern-USA TODAY Sports)

The issue isn't (just) that the Habs weren't transparent with the news that
Weber will be out for a half-year. It's that all signs point to them
rebuilding, i.e., not actually trying to make the playoffs despite saying just
the opposite. In some circles, they call that lying. Only the round ones,
though.Why Continue Playing Jonathan Drouin at Center?

By Bergevin's own admission, Drouin is not the team's idea of an ideal No. 1
center. The facts seem to indicate he's not a center at all, let alone a No. 1
pivot. Nevertheless, according to stats compiled by the University of New
Brunswick, of the team's 31 most common forward line combinations, Drouin
centered 12 of them.Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin - (Eric
Bolte-USA TODAY Sports)

Now, there's no denying the Habs are short on game-breaking talent down the
middle. They are not short on actual pivots, though. According to the team's
own roster page, excluding Drouin, four players line up at center: Phillip
Danault, who may be their actual No. 1 center, Byron Froese, Matthew Peca and
Tomas Plekanec.

That's not taking into consideration players like Paul Byron, Max Domi and
Andrew Shaw, each of whom has played center in the past and has offensive
talent. Hell, even Jacob De La Rose, whose 19 career points in 119 games would
put him on pace for 13 over 82 games, lined up down the middle in a top-six
spot at one point, at the expense of Alex Galchenyuk, who was kept on the wing.

Can Bergevin explain why there seems to be a drastic disparity in how those two
 specific players were treated by the organization last season? And will Drouin
 continue to be handed chances next season if his play fails to improve? When
the team is supposedly looking to make the playoffs?What Is Your Biggest
Success as Habs GM?

At first glance, this appears to be a softball question, but there is a method
to the madness, here. Last season, as the Habs were struggling to ice a winning
 line-up, Bergevin admitted to having made some mistakes, but said he was
nevertheless proud of his accomplishments as Habs GM.

"Have I made mistakes? Yes. Have I done some good things? Yes. But that's the
reality for a general manager. But I'm proud of what we've done." -Marc
Bergevin#GoHabsGo

- Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) January 7, 2018

That quote begs at least one question: Which accomplishment is the biggest?
Probably the first that comes to your mind would be reaching the Eastern
Conference Final in 2013-14. Still, that was with a line-up largely assembled
by Bergevin's predecessors Bob Gainey and Pierre Gauthier, which included P.K.
Subban, despite the overwhelming narrative being that the Habs couldn't win
with him.

Obviously, recent (and old) evidence speaks to just the contrary. So, to
prevent any second-guessing, Bergevin would have to respond with an
accomplishment from one of the last few seasons since the trade that brought
Weber over from the Nashville Predators.

The only one that kind of fits the bill is the Habs' regular-season Atlantic
Division championship from 2015-16. It would feel odd to answer with a season
that ended with a first-round exit, though… the only campaign of the last
three in which the Habs even made the playoffs.

All in all, the quote was incredibly odd in that it seemed to suggest the team
has enjoyed recent success, which couldn't be further from the truth. So, some
clarification is in order… as well as justification as to why Bergevin is
still GM.What's Been Your Biggest Mistake as Habs GM?

Another question that quote begs: Which mistakes was Bergevin alluding to?

In the original article on the Canadiens website that served as the basis for
this piece, Bergevin seemingly side-stepped a very similar question: "What have
 you learned since 2012, your most important lesson?"

Bergevin responded with saying that you need to build through the draft to get
elite players, which doesn't sound as much as a lesson learned as something
he's been saying for years. Whether or not he's made good on that strategy
since being hired is up for debate. What isn't is how things have gone far from
 smoothly for the Habs since 2014-15, when they got eliminated in Round 2 by
the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Things were nonetheless looking good for the team at that point. The Habs were
just one season removed from reaching the conference final and Price was set to
 claim the Hart Memorial and Vezina trophies. He then went on to only play 12
games due to injury in 2015-16 and the flaws in the team's make-up began to
reveal themselves in a campaign that embarrassingly ended in a non-playoff
finish despite a 9-0 start.Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price - (Photo by
David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire)

Since then, the Habs have been mired by controversial trade after controversial
 trade by Bergevin, with a single playoff berth, which ended in a disappointing
 first-round upset of an effort, to show for his efforts to get the team back
on track.

There has to be at least one regret Bergevin has from the downward spiral the
team has been in for the last four seasons. Bergevin's essentially admitted as
much already. It's just a matter of him filling in the blanks. Like the holes
in the team, there are still a lot of them.

The post More Questions for Canadiens GM Bergevin appeared first on The Hockey
Writers.

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