Marc Bergevin was fired three years ago today by the Montreal Canadiens and completely disappeared from the media glare, eventually settling into an enjoyable gig with the Los Angeles Kings.
The extreme lifestyle change of going from the constant public spotlight as Habs GM for nearly a decade to near-obscurity as senior adviser without a public profile with the Kings while living in Redondo Beach, Calif., well, that suits Bergevin just fine.
“I have no regrets about my time in Montreal,” Bergevin told The Athletic this week. “It was a great nine and a half years, and I have nothing but positive memories. But there is certainly a spotlight there.
“Here, you go to Starbucks to get your coffee in the morning and nobody knows who you are.”
Which is exactly what he needed. Three years to decompress.
“After I left Montreal, I remember thinking I wanted to be a GM again right away, but looking back, it would have been the wrong thing for me to jump back right in,” Bergevin said. “I needed this time to reenergize.”
It’s not like he’s been sitting on his hands. He’s working full-time for Rob Blake, advising and traveling and doing whatever the Kings GM needs. But he’s been able to do it in the shadows.
In his first media interview since his firing in Montreal on Nov. 28, 2021, Bergevin touched on a number of topics with The Athletic.
Let’s dive in.
Rejecting a Canadiens extension
Bergevin says Habs owner Geoff Molson approached him with a contract extension right after the team reached the ’21 Cup Final. His contract was expiring a year later.
“I decided that for me, it was best to move forward,” Bergevin said. “Time had come. It was good for both of us to move in a different direction. Geoff was very good, very fair. But I told him, ‘Geoff, I’m going to finish my last year that’s left and then I’m going to move on.’ He was good with that. He understood.”
The reality was that Bergevin was pretty much fried by one of the sport’s most demanding jobs. And not just from a hockey point of view.
“COVID took a toll on me — not physically, but as you know Montreal, Quebec, was really strict with the rules on COVID, and all my kids were in the States,” Bergevin said. “There was a 14-day quarantine then (once entering Quebec). I didn’t see my kids for almost a year.
“When Geoff made me the offer, I just felt there was no light at the end of the tunnel. The whole COVID thing for me beat me up, mentally, not seeing my kids.”
As it turns out, with Shea Weber playing his last NHL game in that 2021 Cup Final and Carey Price missing almost all of the following season, the end of an era for Bergevin’s team was happening even more quickly than anyone would have predicted. A 6-15-2 start to the season led to Bergevin’s firing.
“I knew a change was coming (because they had mutually agreed it was his last season), but it’s always a shock even though you prepare for it,” Bergevin said. “It was done the right way from Geoff’s side.”
The toll of the job
Before Bergevin landed in Montreal as Habs GM on May 2, 2012, he was known in hockey circles for his sense of humor. During his playing career and then working his way up the scouting ranks with the Chicago Blackhawks, he was the life of the party.
This is the guy who evvel picked up a plant walking out of a GMs meeting in Florida to avoid the cameras.
