On the Montreal Canadiens and P.K. Subban …
Dave Stubbs of NHL.com: An interview with Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin talking about the Canadiens, and the P.K. Subban – Shea Weber trade with the Nashville Predators. Bergevin on how the trade started to take shape and that it almost got bigger.
“A deal of that magnitude, there’s a lot of … the last night (June 28), I really had to sleep on it. Did I sleep well? No, not really. I got up really early and I had that feeling that this was the deal I had to make. When David and I made contact again (on June 29), it was early afternoon, I knew in my mind that if he agreed, I was going to do it.
David couldn’t reach Shea, and I couldn’t reach P.K., so that’s why the trade was pushed back a little bit. You want the player to hear your voice. Once both players know, then you can make an announcement. You don’t want them to hear from a source other than his own general manager.
David first called me on . Up to that point, there was nothing else going on. Teams had called in the past. If someone was going to offer you a “wow” deal … but they just kicked tires. A lot of teams do that; it’s part of their job.
But on around noon, David called me. I was driving to Buffalo from Toronto, where our group was staying for the draft. We chatted briefly, he mentioned and he said, “I’m not sure,” and I said, “I’m not sure either.”
I said, “Let’s let the draft go by; we’re going to be busy the next couple of days. We can sleep on it over the weekend and touch base on Monday.”
We did, it was still alive, so we talked some more. There were other parts that we tried to get involved to make it a little bigger, but at the end of the day, it didn’t work out. Some trades take a long time, some are a lot faster. It all depends.”
Sean Farrell of NHL.com: Canadiens owner Geoff Molson trusts GM Marc Bergervin’s work to make the team better and supports the decision to trade Subban. Molson isn’t surprised either by fans reactions.
“During the month of May and June and half of July, we probably talked about 10 times a day, and I know how he thinks and I know how he wants to improve the team, so there’s no selling going on really,” Molson said. “I think it’s much more of a partnership, and I rely on him for his hockey expertise and he relies on me for advice in other areas, but his decisions that he has made to improve our team this year have been really good in my opinion.”
Bergevin kept Molson informed about the trade before it was made official.