Jack Todd: If solely Patrice Bergeron had been a Canadien

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As Patrice Bergeron stood on the ice with tears in his eyes after what was in all probability his final sport within the NHL, the identical thought went via the minds of followers watching from Quebec:

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He shoulda been a Hab.

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Worse, Bergeron coulda been a Hab.

That’s no reflection on Boston, which was a wonderful dwelling for Bergeron for many of the previous twenty years. He has performed 1,294 regular-season video games for the Bruins, with 427 objectives and 613 assists. Add 170 playoff video games and one other 50 objectives and 78 assists and you’ve got some measure of the participant who was purported to have ended his profession with a farewell Stanley Cup — till the Bruins cratered on the worst potential time.

However objectives and assists aren’t the actual measure of a participant who would have been, in Montreal, a becoming successor to the immortal Jean Béliveau. Even essentially the most Bruins-loathing fan will concede that in contrast to, say, Brad Marchand or Milan Lucic, Bergeron behaved with impeccable class from begin to end, on and off the ice.

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As Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes spend the weekend combing the yard searching for four-leaf clovers forward of Monday night’s fraught draft lottery (the one that may or is not going to yield Connor Bedard), it’s value wanting again at a shoulda, coulda draft that altered the course of this franchise nearly as a lot because the Patrick Roy commerce.

It was 20 years in the past that Bob Gainey and Trevor Timmins had a dynasty at their fingertips — and blew it. The 2003 NHL entry draft was held on the Gaylord Leisure Centre in Nashville on June 21 and 22. By no means has there been a greater draft, not just for the standard of the primary spherical (which was excellent) but additionally for the terrific gamers discovered deep within the draft.

Sarcastically, the NHL can be again on the scene of the crime subsequent month, this time at Bridgestone Enviornment in Nashville. In 2003, Timmins and Gainey, each new to the Canadiens’ entrance workplace however not new on the job, have been working with the tenth and fortieth picks. With the advantage of hindsight, they need to have executed higher.

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Gainey, who admitted when he was employed that he had been out of the loop after leaving the Dallas Stars, left the heavy lifting to Timmins. With the tenth total decide, the Canadiens took the Belarusian Andrei Kostitsyn — a giant, quick, expert winger ranked third amongst European skaters by Central Scouting.

Most years, Kostitsyn wouldn’t have been a horrible decide. Bodily, he had all of it. However the Canadiens took an unusually very long time to work him into the lineup, and his first full season with the membership, in 2007-2008, was his greatest, with 26 objectives and 27 assists. Amidst fixed rumours that he and his brother Sergei have been associating with the incorrect crowd, Kostitsyn’s manufacturing tailed off and in 2012 he was traded to Nashville for a few draft picks.

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After 19 regular-season video games with the Predators, Kostitsyn successfully ended his NHL profession when he and Alexander Radulov have been seen out at 4 a.m. with a playoff sport scheduled for five that afternoon. He retreated to the KHL, the place he was no nice shakes in 9 seasons earlier than winding up his profession with Pardubice HC within the Czech league in 2021.

That may be the top of the story — however, oh, 2003 and the draft that might hang-out this crew. The gamers left on the board when Kostitsyn was drafted included Jeff Carter (taken by the Flyers with the subsequent decide), Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf, Brent Burns, Ryan Kesler, Mike Richards, Brian Boyle and Corey Perry — and that was simply within the first spherical.

Even so, the Canadiens had an opportunity to set it proper with that fortieth decide. Kostitsyn had expertise. There was no such excuse for drafting Cory Urquhart, a personality man who by no means performed a sport within the NHL. When Urquhart was drafted, there have been two gamers nonetheless lurking on the board: Patrice Bergeron and Shea Weber.

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The Lightning, Devils, Sharks and Kings nonetheless had a shot at Bergeron earlier than Boston grabbed the man who shoulda been a Hab. That’s little comfort. Keep in mind the 2011 playoff sequence in opposition to Boston, when Carey Value misplaced to Tim Thomas in time beyond regulation in Sport 7 — and the Bruins went on to win the Stanley Cup? Who would have gained if Bergeron was carrying bleu-blanc-rouge?

There have been so many dynastic mixtures lurking in that draft. The Habs might have loaded up at centre ice with Getzlaf and Bergeron, or gone with Brent Seacrest and Bergeron, or mixed Bergeron with Brent Burns, or Corey Perry. They may have had Bergeron and Weber.

The affect of any of these mixtures would have been important — however twenty years of Patrice Bergeron would have been huge.

As an alternative, the Canadiens went with Kostitsyn and Urquhart and 2003 will all the time be the yr of shoulda, coulda.

The Habs did salvage one thing from that draft close to the very finish after they grabbed an unknown Slovakian goaltender with the 271st decide. Jaroslav Halak — their one good name in 2003.

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