A huge mistake by Marc Bergevin comes back to haunt Kent Hughes and it's costly
When Marc Bergevin signed Karl Alzner in the summer of 2017, the organization believed they had secured a reliable defenseman who could help the team in the long term.
However, fans and some experts were not convinced by this signing, especially since the veteran defenseman was not known for being an offensive player, and a five-year contract at $4.675 million per year seemed pricey.
At that time, the Canadiens had lost the services of several left-handed defensemen, with Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin, and Nathan Beaulieu leaving the team. It was thought that Alzner would bring some stability to the left side of the defense.
In the end, this signing turned out to be one of the worst of Bergevin's tenure, and after just one season in Montreal, Alzner was sent down to the Laval Rocket in 2018-2019. After the following season, his contract was bought out by the organization.
But did you know that the Canadiens are still paying Karl Alzner to this day?
As reported by Alexandre Desrosiers from Rumeursdetransaction.com, Kent Hughes still has to deal with the sum of $833,333 per year to be paid to the defenseman until 2023-2024.
Alzner's salary takes up $1,666,666 of the Canadiens' payroll. Ouch!
Although it's not an astronomical amount, it still takes away some of the flexibility that Kent Hughes has to bring reinforcements to the team, and he is paying for the mistakes of the previous administration.
The good news is that there will be only one more season where the Canadiens have to pay for this questionable signing by Marc Bergevin, and starting from the 2024-2025 season, they can finally close the book on this unfortunate episode.
| POLL | ||
Was the signing of Karl Alzner the worst of Marc Bergevin's time with the CH? | ||
| Yes | 533 | 61.9 % |
| No | 328 | 38.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
