Canadiens’ Gallagher has high praise for ex-gm

After the Canadiens lost 2-1 to the Vancouver Canucks Monday night at the Bell Centre, Brendan Gallagher was asked for his thoughts about former general manager Marc Bergevin, who was fired on Sunday.

Gallagher responded with an answer that lasted more than two minutes.

“First off, I know he released a statement saying thank you to just about everyone,” Gallagher said. “But from my standpoint he’s a man I can’t thank enough. I’ve been with him close to a decade. I came up my first year in the league, there’s probably not a lot of general managers that would have wanted to keep an undersized fifth-round pick around that he really had no connection with. But he gave me a shot and ever since then he’s always been someone that I was able to count on. Whether you’re struggling on the ice, off the ice, he was someone you could have a real conversation with. He was somebody that no matter when he spoke or you spoke to him he listened and he genuinely cared. His only goal, every single move he made for a decade was to help us players have success on the ice and give us a chance to win and that’s something that I can’t thank him for enough.

“We had some really good seasons, we had some tough seasons around here,” Gallagher added, barely stopping to take a breath during his answer. “We always followed up those tough seasons with solutions because he was able to sit there and gather our opinions and really trusted us and really listened to us. He was just someone that you could count on. And when you think about what he did here for nine-and-a-half years — first of all, that’s an accomplishment in its own in this market. Not a lot of general managers get to say that. But we had some really good, really good, competitive teams. Made a conference final, made a Stanley Cup Final and, like I said, he’s just somebody that you can’t thank enough. The passion that he showed — I know you guys got to see a few of his speeches — we got that a lot. It meant a lot to us as players. The loyalty that he showed to us, everything he did was to help us players have success. I know from our standpoint every time I get the chance to see him I’ll make sure that I say it. But I hope everyone in this city understands just how much he cared about this organization, how much he cared about this team. Going forward, I hope he knows how much we appreciated it.”

There’s no doubt Bergevin will appreciate Gallagher’s answer.

Pierre Gauthier was the team’s general manager when the Canadiens selected Gallagher in the fifth round (147th overall) of the 2010 NHL Draft. Bergevin took over as GM two years later and was in charge when Gallagher made his NHL debut in 2012.

“He’s just somebody that I trust and I know he’s somebody that obviously cares about us as players individually,” Gallagher said about Bergevin. “He wanted us to have success, but he also wanted us to be happy off the ice. You guys didn’t hear about a lot of it — a lot of the stuff that went on. There’s some tough times as players that you go through and he was always someone that whenever I needed to chat he was always there and he was real, he was honest. It always seemed to be the right thing to say or right thing to hear. He always helped me find my game or helped me off the ice. Whatever it was, he was just somebody that I could always count on. It’s a relationship that we’ll continue to have going forward.”

It was Bergevin who signed Gallagher to a six-year, Us$39-million contract extension last year that kicked in this season. During his news conference to announce the signing, Bergevin twice almost came to tears while talking about what Gallagher means to the Canadiens.

“This guy is just everything you want about a hockey player,” Bergevin said at the time. “That’s what I love about him. There’s not many Brendan Gallaghers in the National Hockey League. He’s a special one. You love him on your team and you play against him you just don’t like him. He’s special. … He’s a hockey player through his bones and that’s what I love about him.”

Gallagher still remembers that day.

“It meant a lot,” he said about Bergevin’s reaction.