Don't listen to baseless rumours: Bergevin's camp doesn't leak

In the social media era, one of the easiest ways to pick up hits is the spaghetti trade rumour mill. Throw enough rumours at the wall, and eventually some of them will stick.

The Canadiens, in particular, have a plethora of rumour websites and twitter personas that claim to hold some sort of insider information about the day-to-day activities of general manager Marc Bergevin. Some of those sites do quite well in terms of hits, because we all know that unsourced trade rumours are the lowest hanging fruit in the sports coverage world.

If there's one Marc Bergevin has shown us, other than his impeccable sense of style, it's that he simply does not allow trade talk to leak.

Once in a while a legitimate source, like Elliotte Friedman or Bob McKenzie, will give us a tidbit of information regarding a possible deal, and that's as good as gold. The aforementioned media types are some of the only true 'insiders' in the league, and they actually talk to GMs, players and other members of the media. Essentially, they have a pulse on the hockey world.

The spaghetti trade rumour sites? Not so much. There's a reason that NHL team accounts on Twitter openly mock these fraudulent insiders.

Let's take a look at Bergevin's trades since he took over.

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	Anaheim Ducks acquire
Bryan Allen	November 20, 2014	Rene Bourque

Dallas Stars acquire	Date	Montreal Canadiens acquire
Travis Moen	November 11, 2014	Sergei Gonchar

Winnipeg Jets acquire	Date	Montreal Canadiens acquire
Peter Budaj Patrick Holland	October 5, 2014	Eric Tangradi

Buffalo Sabres acquire	Date	Montreal Canadiens acquire
Josh Gorges	July 1, 2014	2016 2nd round pick

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	Colorado Avalanche acquire
Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau 2015 5th round pick	June 30, 2014	Daniel Briere

Anaheim Ducks acquire	Date	Montreal Canadiens acquire
Louis Leblanc	June 14, 2014	2015 conditional 5th round pick

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	Nashville Predators acquire
Devan Dubnyk	March 5, 2014	Future consideration

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	New York Islanders acquire
Thomas Vanek 2014 conditional 5th round pick	March 5, 2014	Sebastien Collberg 2014 conditional 2nd round pick

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	Florida Panthers acquire
Mike Weaver	March 4, 2014	2015 5th round pick

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	Los Angeles Kings acquire
Robert Czarnik	February 6, 2014	Steve Quailer

Vancouver Canucks acquire	Date	Montreal Canadiens acquire
Raphael Diaz	February 3, 2014	Dale Weise

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	Florida Panthers acquire
George Parros	July 5, 2013	Philippe Lefebvre 2014 7th round pick

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	New York Rangers acquire
Christian Thomas	July 2, 2013	Danny Kristo

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	Los Angeles Kings acquire
Davis Drewiske	April 2, 2013	2013 5th round pick

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	Dallas Stars acquire
Michael Ryder 2013 3rd round pick	February 26, 2013	Erik Cole

Montreal Canadiens acquire	Date	Tampa Bay Lightning acquire
Dustin Tokarski	February 14, 2013	Cedrick Desjardins

Florida Panthers acquire	Date	Montreal Canadiens acquire
Brendon Nash	January 14, 2013	Jason DeSantis

(via nhltradetracker.com)

How many of these trades were leaked, or even hinted at before they happened?

From my count, only two have been discussed as a possibility at one point. There were whispers that Bergevin had been talking to the Avalanche for several months, although a Parenteau for Briere trade was never discussed. When it finally dropped, the deal took everyone by surprise. There had been some insane rumblings that P.K. Subban might be heading to the Avalanche for P.A. Parenteau, but we already discussed how crazy that rumour was.

The other instance of Marc Bergevin's intentions being printed before a trade went down was the Gonchar trade. Elliotte Friedman mentioned in his 30 Thoughts column that Bergevin had been shopping for a defender, as were 29 other GMs in the league. That's it. No talk about what team Bergevin was talking to, no talk about players, no talk about specifics. Elliotte Friedman, one of the rare true insiders in the league, had only a morsel of information to offer us, even with all his legitimate sources.

That's 18 trades made by Marc Bergevin since he took over, and not one of those shoddy sites came close to predicting them.

So, why do rumour sites even exist when it comes to the Habs? They're there to feed hockey fans' insatiable hunger for rumours, no matter if they're sourced from reality, which they rarely are, or if they're outlandish claims to garner a few cheap hits. These rumour sites & Twitter accounts have very little to offer in most cases, but even more so when it comes to Bergevin's camp.

There are definitely ways of properly covering trade targets that don't involve rumour mongering, like analyzing potential targets, and what it would take to acquire them.

When it comes to Marc Bergevin, the only legitimate information you'll find about trades generally comes after the trade is announced.

It definitely won't come from any of the spaghetti trade rumour mills.

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