I can't get Marc Bergevin's answer out of my head. When asked if he had any players in the pipeline who could play center. he said “no.”
It still echoes. Why, after five years, is the team in the same spot as when he took over? When Bergevin got the job his message was clear: draft and develop like the Chicago Blackhawks team that trained him to manage a hockey club.
I started to consider every possibility from AHL head coach Sylvain Lefebvre, to director of amateur scouting Trevor Timmins, to Youppi's bad aura. Eventually I found the culprit.