The Montreal Gazette describes that as contract talks between P.K. Subban's agent Don Meehan and Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin ebbed and flowed, from last May into suspended animation during the lockout into three more hard weeks leading to Monday's signing, Bergevin said he was certain of this:
"One hundred per cent from Day 1, there was never a doubt in my mind that (Subban) wasn't going to be a part of this team moving forward," he said. "Never once."
The contract — a pro-rated $2 million this season, then $3.75 million next — is a cap-respecting pact that honestly can displease no one. And it proves Bergevin to be a steely-eyed hockey-operations boss who is not focused merely on a single star athlete, but on the wide-angle portrait in which Subban sits as a family member with all the rest.
Were Bergevin's discussions with Meehan, Subban was asked, a little like a chess game?
"A little bit," he replied. "They had their arguments, which were good, and I believe ours were good. At the end of the day, it's give and take. We gave, they gave and we got an agreement done."
Bergevin called the talks with veteran negotiator Meehan "good experience for me. . . . I learned an awful lot through this process."
He didn't know how this agreement might impact future talks with other agents, who now know he can strategically move pawns, rooks, knights and bishops with the best on the other side of the board.
"I see agents as a partner in this, not an enemy," he said. "He represents a client, I represent the team and at the end of the day we have to get together."
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