From Michael Russo of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
When traded to Anaheim in February after being in and out of the Islanders lineup, Bergeron had eight power-play goals in 46 games, a total that was tied for the NHL lead with Anaheim’s Chris Pronger, Calgary’s Dion Phaneuf and Detroit’s Brian Rafalski.
“When we look at the shot totals from our defense last year, we’re not high enough,” Wild General Manager Doug Risebrough said. “But we’re not looking at him as just a power-play specialist. He can still do other things. [Coach] Jacques [Lemaire] wants to play everybody a lot of minutes, so we think he can play minutes. I liked his competitiveness when he was in Edmonton.”
Read the entire article here.
As I pointed out yesterday, the Wild is getting a tremendously capable offensive defenseman, however, the positives offensively have generally been offset by terrible defensive play. There is no question that Bergeron has a lot of talent, and the Wild lacks offensive output from the back-end, so this arrangement may just work. That being said, I always have my concerns about a defensively irresponsible defenseman playing for Jacques Lemaire.
