Poor poor MAB, regulated to secondary minutes some games and flat out benched for a majority of his time with the Ducks – Marc-Andre Bergeron has been traded again, this time to the Minnesota Wild for a third round draft pick. Seems the only thing consistent with MAB is his NHL trade value – a third round draft pick.
Per Michael Russo’s blog at the Star Tribune in Minnesota:
The Wild has traded a third-round pick to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron, a hard-shooting, strong-skating player who scored 15 goals in 2005-06 for the Oilers and a career-high 46 points in 2006-07 for the Islanders and Oilers (He was traded to the Isles for Denis Grebeshkov, whom the Oilers are extremely high on).
His 38 goals the past three years rank ninth among NHL defensemen.
Bergeron was dealt to the Ducks from the Islanders in February after scoring nine goals and 18 points in 46 games for the Isles. Bergeron didn’t get in any playoff games for the deep blue-line Ducks.
Bergeron is considered mid-range defenseman. According to a writer in Edmonton, “he can shoot like hell and skate, but he’s very unsure of himself, doesn’t have a lot of self-esteem, gets down on himself. He also struggles at times in his own end. He’s serviceable. He’s can play some reasonable minutes, but he’s prone to mistakes the more minutes he gets.”
What I know of him is he’s one of the hardest-shooting defensemen in the NHL. He’s got a bullet, like a left-shot Kurtis Foster, only much smaller. He also tends to have blinders in his own zone as far as picking up guys that are closing in on him. But this is a depth move as the Wild looks to replace guys like Sean Hill, Petteri Nummelin, Keith Carney and potentially Foster at the start of the season.
Oh well, maybe MAB can find his place on the Wild and under his 4th coach in 3 seasons. Hey, it’s bound to happen sooner or later – right? Being traded this many times does not do anything for someone with on going confidence issues, that’s for sure.
