Quotes of the day: Bergevin & Timmins

MONTREAL - Slated to take place virtually, the NHL Draft will be a totally different experience in 2020 than it ever has before. With the event just a day away, Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin and assistant general manager Trevor Timmins connected with the media via Zoom on Monday to answer questions before the big day.
Read on for highlights of what they had to say:

Timmins on how circumstances surrounding the pandemic have changed his team's ability to prepare for the Draft:
"We got the bulk of the live viewings done before hockey was cancelled throughout the world. And then with our ability to use video nowadays, I think that added to the book that we have an all these players. It gave us extra time to do more interviews; we interviewed over 200 draft prospects this year, and re-interviewed some of them as well. We've learned to operate with a different mechanism than we would have in the past from March up until the draft in June. We did miss out on some information, like the NHL Combine and holding our own combine where we would gather more information on fitness levels, medical issues, etc."
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Although it's a good substitute for live viewings, Timmins acknowledged that video analysis comes with some drawbacks, too:
"It's human nature to become too negative. When you see a player over and over again, you can identify his mistakes. That's the key thing: our job as NHL scouts, is to project, and to project is difficult when we're talking about 17-18 year-old young men. We have to maintain that emphasis on projection, and the positives: How can a player get to the NHL level? Does he have a dimensional quality? Does he have that drive, compete, and character to get him there, and overcome his flaws that that we may pick up from watching too much video?"

Unable to watch players in person as the Draft drew near as he typically does, Bergevin admitted that he feels somewhat handicapped compared to previous years:
"It's difficult because usually, towards the end of each season, I go see the players who we think will fall into our pool. This year, because of COVID, I wasn't able to see them live, in arenas. I saw everything on video, which is totally different. That puts me at a disadvantage for this season."
Timmins on the possibility that Bergevin might move the first-round pick:
"We want what's best for the organization and we trust in our general manager, Marc Bergevin. You know if he needs to move that pick to help make us better, to win sooner than later, then all hands on board, we're all for it. We've worked really hard, and got a lot more hours put in because of the extra time. We worked right through the summer, every week and gathered a lot more information than in the past, just because time permitted. We got fresh information over these last couple of months. We're excited as a scouting staff; we work together as a team. It's going to be a full team effort here for the next couple of days, and we're excited to make our picks."
With that said, Bergevin told reporters that there was not much discussion surrounding a transaction for the 16th overall pick and expects to be on the virtual podium to make a selection there on Tuesday evening:
"[Trade talk has been] very quiet, actually. I was asked the question and I answer honestly that if something makes sense for us, we will look into it. But to sit here today and tell you that there's something going on, I would be lying."
He did, however, outline some conditions that would cause him to consider making a move:
"To trade my first-round pick for a player of a certain age who could help us in the short term, I'm not interested in that. But a player who could help us for several years and who could make a difference, I would certainly look at that very closely."

With the addition of Joel Edmundson on the backend and the arrival of Alexander Romanov, Bergevin gave his defensive corps a thumbs-up:
"I'm confident. We have a big defensive corps that is mobile and has range. We saw what happened in Toronto with Webby [Shea Weber], Benny [Ben Chiarot], Jeff [Petry], the ones they called the 'Big Three,' they responded very well. And we're adding Joel Edmundson, and young Romanov is going to step in. We feel comfortable with our defense. Of course, if there's a way to even get better, we're always going to try to do that. But if it stays the same, we're comfortable with what we have right now."
Bergevin was asked which side of the blue line he envisioned for Romanov, given that the left-shooting Russian defenseman has spent a good chunk of time on the right:
"He'll be the one to decide with the way he plays. If we see he's more comfortable and helps the team more on the right, we have left-shooting defensemen. If he performs better on the left, we have some good right-shooting players like [Cale] Fleury, [Noah] Juulsen (who was hurt, we know, but came back healthy). We have options."
With the upcoming NCAA season on hold, Bergevin gave his thoughts on where he'd like to see 2019 first-round pick Cole Caufield suiting up:
"We supported him in his decision to go to Wisconsin. But unfortunately with COVID, it's not possible. In an ideal world, we'd like for him to be playing games right now, which is not the case. Whether it's at Wisconsin or in Europe, for the time being I don't have an issue. I'd just like to see him get back to competing in games, and not just in practices, as soon as possible."