Breaking: Habs GM spotted watching two rival teams far from Montreal.

The Montreal Canadiens may very well be working on something behind the scenes.

A picture showing general manager Marc Bergevin has begun to make the rounds on social media this evening and although the picture itself is not particularly interesting where it was taken and what that might mean has raised a few eyebrows around the National Hockey League. You see Bergevin, who's Montreal Canadiens are not playing this evening, was spotted taking in the Sunday night match up between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center, in Chicago Illinois. 

The Habs are currently out of action until this upcoming Thursday and that has left Bergevin with plenty of time on his hands, time that he apparently intends to use observing teams that he has some strong ties to. The Canadiens general manager has shown a willingness in the past to make deals with the Toronto Maple Leafs and his long standing ties to the Blackhawks organization, ties that stem from his time as one of the organizations assistant general managers, likely indicate that he would also be very comfortable discussing any deal with long time Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman.

Now it's worth noting that Bergevin may simply be taking some personal time to go and visit his former workplace but that does not seem all that likely to me smack dab in the middle of the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season. If you were going to the United Center purely to visit your old colleagues would you not do it on a different day? Why show up to a game in which they are playing the Toronto Maple Leafs instead of showing up to the building on an off day where people may have more time to accommodate you? Another possible explanation for his visit would be due to the fact that the Chicago Blackhawks will be honoring Blackhawks' legend Stan Mikita on Sunday night and perhaps due to his long standing ties with the Blackhawks Bergevin wanted to be present for the ceremony. That however also does not have the ring of truth to me especially when you consider the identity of the second man in the photo. 

Alongside the Habs general manager was none other than Martin Lapointe, a man who just so happens to be Montreal's head of player development, and this leads me to believe that this is indeed a scouting mission and not simply a casual visit on the part of Bergevin. The question now of course becomes was he there to scout the Maple Leafs roster or the Blackhawks roster? 

The Leafs have been looking for defensive depth but given the current state of the Habs blue line I'm not entirely sure there would be a fit there. As for players the Leafs might be looking to trade only one name really comes up and I don't see a world in which the Canadiens could trade for forward William Nylander either. Several pundits have picked the Bnlackhawks to finish dead last in their division this season and for that reason I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Bowman is looking to make some changes, but as to who he may be willing to deal at this time your guess is as good as mine.

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