This morning Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe wrote that the Bruins had a trade in place for Vancouver's Alex Edler, which was contingent on Vancouver moving Ryan Kesler to Pittsburgh:
"The Canucks would have received an NHL center in Sutter in return for Kesler. But Sutter is best suited for a third-line role. It’s likely Vancouver would have asked the Bruins for either AHLers Ryan Spooner or Alexander Khokhlachev, both more offensive-minded than Sutter."
Now there's a lot of people who are seemingly up-in-arms because Chiarelli didn't pull the trigger on Edler.
First of all, it was out of PC's hands. If Kesler didn't go to Pittsburgh, Edler wasn't coming to Boston and as we all know that's exactly what happened. While Edler would have helped this year, it would have put the Bruins in a tough spot moving forward. Let's start with financials before anything:
Edler currently makes $5M a season and he's signed through 2018-2019. While Boston could use Dennis Seidenberg's LTIR money this season, it's a whole different ball game, even with the cap going up. Patrice Bergeron, Kevan Miller and Dennis Seidenberg both have their cap hit going up next season and players looking for new contracts (Krug, Iginla, Johnson, Thornton).
If Edler comes in at $5M a season, I think it's safe to assume that Johnny Boychuk is traded for a little bit of cap relief. Even if you let someone like Iginla walk, you still need a top 3/6 forward to fill his spot and LOUI ERIKSSON IS NOT A TOP 3/6 FORWARD SO DON'T GO THERE. So you can take some money and throw that at someone unless you think Carl Söderberg is ready to make a leap of faith.
Looking at the Bruins projected cap they have about $9M to spend. With Edler on the books, that jumps way down to $4,120,000 and as I mentioned Krug needs a new contract, Boston will need a backup goaltender (both Johnson [unrestricted] and Svedberg [restricted] are a free agent at year's end) so that money can go fast.
So financially it doesn't make much sense to bring Edler in and then pay four defensemen 19.2 million dollars.
There's also the players involved. Once again Peter Chiarelli was looking to move Matt Bartkowski and either Alex Khokhlachev or Ryan Spooner. Sorry, but I'd rather keep Spooner and Khokhlachev. The Bruins are known for being strong down the middle. They breed centers like Alabama breeds retarded, albino inbreds. Boston fucking loves their centers man, especially if centers can win faceoff draws.
I believe that Ryan Spooner will eventually turn into a junior Marc Savard. His hands are good, his play making ability better and he can play both the center and wing position. The proof is in the pudding. When Chris Kelly went down with his broken ankle, Spooner stepped in and once acclamated to the NHL game showed that he could make his wingers better.
Am I over selling Spooner? Maybe, but there was a definite connection with him and Söderberg.
Khokhlachev may even have a higher upside then Spooner, to be honest.
I'm not sure why Chiarelli is so adimant to get rid of Koko/Bartkowski, but I'm glad this deal fell through and you should be to. If Boston is going to make a move for a term guy, I'd rather have it not be someone who has a 5v5 relative corsi in the negatives, is going to cost $5M for the next 3 seasons and is going to cause a shake up of a Stanley Cup contending roster.
Does Edler push them over the edge against Pittsburgh? Eh, maybe. There's certainly enough information already to debate who is the best team in the East, but does it push them over Anaheim, Chicago or St. Louis? Probably not and that's why you don't make a move. If it doesn't significantly increase your chances of winning then why would you sacrifice young talent for him?
Just my take.
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