Sorry we're a day late on this, but we were all out celebrating Pizz's birthday yesterday when the news broke.
But in case you haven't heard, Tyler Seguin, Rich Peverley and prospect Ryan Button got shipped off to the Dallas for Loui Eriksson, blueline prospect Joe Morrow, who moves for the second time this year, and right wingers Reilly Smith and Matt Fraser.
Damn.
So apparently Peter Chiarelli's bitchslapping of Tyler Seguin last week was anything but a scare tactic. We like Seguin and wanted to give him one more year in Boston before conemding him or not, but we can't realy be too angry about this trade at all. Eriksson is a solid two-way player who hit the 70 point mark for three straight years and had 29 points in this lockout season. So think Patrice Bergeron but with a little more offensive pop. The kinda guy Chiarelli and Julien love.
We don't know too much about the Stars prospects but people seemed to be pretty excited about them, so that's cool…
Bonus is all the Seguinistas will be gone… right? Or will they just realize Eirkkson is also easy on the eyes?
Expect a lot of these Photoshops next season:
As for why Seguin left, it seems the main problem stemming from Seguin partying too much.
More after the jump…
According to sources around the team, Seguin was out late in Toronto during the road trip to play the Leafs in the first round of the playoffs and the team had to hold a sit-down with the immature forward about his commitment to the team. Seguin showed up each day at the Air Canada Centre wearing the same clothes for three straight days and played badly in Games 3 and 4 of the first round against Toronto.
That incident coupled with stories of Seguin’s late night partying during the regular season prompted Peter Chiarelli to say that “[Seguin] needs to become more of a professional” during a tirade at draft weekend. The Bruins attempted to deal Seguin to the Calgary Flames last weekend, but ultimately Flames ownership squashed any deals for the six-year, $5.75 million contract for Seguin while they go through a full rebuild with inexpensive, youthful players.
So, basically he got traded for being a college kid in an adult, professional world.
Chiarelli denied this was a reason, though:
“I think what’s important to remember about Tyler [Seguin] is that he came here with much pomp and circumstance, and he played very well for a young player. This year wasn’t his best year, but it was a trying year and a weird year to assess players,” said Peter Chiarelli. “Tyler is a real good kid. I know I see the Twitterverse, or whatever it’s called, and a lot of these reports about his extracurricular stuff.
“I don't want to really play [the maturation thing] up too much. He’s a 21-year-old that played as an 18-year-old, and I think he was just a 21-year-old kid. He was maturing and growing up. He liked to have fun like the rest of them,” said Chiarelli. “I don't really think it was such a big deal. But when I said earlier about focus, [it was] just about little things, about preparing to play. It was nothing about extracurricular activities.”
Sooo, partying.
Cap space was also a huge reason. Seguin, Peverley and Kelly took up a chunk of change for Boston this year and didn't give anything back for it. Trading Seguin might be a surprise but not getting rid of Raptor Jesus or Cageface. We liked Pevz but he's easily replaceable.
Eriksson is a left winger, but Chiarelli sees him playing on the right wing for Boston, so that patches up part of losing Horton and (still currently) Jagr. The extra cap room now means the Bruins have money to re-sign Rask to the rumored $7M/year deal. Fans are salivating at the idea of getting Alie or Iginla, too. Despite the recent history, we wouldn't disapprove of Iginla finally coming to Boston where he should have been all along. As for Alfie, we're not as hot and bothered under the collar for him but he's still a great player. Really depends on price.
Bruins have $9 million in cap space to work with this off-season. Free Agency starts today, if you didn't remember.
Also, do we now chant "Thank you, Kessel!" when Eriksson scores? Or "Thank you, Seguin?" We're confused on this rule works.
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