Pez’s note: This is my raw reactions from last night. It is a little messy, but oh well.
I have had my coffee and as a borderline insomniac, I slept relatively well last night. When I woke up this morning, I made my egg white omelette and turned 98.5 The Sports Hub on via the TuneIn app. I quickly came to the realization that it wasn’t a dream. As of this morning, June 27, 2015, Don Sweeney gutted the Boston Bruins.
This could change, but yesterday was one of the most bizarre barrage of moves I’ve ever seen this organization make. This wasn’t just one Tyler Seguin-esque trade, where you trade a potential franchise player for dimes on the dollar. This was worse.
So let’s get cracking and break down the easy ones first.
To Colorado: Carl Söderberg.
To Boston: 2015 6th round pick.
It is obvious that you try to maximize your return on assets you know aren’t coming back. Despite being about three months late on trading Carl Soderberg, I’m glad Boston was finally able to get something for him.
I have no qualms about this trade. You know he isn’t coming back so you receive an asset back. It makes perfect sense. Here’s where the waters get a little murky.
To Los Angeles: Milan Lucic.
To Boston: 2015 first round pick (13), Martin Jones, Colin Miller.
If this was a stand alone trade yesterday, or even coupled with the Carl Soderberg trade, I’m beating my dick like it owes me money. I am ecstatic to see Milan Lucic out of Boston. My dislike for Lucic has been noted since the beginning of the NHL lockout when he started skating two weeks before games were about to start.
Truthfully, I believe that Lucic rode the coattails of David Krejci and whatever winger was placed beside DK. I never really jumped into the “30 goal” scorer hype. Once he signed that three year, $18M contract, he wasn’t the same guy he was in 2009 and 2010.
If you look at the Bruins return, it was pretty good. They get a first round pick in a deep draft, a backup goaltender who was sensational when Johnathan Quick went down a couple years ago and a prospect that, supposedly, can get things done. Let’s talk about Martin Jones for a second.
Jones was pretty solid in LA as a backup, which is what Boston is looking for. Many were scratching their heads when Jones was mentioned in this trade and then asked about Subban or McIntyre. Neither Subban or McIntyre are ready for the NHL. Subban’s one start was a disaster, and while not an indicator of future performance, shows us that while he may be an NHL caliber goaltender, it won’t be for a couple more years. Remember, goalies take years to season.
Still, Martin Jones is a restricted free agent who doesn’t have a contract right now. He still needs to be re-signed and word out of LA is that the Kings were having trouble coming to an agreement with Jones’ camp because Jones believes he is a starter.
On Colin Miller, I turn to DOY favorite Kirk Luedeke:
Colin Miller not that big at 6-foot but he plays pretty big offensively. Let the Great Gamble in Boston commence
— Kirk Luedeke (@kluedeke29) June 26, 2015
And from Hockey’s Future:
Miller was drafted as a long-term project when the Kings selected him as a 19-year old in his second year of draft eligibility in 2012. The progress he has made since then is noteworthy. A bit undersized but with some elements of offense and pugnaciousness at the time, he spent an overage season in the OHL and has come into his own as a prospect in his second AHL season with the Manchester Monarchs. He has natural leadership ability and is among the team leaders in points and penalty minutes. Positionally, his defensive game is still erratic at times but his lapses have become less common and he is playing in more situations for the Monarchs.
Future
Miller is in his second season with Kings’ AHL affiliate Manchester in 2014-15 and has been among the league’s biggest surprises. After steadily working his way into the lineup as a rookie, he is the team’s third-leading scorer, and top offensive defenseman, while also playing with an edge (he is third on the Monarchs in penalty minutes). Long-term Miller must continue to address his defensive game and work to add the strength and agility necessary to compete in the NHL. His progress to this point suggests he can be an effective lower pairing defenseman — with the ability to contribute on the power play — at that level in the future.
So I get it. I get why you had to trade Milan Lucic. He was going to cost a lot of money next year and the Bruins are still going to be a cap strung team. Here’s what I don’t understand:
To make this trade work out for both sides, the Bruins retained, aka will eat, $2.75M of Lucic’s salary. This is where Don Sweeney loses me. The Bruins are a cap strung team that needed to trade $6M man Milan Lucic so they could make moves, but instead decided to eat about half of his salary. So instead of getting a full $6M to work with, Boston has $3M to work with. That brings me to my next point:
Bruins sign Adam Mcquaid to a 4 year, $11M contract ($2.75M AAV).
ARE. YOU. FUCKING. KIDDING ME?!
This is where Don Sweeney has lost me. What is happening here? If you watched McQuaid play, at any time in his Bruins’ career, where did you see something that said he was worth over $2M a season? This is what I wrote about McQuaid in my Pez Plays GM series:
Adam McQuaid was really the hard one to let go, but he fits in to the Carl Söderberg camp of a younger, cheaper option being on the roster that basically provides the same type of play Adam would. Another thing that hurts McQuaid is his consistency with injuries. In his career, McQuaid has never played a full season. Here’s the list of games played since 2009-2010: 19, 67, 72, 32, 30 and 63. It is tough to justify bringing back McQuaid at anywhere close to his previous adjusted annual value (AAV) [which was $1,566,666 per season] and not knowing if you can have him for a full season. Kevan Miller as a number six defenseman is fine if you’re just looking to use him as a number six guy. He’s cheap, he’s semi-reliable and given normal bottom pairing minutes, he can do the job.
So I guess I don’t know dick when it comes to the NHL because I have never, ever, looked at Adam McQuaid – a guy who has never finished a full. fucking. season. healthy and said “Give that man close to $3M dollars a season!”. No one has, except Don Sweeney.
Adam McQuaid is a bottom pairing defenseman that replicates a style of play you already have on this team. You already employ (multiple) defenseman that are suited to stay at home, have hands like drunken toddlers and struggle to skate in a straight line. McQuaid, Miller and to a lesser extent Dennis Seidenberg 2.0 have shown a lack of vision, a lack of hands, an incredible lack of scoring and the only consistency they bring to the table is being listed on the injury report.
This brings us to the Hamilton trade:
To Calgary: Dougie Hamilton
To Boston: 2015 first round pick (15), 2015 second round picks (45, 52)
Look, you can think whatever you want about Dougie Hamilton. You can believe he wasn’t worth a 6-7-8 million dollar a year contract. You can think that he was soft, that he had issues on defense and that his positioning was utter shit. Now let me ask you this:
Do you believe the return for Dougie Hamilton was good?
If you said yes, close the website because you’ve made up your mind. I, however, think that this trade was worse than the Tyler Seguin trade. This could very well be one of the worst trades in the modern Boston Bruins era. When Seguin was traded, the Bruins got players back who could have made an impact. Did they? Well, not really.
Don Sweeney traded a transformational defenseman for essentially nothing. A couple of draft picks that may or may not turn out to be of use. What made matters worse is that Boston was unable to use that pick – or any of the picks they received yesterday – to trade up in last night’s draft and draft the player they truly coveted, BC’s Noah Hanifin.
This leaves the Bruins with a defensive group of: Chara, Seidenberg, Krug, McQuaid, Miller and a mix of Trotman and Morrow.
It isn’t really a defensive group that shows me that can win a Stanley Cup. Again, all of this could change in the coming weeks as there are whispers that Boston is currently in talks with Chicago with the names Sharp/Seabrooke/Bickell being thrown around. Honestly, though, if Brent Seabrooke isn’t going to come here then don’t bother. The Bruins already needed defensive help before they traded Hamilton and now it is just magnified.
Piggyback that on James Mirtle saying the Bruins were getting better offers for Hamilton (see: higher in the draft) and it leaves you scratching your head so hard you’re starting to cut your scalp.
My biggest take away from last night is simple and does back to the Milan Lucic point:
The Boston Bruins were a cap strung team that was forced to trade Lucic due to his $6M salary. In return, they left last night with $5.5M in salary (McQuaid’s extension, Lucic’s retained salary) – netting them about $500k in salary cap relief.
What should have been a night of fireworks for the Bruins turned into a drunken night where you are driving a friend to the emergency room because the Roman Candle blew up in his/her hand.
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