Bruins Put The Ass In Asset Management

So this happened today:

Loui Eriksson and #bruins are not close to a deal. They're not close on terms (length) and it looks like he'll hit the market July 1st.

— Renaud Lavoie (@renlavoietva) June 23, 2016

I believe in what Renaud Lavoie has to say. He’s pretty spot on when it comes to his hockey stuff and if this tweet is true, it is just another blunder in what seems like endless amounts since the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals wrapped up. If you wanted to make the case that the Boston Bruins have had the worst asset management in the NHL since that 2013 season, you can certainly make the case.

I could go into the Tyler Seguin trade and how the Bruins didn’t even get a first round pick for a guy who has been top 5 in the NHL in points for the past few seasons. I could talk about the Behind the B’s first episode where a group – a group – of men sat around a table and basically called the kid soft and shipped him out for players who aren’t even on the roster anymore.

I could go into the Dougie Hamilton trade and how it seems that Boston made it because they were a little scared of Edmonton offer sheeting him. Yes, that’s true. Here’s a bit to wet your whistle:

I didn’t like the Hamilton (trade)….I knew the Bruins felt that Edmonton was going to offer sheet Hamilton. And they really felt trapped. And it (the trade) was a move they had to make right away. – Elliotte Friedman

But what I really wanted to talk about was how Boston handled Carl Soderberg and how they are potentially handling Loui Eriksson. There seems to be a pattern.

In 2015, Pete Blackburn wrote that the Bruins should be sellers at the trade deadline because a guy like Carl Soderberg could net them some valuable assets. At that point in the season, it was a seller’s market but Boston did the complete opposite: they bought.

The end result saw Boston pathetically miss the playoffs (OH, BUT 96 POINTS GUYS!) and trade Carl Soderberg’s rights away for a sixth round pick. Fucking peanuts.

Last season it was clear that the Bruins should have moved on from Loui Eriksson. He was having a good year, showed a bit of that Dallas scoring touch and he was a valuable asset that you could move for…other valuable assets. There were rumors of first round picks, high second round picks and maybe a mix of both.

Instead Don Sweeney and Eriksson’s agent maintained that they wanted to get a deal done; a deal that never came to fruition because both sides were ‘far apart’ on term. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.

Now it seems that Loui Eriksson’s rights are going to get traded, possibly as soon as tomorrow night’s NHL Draft, and the Bruins will once again show us that they are absolutely garbage at managing assets.

Maybe it is pressure from the guys up top, but at some point someone needs to sit this management team down and show them their habits. If Loui Eriksson is allowed to walk – or at the very least traded for a low round draft pick – what’s the point in keeping him? What’s the point is making a fruitless run at (not even in) the playoffs and once again picking in the middle of the NHL Draft?

The Bruins asset management has been absolutely fucking terrible and they should be held accountable for it.

But they won’t.

And it’ll continue to happen this way.