Busy Bs

The Boston Bruins' management team has been very busy over the course of the last month just with the trade scene and looking to get ready for the entry draft.  This article depicts the Bruins last 10 trades over the course of the last 30 days and gets GM Arcesi's thoughts on each trade.

Trade 1:

Colorado Avalanche: Zach Parise
Boston Bruins: Jeff Carter, Year 3 - PHO - Round 3, Year 4 - OTT - Round 2, Year 4 - MTL - Round 5

Arcesi stated that he didn't want to trade Carter, but Carter was playing hardball with salary demands and honestly as deep as the Bruins are at C and RW, it didn't make any sense to pay Jeff the kind of money he wanted to be on the 3rd line.  Unfortunately we had to move him, but also at the same time, we were able to reacquire Parise and strengthens up our top two lines and now we feel that we have one of the best top 6 units in the league.  All in all, I am very pleased with this trade.

Trade 2:

Boston Bruins:  Josh Brittain, Year 3 - CAL - Round 3
Dallas Stars: Jeff Zatkoff, Year 3 - DAL - Round 5

Arcesi commented that this was putely a trade in order to get a back up goalie for one season that is making league minimum as he didn't want to tie up any salary in a position that would not be used much as he expects Ward to play at least 70 games this season, unless injury occurs.

Trade 3:

Boston Bruins:  Jeff Deslauriers
Winnipeg Jets:  Year 3 - WIN - Round 5

Again, with the acquisition of Zatkoff, Deslauriers was expendable and there was no room for his salary and the Jets needed another back up goaltender for their AHL affiliate.

Trade 4:

Carolina Hurricanes:  Anton Stralman
Boston Bruins:  Year 4 - PHO - Round, Year 3 - CHI - Round 3, Year 3 - DAL - Round 5

I feel that with this trade, we offered more than what Stralman was worth, but nonetheless, we are happy to have gotten him and resigned him to a modest 4 year deal.  Anton definitely helps round out our depth on the 3rd defensive pairing.

Trade 5:

Boston Bruins: Erik Johnson, Year 3 - WIN - Round 5
Buffalo Sabres: Year 3 - OTT - Round 1, Year 4 - NYR - Round 2

I didn't like trading Johnson to a division rival, but this was clearly a salary dump and a shot at getting some draft picks.  We probably could have gotten more for Johnson had we put him on the open market, but after talking with GM Blanchard of the Sabres, we were able to come up with a deal that we both liked.  In the end, he won the deal, however, we are extremely happy to have received the picks that we got along with the salary relief for this year.

Trade 6:

New York Islanders: Year 3 - TOR - Round 2
Boston Bruins: Mathieu Perreault

Purely a move to get an additional draft pick.  We feel that Perreault will turn into a quality player, however, he wanted to play in the NHL and he wasn't going to make our roster this year and we felt that he is much better than an injury reserve player so we moved him to a team where he will get an opportunity to crack the line up.  Unfortunately, Perreault was acquired this off-season and didn't even have a chance to put a Bruins uniform on him.  He was acquired because he refused to sign with Florida and we matched the offer that was placed on him, but then shifted our 3rd line focus for the type of gritty player we wanted and ultimately, Mathieu wasn't that type of player.  We felt we have enough offensive punch on our first two lines, that we needed grit on our third line.  Hence, he was moved.

Trade 7:

Tampa Bay Lightning: Jack Skille, Year 4 - TBL - Round 4
Boston Bruins: Viktor Stalberg

Again, this was a trade much like the Perreault trade.  We wanted more grit for our 3rd line and Skille represents that grit.  We love Stalberg and we feel he will have a bounce back year this season, but again, he had more offensive upside than he did checking/defense and we needed to fill a void.  We were glad to be able to deal with GM St. Pierre and is always a pleasure in doing so as we know that Viktor will log some quality minutes in Tampa.  He may have lost out on the Bruins Ice Girls, but he has the TB Cheerleaders now which is a close runner up to our girls.  ;)

Trade 8:

Buffalo Sabres: Year 3 - OTT - Round 3, Year 4 - NYR - Round 3
Boston Bruins: Year 4 - BOS - Round 2

A lot of GMs may have been wondering what I was doing in this trade.  Dealing a 2nd round pick for two thirds sounds perposterous...but...we are hoping that our 2nd round pick will be a very late pick next season and we really wanted to 3rd round picks, especially one this season as we had a player in mind to draft and we felt using a 2nd round pick on him would be over kill and we feel he would still be available in the 3rd round.  Also, I wanted the other 3rd round pick to make a deal with another team as we didn't want to give up 2 second round picks in the deal.  All in all, it was a win win for both teams in this trade.

Trade 9:

Boston Bruins:  Year 4 - NYR - Round 2, Year 4 - NYR - Round 3, Year 4 - TBL - Round 4
Carolina Hurricanes: Justin Abdelkader

We knocked on GM Hickey's door to reaquire Abdelkader.  Hickey was willing to listen to offers as Abdelkader had refused his first two contract extention offers and he didn't want to see him walk away to free agency and not get any compensation.  I know that the Canes are rebuilding and I feel that we offered a more than fair value for Abdelkader in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th round picks considering he was debating on testing free agency.  We hope that Justin will want to remain a Bruin after this season, or else we paid a hefty price for a rental player.  We plan to utitlize Justin on our 3rd line with Couturier and Skille to help bring that defensive, gritty game and hope that we can play this line against other teams top lines to wear them down.  We will begin the negotiation process with Abdelkader's agent soon in efforts to try to lock him up.

Trade 10:

Boston Bruins: Year 3 - OTT - Round 1, Year 4 - BOS - Round 1, Year 3 - TOR - Round 2, Year 3 - OTT - Round 3, Year 4 - TBL - Round 2, Nicolas Deschamps
Toronto Maple Leafs: Year 3 - CLB - Round 1, Year 4 - VAN - Round 5

With our most recent trade with the Leafs, most teams in this league probably think I blew a gasket and bent over for GM MacLeod without even asking for lubrication.  I'm sure even GM MacLeod was surprised that I would be willing to part with so many possibilities for just one shot.  But to be honest, I am completely fine with overpaying for a draft pick when I absolutely want that draft pick.  There is a certain player that we want to draft and we want to see him as a future Bruin and on draft day, when we draft him, he will know the price we paid and he will know how much we want him to be part of this club.  As far as I am concerned, we didn't overpay all that much for what we are potentially getting.  We gave up all late round draft picks, with the exception of a possible early to mid 2nd round draft pick next season.  I feel that we have more of a chance with our 1 draft pick making the NHL then any of the players that may have been picked in the picks that we sent to Toronto.  As for Nicolas Deschamps, well, we really like him and seen him play numerous times in the QMJHL when he was there and love what he brings to the table, but again, it is the same situation as Perreault.  He was not going to crack our top 6 any time soon and there is no sense letting him rot in our farm team.  We wish him all the best and hope he one day gets a shot at Toronto.

Arcesi also stated that he thinks he is done tinkering with his line up and draft picks for the next little while...but who knows...maybe an offer will be made that he can't resist. ;)