Wow what a god damn weekend. Starting June 25th the Bruins traded Carl Soderberg for a 6th round draft pick in 2016. I didn't like this move too much because I sort of figured that the Bruins could have gotten way more of a return than a 6th round pick. In the big picture, I would have rather had the roster space and money than Soderberg come October. Then comes Friday, what a day Friday was. It started off with the Bruins trading Dougie Hamilton to the Calgary Flames, when the trade was first announced the only details were that Dougie was traded, no details on what the Bruins were getting in return. I think majority of the Boston fan base was hoping that the Bruins were trading Dougie and maybe some picks or prospects (ie: Subban) to the Flames for maybe Johnny Gaudreau, TJ Brodie, or maybe even Josh Jooris. Instead the Bruins got the 15th pick in the first round as well as the 45th and 52nd in the second round. Hamilton will be a RFA come July 1st and there are tons of reports coming out of Boston that they didn't have the kind of money to resign Hamilton. None the less, Dougie is far more valuable than a few draft picks. If the Bruins didn't have the money, why didn't they try to get rid of Dennis Seidenberg and not resign McQuaid? Don't get me wrong, I like McQuaid's style of play, he's a solid defenseman and great in his own zone but he offers very little offensively. I think having Hamilton rather than McQuaid and Seidenberg would have been beneficial. The Flames may very well have the best defense in all of the NHL with the addition of Dougie. Then comes the Bruins trading Milan Lucic to the LA Kings for the 13th pick, Goalie Martin Jones and defenseman Colin Miller. I think that Lucic will fit in great with the Kings, he's a tough guy that loves to throw the body around. Jones is a solid goaltender who could be a great back up for Tuukka since they had trouble with that. I'm hoping that they brought on Jones in order to trade Subban. Miller had a break out season in the AHL with the Manchester Monarchs winning the Calder Cup. In the AHL skills competition Miller won fastest skater as well as hardest shot, I think that he could work out well for the Bruins if he keeps it up. I was pretty disappointed about losing Lucic, he's been one of my favorite players for a while. I know he had an off year and it seemed as if his days in Boston were limited after the handshake line against the Canadiens, so I wasn't too surprised. I also thought that the Lucic- Krejci- Pastranak line was also hitting their stride towards the end of the season. The Bruins will also need to find someone to create space for 46 and 88 come this season. So after these trades the Bruins had the 13th, 14th and 15th picks, I thought that was surely enough to move up to the 3rd or 4th spot and take Noah Hannifin. If they ended up getting Hannifin I would have been ecstatic. He's commonly compared to Duncan Keith which is a huge compliment. Unfortunately that didn't happen, somehow Don Sweeney couldn't do this so the Bruins were stuck with those 3 picks. From that moment it was blatantly clear that the Bruins were taking the long way to rebuilding this team and I can't figure out why. Yes, the Bruins had an off season and sucked last year but in my eyes it didn't warrant a complete rebuild, at all. I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about prospects and what they can do, but what I do know is that we won't see these guys on the varsity team for a few years, hopefully they work out but they also may not. So it was most certainly an awful Friday for Bruins fans. The weekend was pretty quiet on the Bruins front, I think everyone was still locked in their basement chugging whiskey and crying due to Friday. It still baffles me how the Bruins managed to botch that Kessel trade so much. No one from that trade is left in Boston... It seems as if the Bruins front office has the opposite mindset of Belichick and the Patriots. Instead of trading older guys (Chara, Seidenberg, Eriksson) who are falling out of their prime, they trade young guys who are about to hit their prime.
So today it comes out that the Bruins have traded a 3rd round draft pick to the Flyers for Zac Rinaldo, a guy that is well known around the league as a huge scumbag and a dirty player. Rinaldo has registered 10pts in his last 125 games... Absolutely disgusting. The Bruins may be trying to replace Shawn Thornton by bringing in a locker room presence but right now I don't think that right now is the time. The Bruins have enough problems scoring, why would they bring him in? Right now the state of the Bruins is disgusting, absolutely awful. I don't know what's going on with this team but it's making me sick. I know that free agency opens up July 1st so hopefully Don Sweeney pulls his head out of his ass ASAP and makes some moves to try and make the team viable again. At this rate, the Bruins are going to be absolutely awful next season. Here's to hoping that Sweeney figures something out and saves this sinking ship.
Fare thee well, Hamilton and Lucic. Thanks for bringing the cup back to Boston in 2011.
and welcome Martin Jones, Colin Miller, (and I guess) Zac Rinaldo.
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