Chiarelli and Bruins can't get a deal done for a forward on Deadline Day
by Stanley Cup of Chowder on Mar 3, 2010 5:01 PM EST
15 comments
The NHL's 3:00 PM Eastern trade deadline has come and gone and the Bruins were not able to improve up front. GM Peter Chiarelli made a pair of deals this morning that freed up some cap space and brought defenseman Dennis Seidenberg to The Hub. First, the Bruins shipped Derek Morris back to Phoenix for a 4th round pick (3rd rounder if Morris re-signs with Phoenix), which set up the trade with Florida (Byron Bitz, Craig Weller, and Tampa Bay's 2010 2nd round pick for Dennis Seidenberg and Ohio State defenseman Matthew Bartkowski).
Essentially swapping Morris for Seidenberg is pretty much a marginal improvement on the blueline, but it gives the Bruins cap space since Morris made $3.3 million and Seidenberg makes $2.25 million...cap space that I thought would be used to bring in a forward . Seidenberg will give you about the same numbers as Morris, but at a lower cost. Seidenberg is strong positionally and isn't afraid to block shots. He is also a guy that can make the first pass out of the zone, which is something the Bruins desperately needed.
For a team that is last in the league in goal scoring that is still in the playoff hunt not to land a goal scorer is inexcusable. Peter Chiarelli and the Bruins brass sent a clear message: this is not "the year to B here". A Cup run this year was a bit of a pipe dream but I figured the B's would still want to win a playoff series to line Jacobs' pocket with an extra couple games' worth of concession sales. Peter Chiarelli tried to spin it like they were trying to improve for this year, but it is clear that this deadline was all about the future, not the present.
I'll admit that the market for goal scorers was limited this year and I am glad that they didn't overpay or sell the future for a rental player, but I think they could have brought in a player who could help this team offensively. Chasing after Kovalchuk made no sense this year, but they had to have other options to improve up front.
Essentially this is what the Bruins did at the deadline:
Leaving Town: Byron Bitz, Craig Weller, Matt Marquardt, and a 2010 2nd round pick
Coming to Boston...eventually...maybe: Dennis Seidenberg, Matthew Bartkowski, Cody Wild, Steve Kampfer, two conditional 4th round picks.
My two goals for the Bruins at the deadline were to get a puck-moving defenseman and to get some scoring up front. They achieved one of those goals by bringing in Dennis Seidenberg, but failed to improve offensively, which has been the Bruins biggest area of concern all season.
FINAL GRADE: INCOMPLETE
Actual Footage of Peter Chiarelli's Press Conference:
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“For a team that is last in the league in goal scoring that is still in the playoff hunt not to land a goal scorer is inexcusable.”
Well said. Anyone want my tickets for tomorrows game?
If any team looks worse in the east right now, it’s Toronto.
Join me on the Hockey Blog Adventure! (or Twitter.) GO BRUINS! (and Wild!)
by Cornelius Hardenbergh on Mar 3, 2010 9:21 PM EST up reply actions
I hope the Leafs finish 29th-27th….Last place team has only gotten the 1st overall pick 4 times in the 13 years since the lottery was instituted
by Dangles-McDonnybrook on Mar 3, 2010 6:35 PM EST up reply actions
The 30th place team has a 25% chance of getting the #1 pick, so that isn’t that out of line.
by Stanley Cup of Chowder on Mar 3, 2010 7:23 PM EST up reply actions
The 30th place team actually has a 48.2% chance of picking first and a 51.8% chance of picking second…kind of confusing, but this spells it out nicely… http://bleacherreport.com/articles/148998-understanding-the-nhl-draft-lottery
by Dangles-McDonnybrook on Mar 3, 2010 7:29 PM EST up reply actions
so actually i lied because that was from last year….30th has picked 1st 5 out of 14 years
by Dangles-McDonnybrook on Mar 3, 2010 7:30 PM EST up reply actions
Normally, I would trust anything that is published on Bleacher Report, but I took my stat from Wikipedia so I guess I have more credibility here.
by Stanley Cup of Chowder on Mar 3, 2010 9:19 PM EST up reply actions
Looking forward to Fowler/Seguin.
Join me on the Hockey Blog Adventure! (or Twitter.) GO BRUINS! (and Wild!)
by Cornelius Hardenbergh on Mar 3, 2010 9:20 PM EST up reply actions
This off-season is the last chance that Chiarelli will have to redeem himself.
It wouldn’t surprise me if he unloads both Thomas and Chara this Summer. This would clean up some cap room for sure, you bring in your 1st rounder (whomever it is you’re better off) and you re-sign Siederberg to 3 years AND get a top 6 forward.
Just thinking that this Summer is really, really the last straw for PC and his tenure here. If you think about it, it’s HIS team. We can rant about the lack of motivation and play, but these are his hires. CJ can only do so much to motivate. So far, PC, with the deals he’s given (Sturm..good guy, but over paid), Lucic (over paid), Ryder (overpaid) and Thomas (good guy, but overpaid) may have laid the ground work for why it was tough to make much of a trade this season.
thoughts?
I hate that I can't sign off with "bt" anymore.
What else was there? I'm okay with this deadline for a couple reasons
1. Even if they got a goal scorer, who were they going to get? Unless it was Kovlachuck there was no game changer out there that would have put the B’s in cup contention. Pittsburgh, Washington and now the Devils are significantly more solid then the B’s this year.
So why give up much of anything for a player you are likely renting and at best gets you to the 2nd round of the playoffs?
2. Bottom line is the Bs need help on the blue line also. Scoring was a greater need, but the D was far from excellent.
Beyond that Morris wasn’t working here, Bitz had reached a ceiling that relegated him to 4th line or bench and a 2nd round pick in the NHL could be amazing, or more likely could be nothing. Not a whole lot lost there.
Granted In getting Seidenberg, you are getting a guy you could have signed last off season for less then Morris and without giving up anything, but at that time Morris was a better potentially dynamic defender.
Seidenberg is going to be a fan favorite. Plays hard, leads the league in blocked shots, he’ll be easy to route for and if nothing else plays a solid D. To date he has not been great offensively, but who knows how that could change playing opposite Chara.
And in the long term, this not being a cup year we must look this way, now you’ve got another defender to try in fit in your system to fill a need. It’s not ideal but you are getting a 28 or so game look at a pretty young defender who could shore up a need for the team long term.
It’s not exciting, it’s not an A level moves, but the B’s didn’t give up much and did get a potentially solid core for their blue line.
JonnyNYC gets it
Part of the problem for the B’s this year was that so many teams are still in the playoff hunt. So it’s not like lots of people were looking to unload legit scorers.
But the bigger problem is just that the B’s are more than a few players away from being a Cup contender, and shelling out picks and prospects for 1 or 2 rental players was not going to turn them into a contender overnight. I’ve disagreed with a lot of this front office’s moves in the past few years, but my sense is that doing nothing yesterday was probably better than taking whatever might have been on the table.
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