Bruins’ trade deadline moves make it impossible to understand where team is heading
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney speaks during a news conference ahead of the NHL’s trade deadline.
COMMENTARY
The Boston Bruins actually ended up being one of the more active teams at the NHL’s ho-hum trading deadline Monday.
Yet, they managed to do nothing.
They picked up New Jersey Devils forward Lee Stempniak (33 years old) and Carolina Hurricanes defenseman John-Michael Liles (35), neither of whom elicited much excitement in Boston.
Maybe that’s because of the seeming exasperation of Bruins fans, who understand that the 2015-16 version of their team is a wee more than a Stempniak or Liles away from competing for a Stanley Cup.
Let’s put it this way: They’re more than a Stempniak or Liles away from avoiding a first-round exit.
Oh, but luckily, the Bruins will still make a push for that playoff spot, choosing to hang on to forward Loui Eriksson instead of trading the 23-goal scorer for something of worth before he becomes a free agent on July 1. Whatever you think of the 30-year-old’s importance on this team (currently tied with David Krejci for second in points with 48), dealing Eriksson was — arguably — general manager Don Sweeney’s most direct avenue to take toward meaningful improvement during this year’s deadline day.
Instead, Stempniak and Liles.
Beauty.
Outside of the Loui, Loui vacuum, the right-handed shooting right wing Stempniak is actually a pretty good pickup (16 goals, 41 points), though the price of a fourth-round pick in 2016 and a second-round pick in 2017 for his services seems like desperation filtered into the Causeway Street offices and overwhelmed Sweeney and team president Cam Neely just prior to the 3 p.m. deadline. Oh, did we mention Stempniak skated with the Bruins last fall prior to signing a one-year deal with the Devils? Good thing it ended up costing them a second and a fourth though.
Stempniak is a defensive body. So is Kevan Miller, though.
Then there’s Eriksson, a player that few in these parts expected to remain in Boston past Feb. 29, particularly with free agency looming and the Bruins unable to yet talk themselves into giving the guy a contract extension that they might likely regret on March 1. Yes, yes, Eriksson is integral to the way these Bruins, slotted in third place in the Atlantic Division, have played this season, a surprising effort considering last summer’s decisions to bid farewell to Milan Lucic and Dougie Hamilton, all less than a year after other NHL folks have yet to stop laughing about Peter Chiarelli’s gift-wrapping of defenseman Johnny Boychuk to the Islanders.
Great. The Bruins, as constituted with Eriksson, have a stronger likelihood of making the postseason. Sweeney also said on Monday that the team did not get any closer to a contract extension with him. Neat.
Are you excited?
“If the deal wasn’t going to be right, then we were going to maintain our position,’’ Sweeney said Monday afternoon. “The deal had to be right. It had to be right for this organization.’’
It’s not like the fantasized young defenseman was coming back in return for Eriksson, and perhaps with a pair of first-round draft picks already slated for this summer’s NHL Draft, the Bruins didn’t feel like settling on a third. It was indeed a fairly slow NHL deadline day (apologies to our Canadian neighbors if you happened to take the day off pining for something), so it’s difficult to tell what other teams were dangling for Eriksson, though Sweeney had already admitted on Sunday afternoon that most discussions had centered around draft picks.
Wouldn’t those, maybe, look OK once some other GM wildly overpays Eriksson?
It’s impossible to surmise just where this thing is headed. Maybe the Bruins are better than they were during Sunday night’s ugly loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but not by much. They’re certainly not at a level that could prompt anyone to make the delusional argument that they’re closer to the level of the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference. This was, indeed, a situation where selling was seen as the correct avenue, cutting ties with an important forward for a healthier future with this year’s prospects of a long playoff run only lingering in the minds of the eternally hopeful. And those folks are dwindling.
“I think everybody’s trying to improve their hockey club and we’ve said that from day one,’’ Sweeney said Sunday night. “Again, it’s never a disparaging comment regarding the players you currently have, it’s just an opportunity to continue to canvass right up until the deadline, to allow you to see if you can improve. And if that means we’re giving up draft picks to do that, then that’s what we’re going to continue to explore to do.’’
Two of them, even, for Stempniak. He could have cost them nothing a few months ago.
But these are the folks making the decisions these days for your Boston Bruins, a team Sweeney called a “very admirable core group.’’ They may be that, what with Tuukka Rask, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and…um, Eriksson. But that talent pool isn’t good enough.
I suppose it’s natural to figure they understand the product they’ve put together and what its limits are.
Right? Because Monday sure as hell didn’t exhibit that sort of acceptance.
Contact Eric Wilbur at: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @GlobeEricWilbur and Facebook www.facebook.com/GlobeEricWilbur
36 images that will remind you how tough the ‘Big Bad Bruins’ were
[bdc-gallery id=”538076″]
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com