It's not every day that the Boston Bruins actually make a notable trade so even though it happened on Friday (when I was headed out of town), I have to give a short shout-out to GM Peter Chiarelli.
On Friday, the Bruins made two trades that shook up their roster. The big deal was Maple Leafs defenseman Tomas Kaberle finally coming over for Boston's 2011 first round pick, Providence Bruin Joe Colborne and a conditional second round pick in 2012 (wiped out if Kaberle resigns or the Bruins get to the Stanley Cup Finals).
It's a beautiful thing to see Boston be aggressive for once and not just settle for assorted junk and rentals that won't have much impact. Kaberle is a three-time All-Star and he will help immensely on the power play (one of the Bruins' biggest weaknesses). He's not known for his defensive prowess but that's ok since we needed a defenseman with more offensive creativity.
Losing the first round pick isn't a big deal since we still have Toronto's this summer (which will be much higher) and Colborne was a first round pick last summer but he's clearly stuck behind many centers in the organization so a fresh start is probably in his best interest.
In addition, Boston got rid of some spare parts by dealing Blake Wheeler and Mark Stuart to the Atlanta Thrashers on Friday for forward Rich Peverley and minor league defenseman Boris Valabik (who's a 6-foot-7 project).
Everybody in New England was tired of Wheeler's inconsistency and Stuart was solid but Adam McQuaid's production had basically phased him out of the franchise. Peverley sounds like another Chris Kelly, that is a third or fourth line forward that has the two-way game that the Bruins' brass and coaches covet.
Kelly and Kaberle played their first games in Black and Yellow (sorry Wiz Khalifa) on Friday as the Bruins won 4-2 in Ottawa.
Their third game of the road trip is tonight as the Bs visit the red-hot (what a terrible pun) Calgary Flames. It'll be interesting to see all three of the new Bruins in uniform. Watching the replay late Friday night, I honestly didn't notice much from Kaberle or Kelly but I was very tired after a long week.
No comments:
Post a Comment