It was a busy Monday for the Boston Bruins.
It began with the trade of Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno’s negotiating rights to the Chicago Blackhawks for restricted free agent defensemen Alec Regula and Ian Mitchell.
The Bruins needed to shed some salary cap space, and while the expectation is they’ll circle back on trying to sign Tyler Bertuzzi, there’s still a lot of work to be done with 9 empty roster spots and $11M in available space.
Boston was also well represented at the NHL awards, with Patrice Bergeron, Linus Ullmark, and Jim Montgomery taking home major hardware.
Ian McLaren breaks it all down and tries to put 2022-23 in perspective on today’s episode of Locked on Bruins.
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8 Comments
If they don't sign Burt we're screwed
Ian, there isn't enough good/great players left to be a great team or a Championship team. There has to be a slight rebuild/reboot.
Nothing in the system.
heres what i hope to see
sign bertuzzi if he will- 5-6 million so not really gaining from trading hall, but you brought in a younger better player at the moment
fobort/grizzy/ullmark gotta trade for some draft picks even 2nd round at this point and also bringing back cap space- not saying all 3 just one of these guys
sign Swayman 4- 4.5 mill
i liked hall- but him and #74 are kind of the same player.. all speed can be your best player for 5 games then not notice them the next 5
JD value would be higher but right now he is on a friendly contract this season
biggest factor is if bergeron or krejci comeback, not only will it be a hometown discount you bring back a 1st or 2nd line player, no one on the market who is a top 6 forward is taking under 3 million like they both did, just won't happen
They won awards…. Big flipping deal! Who cares
What happened to GM of the year? Don't they announce that during the NHL awards
Everyone wants to throw Don Sweeney a parade for trading Taylor Hall and freeing up Cap Space so that he can sign Tyler Bertuzzi
I guess we're forgetting that due to Don Sweeney's terrible drafting and developing these past eight years they don't and haven't had enough cheap, young talent to augment their roster
So year after year it's led to over paying John Moore, Mike Reilly, Derek Forbort, David Backes, Matt Beleseky Nick Foligno…..
Do Bruins fans realize that in just a couple of seasons that Don Sweeney gave a total of $23M to these three stiffs: Derek Forbort, John Moore and Mike Reilly.
If some of that money that was just flushed down the toilet was still around, assets like Taylor Hall wouldn't have to be given away for next to nothing
$23 F.N Million….. of Reilly, Forbort and Moore, ugh…
Moore: Over paid, stunk, gave them nothing, forced Sweeney to piss away a 2nd round pick to get Anaheim to take him
Reilly: Over paid, stunk, gave them next to nothing, rots away in the AHL because no other team wants him. Could only be traded if the Bruins eat salary or add a pick or prospect which they won't do. Will have to be bought out
Forbort: Overpaid, limited, allergic to the puck, PK, shot blocker only that isn't very good defensively and lousy at transition. No other NHL team is trading anything for Forbort at $3M. The only way to trade him would be to add a pick or prospect to the deal which they won't do. The only other option would be to buy Forbort out
So when you waste $23M in Cap Space on three players that give you nothing, you wind up having to trade a good player like Taylor Hall for pennies on the dollar and lousy return of nothing but Cap Space
And again, people want to credit Don Sweeney for this move. Are you F.N. kidding me? Giving Sweeney credit for having to throw away another asset for nothing so he could fix more of the salary cap problems he caused in the first place
So this Hall trade is just like the David Backes trade in a way.
Backes wasn't traded to "win". Backes was traded along with the Bruins highest draft pick from 2018, 2nd round draft pick Axl Ancersson, for one thing and one thing only, Cap Space
Because Sweeney signed Backes to such a crap contract it was strangling the franchise to the degree where they just had to piss away a 1st and their highest drafted player from a draft, just to rid themselves of Backes' money
The Bruins didn't wind up with the NHL's worst salary cap situation, worst draft capital situation and having one of the NHL's worst Farm Systems because Sweeney traded more draft picks at this year's deadline
They are here in this rotten state because of eight years of terrible asset management and putrid drafting & developing, not because Orlov, Hathaway and Bertuzzi were traded for at this year's deadline
And was all if this worth it? Um, nope
7 of the last 8 years Don Sweeney's Bruins have failed to win more than one playoff round (87% of the time)
4 of the last 8 years Don Sweeney's Bruins have either posted a playoff DNQ (2017) or a 1st round loss (2016, 2022, 2023) – 50% of the time
So…..
NHL's worst salary cap situation
NHL's worst draft capital situation
One of the NHL's worst farm systems
Nothing but playoff fails and chokes to show for it
But sure give Don Sweeney another GM of the Year award because he had to just give away another asset for nothing in return, just so that he can fix more of the cap management problems he created in the first place
Mitchell may become some bottom pair guy with some offense, Regula too but that's those two players' ceilings and based on how things have played out in Chicago so far for each, there is no guaranty either reaches that low bar
Reilly Walsh is nothing but AHL fodder. Too small. Not phsycal. Not very good defensively. Reilly is nothing more than.a Jack Achan replacement in Providence.
So say what you want about Hall, he had a fair amount of talent
The roster just got less talented and the purpose of the Hall trade, where an asset (Hall) had to be given away for next to nothing ,was simply executed to fix Cap Issues Sweeney caused and has continued to cause with too many bad UFA contracts and his absolutely abysmal drafting, developing & asset management
For a Bruins podcast I don't see any pictures collectables jerseys anywhere