After having a very successful season, but ending up without the main goal - the Cup, Bruins management sat down to try and give the team a chance to make another run for the Cup. The goal was simple, but the way to reaching that goal is difficult. Should we sacrifice well-liked players and big names in order to have a better chance to win? The answer - yes.
The main concern heading into this season was the point production of guys like David Backes and Patrick Sharp who just wouldn't be contributing with what was needed to win (goal wise). Looking over the rosters, there was one team that stood out that had pretty much all the pieces we would need to accept trading guys we liked so much. That team was the New York Rangers.
With a new GM in place, the Rangers were quick to point out that any deal had to include David Backes. When talks started to heat up, another name popped up - Rick Nash. Being one of the poster boys of the franchise for many years, it was clear that moving him would take a lot. But given his recent health issues, management felt it could be time for a change.
Given it was such a big deal, negotiations went smooth because both GM's got a return they were looking for. Some of the aspects to the deal that we liked were 1) that we upgraded our point production and goal-scoring ability, 2) we added a scoring winger in Andrew Ladd to give us two strong lines, 3) we got some good checking line forwards to help at both ends, 4) we feel we upgraded at D with two solid guys and 5) that we got a bit younger at pretty much every position, which should not be underestimated. We didn't trade any old veterans per say, but we aquired several players who haven't even hit their prime yet. We feel there is some potential in a few of them to grow into real good players for us.
There will always be doubts when you trade away key players who you also happen to like a lot. But given the fact we had a very good core group of players, we felt we wanted to add to that instead of just sitting on our hands doing nothing. Since we also get players we like in return, it makes it a bit easier. We might have traded some bigger names, but hopefully our new guys will prove to get the job done as well, and in some cases even better.
Even though the trade was partly made looking at this season, we also like the fact we're getting a bit younger. Had it been the other way around, the deal wouldn't have been as appealing to us. So after given some reasons for making this blockbuster trade that involved a whopping 14 players, here's a breakdown of how the deal looks.
To NYR:
David Backes (USA, age 29)
Rick Nash (Canada, age 29)
Patrick Sharp (Canada, age 31, almost 32)
Cal Clutterbuck (Canada, age 25, almost 26)
Tanner Glass (Canada, age 29, almost 30)
Michael Del Zotto (Canada, age 23)
Bryan Allen (Canada, age 33)
To BOS:
Andrew Ladd (Canada, age 27, almost 28)
Jeff Carter (Canada, age 28)
Martin Hanzal (Czech Republic, age 26)
Steve Ott (Canada, age 31
Steve Bernier (Canada, age 28)
Nick Leddy (USA, age 22)
Trevor Daley (Canada, age 30)
