Jerome Miron – USA TODAY Sports
On the Fourth of July, the Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars decided to make some fireworks of their own by completing a huge seven-player trade that sends Tyler Seguin, Rich Peverley and Ryan Button down to the Southwest in exchange for Loui Eriksson, Matt Fraser, Reilly Smith and Joe Morrow. Yes, the Bruins received one more player than they gave.
This trade initially comes off as shocking considering the centerpiece of it–Seguin, who wasn’t dealt off at the draft as was rumored, but who was called out by general manager Peter Chiarelli that night for his lack of commitment to his work. For his part, Chiarelli said today that Seguin is a good young player and played well (the numbers from his sophomore season, especially, do support this claim), but that this is a business decision at the core.
That hasn’t stopped legions of Bruins fans from going into a state of mourning or denouncing this trade as the worst in the team’s nearly 90 years, which is rather hard to claim considering that not a single game with the newcomers has been played yet. Nor has that stopped others from turning on Seguin and now denouncing him as basically the worst player in the team’s history, which is untrue. When he was good, he was good, but when he wasn’t good, it was noticeable. There’s also the small matter of his off-ice conduct, the full extent of which we may never know but something that could have been a factor too.
As for Peverley, he had to have the tough talk with Chiarelli on break-up day about the possibility that he might be traded. Much like Seguin, he too was good at times but then cooled off drastically this year. He does have a lot of experience playing in hotter climes, including Nashville and Atlanta, so who knows, he might do really well in Texas.
Button is a young defensive prospect who will find a place in the Dallas system–much like how Morrow will do the same for Boston now.
Chiarelli described this trade in simple terms: getting a natural winger, picking up some prospects, lifting some serious weight off the team’s cap situation (Seguin’s contract carries a $5.75 million cap hit while Peverley’s has a $3.25 million hit) and gearing up for tomorrow’s opening of free agency.
I’ll take a closer look at the newest Bruins later, but as a little preview, the acquisition of Eriksson is the most promising part of this big trade–if you ignore this shortened season just gone, he’s racked up three consecutive seasons of more than 70 points.
