Bruins Beat: Trade Deadline

Hello everybody, welcome back to another installment of the Bruins Beat where I take a look at the goings on in the NHL, more specifically the Boston Bruins. This past month has been crazy for the Bruins as the word inconsistency continued to be the perfect description of the team wearing black and gold. The Bruins would go from beating one of the best teams in the league 7-3 on the road to losing 6-4 at home to one of the worst and yet somehow the Bruins hold on to a playoff spot with a somewhat comfortable cushion between them and the golf courses in April. In this installment I will be looking less at the teams most recent games and more at the teams most recent trades as the NHL trade deadline has come and gone as of March 1st.
The trade deadline itself was pretty uneventful and quite boring partly due to the asking prices for some of the more quality talents around the league being quite high as well as several key players being traded prior to the actually trade deadline. Overall, the closest the league and its fans got to witnessing a blockbuster this year was when veteran centerman and former Carolina Hurricanes captain Eric Staal was sent to the New York Rangers in exchange for a prospect and two 2nd round picks in the upcoming Entry draft(s). Other than that the deadline saw a total of 19 trades, most of which were for 3rd or 4th line depth players or just straight up AHL roster swaps. the Bruins however did make two trades on deadline day that were a little more than just depth pickups.
The first trade the Bruins made was sending Prospect Anthony Camara and a 3rd and 5th round pick in the draft to the Hurricanes in exchange for lefty defenseman John-Michael Liles. Prior to the deadline Liles had played 64 games on the Hurricanes, primarily on their 2nd pairing, and had 16 points to show for it and a +/- of -3. Although he was a net minus player, that most likely stems from the fact that he was playing on a Carolina team that had basically been written out of contention the day before the season started. His advanced statistics seem to prove this as his cfor and c60 stats both project him to be a top pairing defenseman on a decent team. Seeing as the Bruins had been floundering on defense for a better part of the year, this trade makes a whole lot of sense and I am quite happy with it seeing as we gave up next to nothing of value in the trade other than maybe the 3rd round pick.
The second trade the Bruins made was sending a 2nd and a 4th round draft pick to the Devils in exchange for veteran winger Lee Stempniak. Stempniak had played 63 games with the Devils this year and had notched an impressive 41 points with a +/- of +3. Stempniak was the one piece that I had completely overlooked when comparing past successful Bruins teams to the team that was hitting the ice for a majority of this season. Every season since the Bruins had won the cup and including that season as well the Bruins had always paired an aging, salty veteran with a scoring touch on a line with Bergeron and Marchand, the two most potent offensive players on the team. This year that position had been filled with Brett Connolly who, although he looks to be well into his 30's, is actually only 23 years old and has shown quite a few signs of inexperience in his play this season. Now however the Bruins can fill that position that has been missing and at the same time bring some veteran presence to a surprisingly young roster the Bruins have iced this year.
In all, I quite liked the deals the Bruins made at the deadline and I really do think they improve the chances the Bruins have at being a threat in the playoffs, especially since the Eastern Conference seems to be wide open this year minus the Washington Capitals. I am glad Sweeney decided not to sell the farm in order to bring talent to an uncertain team and I really don't see any of the pieces the Bruins lost in the trades as valuable. Time will tell if this team can push ahead through their most difficult scheduling stretch of the year and still maintain a playoff spot, but seeing the moves that were made to improve the team, I am slightly more optimistic than I was the Sunday before the deadline.