By Joe Todd | Follow me on Twitter @heyjoetodd
The Trade Deadline is now behind us, and with the Boston Bruins in action against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night, they will have to wait for their shiny new toys to make their debut. Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney and company did the majority of their work on March 19th when they acquired left defenseman Hampus Lindholm from the Anaheim Ducks.
On Trade Deadline Day, Sweeney would acquire right defenseman Josh Brown from the Ottawa Senators and re-sign versatile forward Jake DeBrusk to a two-year contract extension. Now that the dust is settled and the team is set to compete for the playoffs, here are some thoughts on Sweeney’s moves.
Hampus Lindholm Trade
The Bruins acquired Hampus Lindholm (50% retained) and minor league defenseman Kodie Curran in exchange for defensemen Urho Vaakanainen and John Moore, along with a 2022 first-round pick, a 2023 second-round pick, and a 2024 second-round pick. Hampus Lindholm would then agree to an eight-year contract extension with an average salary of $6.5 million per season.
With this trade, the Bruins arguably acquired the best left-handed defenseman available at the deadline and locked up the 28-year-old to a contract extension. While the term is long, the contract value is reasonable for a top-four left defenseman, especially if you’re hopeful that the salary cap increases during those years. I have no problems with the trade, the player, or the contract. But I was left scratching my head for two reasons.
Did the left side of the defense NEED to be improved?
I have already written about how I was weary about the Bruins interest in Jakob Chychrun. Many of my points in this article can still be applied to the acquisition of Lindholm but can be summarized best by analyst JFresh on Twitter below.
The Bruins gave up a lot of draft capital to strengthen a position that was already very deep. Behind Matt Grzelyck, Derek Forbort, and Mike Reilly (the latter two just signed three-year contracts this summer), are prospects Jakub Zboril, Jack Ahcan, Mason Lohrei, and the newly-departed Urho Vaakanainen, all of which are a minimum of three years younger than Lindholm.
While Lindholm’s age does fit within the Bruins competitive window, and while he certainly strengthens the already dominant Bruins defense overall, I can’t help but feel that Sweeney overpaid and that those picks would have best been used elsewhere. The overpayment is my other headscratcher.
Why bother retaining salary if you will NOT spend it?
When the trade was made, the 50% salary retention told everyone that the Bruins were not done making moves. That was not the case. The Bruins seemingly spent an additional second-round pick for Anaheim to retain approximately $5.4 million between Lindholm and John Moore. While the Bruins get out of $2.75 million of Moore’s contract next year, they left almost $6 million of unspent salary cap on the table this year, in a world where Tampa Bay won a Cup, being $18 million OVER.
While the overpayment is slight, the Bruins defense does improve overall and is insured in case of inevitable injury. However, Cassidy will be left with some tough lineup questions: Does Reilly (unreasonably) come out? Does Reilly shift to the right side next to Forbort? Does Lindholm replace Forbort in the lineup? Hopefully, the Lindholm acquisition does not ruin the chemistry of the already league-best defense in terms of expected goals against.
Jake DeBrusk Contract Extension
The Bruins announced around 10am on Deadline Day that DeBrusk had agreed to a two-year contract extension worth $4 million per year. This led many to believe that a sign and trade was coming. Given the report that DeBrusk’s minimum $4.41 million qualifying offer had some teams worried about trading for him, the contract extension settled those fears. Despite the extension, the trade request remained active.
I firmly believed that Jake DeBrusk needed to be traded by the 3pm deadline. You can read about my reasoning here. He wanted out, and the Bruins needed to improve at first-line right wing. It was reported that the Bruins made an aggressive offer for Flyers captain Claude Giroux but was nixed because Giroux wanted to play for Florida. That fell through.
The Bruins were rumored to be involved in trade talks for both Rickard Rakell and Conor Garland. Those fell through as well. During Sweeney’s press conference, he stated: “Obviously, we would have liked to probably add a little more depth [at forward].” Instead, Sweeney is relying on DeBrusk to be “an important part of our hockey club” and to “play to his capabilities.”
I agree with the sentiment that DeBrusk is better, or comparable to, the Bruins’ players could have traded for (Max Domi, Andrew Copp, Rickard Rakell, etc.). I also agree that this Trade Deadline was relatively weak in terms of players available while also being quite expensive. However, Sweeney’s job is to get creative and go beyond the rumored players to improve this roster.
Remember the Jakub Vrana and Anthony Mantha trade last year? Where’s that creativity? Could the package that enticed the Flyers for Claude Giroux not have been used elsewhere, perhaps for a player not advertised? If Sweeney truly believes in going “all in” for Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, I do not believe he did enough to improve this roster upfront. I can’t imagine Jake DeBrusk being traded for anything more later than he could have been traded for previously.
Josh Brown Trade
Before the Trade Deadline, I believed that the Bruins needed to acquire a top-four right-handed defenseman, given that the Bruins sixth defenseman is Connor Clifton. While the Bruins instead acquired a top-four left defenseman, they did make a depth move by acquiring Josh Brown and a conditional seventh-round pick from Ottawa for Zach Senyshyn and a fifth-round pick.
Josh Brown provides the Bruins with some injury protection, physicality, and competition for Clifton. I love this trade. Not only do we acquire depth in a position of need for cheap, but Sweeney also sends Senyshyn, who requested a trade earlier this year, home to Ottawa, where he will get his chance to play consistently in the NHL. It is hard to complain about a reasonable depth move.
Overall, the Bruins did not do enough to give themselves a chance to compete against the likes of the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, or Carolina Hurricanes. The “all-in” messaging of Don Sweeney rings hollow when he fails to address the critical needs of a second-line center, first-line right-wing, or a top-four right defenseman.
Instead, he enhanced a position of strength in left defense at the cost of a young, cost-controlled prospect with potential in Vaakanainen, along with significant draft capital. Don Sweeney’s contract expires at the end of this year. Time will tell if he did enough to keep his job.
Leave a Reply