( Photo Credit: Nick Wass, The Associated Press )

By: Zach Beauchaine | Follow me on Twitter @OtisTheMango

The Boston Bruins announced today, February 23rd, that the NHL organization made a trade with the Metropolitan Division Washington Capitals. The madness of the trade deadline season has officially taken off for Boston. The Bruins play against the Seattle Kraken tonight, but for some fans, that game may be temporarily on the back burner.

Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has traded for Capitals forward Garnet Hathaway and defenseman Dmitry Orlov. The Bruins will be sending veteran forward Craig Smith and three draft picks back to Washington.

The Bruins three draft picks heading to Washington will be a 2023 first-round pick, a 2024 third-round pick, and a 2025 second-round pick. 

The Capitals will retain 50% of Dmitry Orlov’s annual salary. The Minnesota Wild are also involved in this trade. Minnesota will take the 2023 fifth-round pick in exchange for another 25% of Orlov’s salary. 

With the NHL trade deadline only eight days away, Don Sweeney has made his splash into the pool of trades that have happened in recent weeks. The Bruins were able to get themselves a depth forward and a depth defenseman without paying the hefty price of obtaining Columbus defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov.

Both Hathaway and Orlov were healthy scratched from their game tonight against the Anaheim Ducks. As previously mentioned, the two new Bruins will be joining Boston on their west coast road trip that starts tonight against Seattle. It will be interesting to see where the two new additions fit into the Boston line-up, and we could see them play as early as Saturday night against the Vancouver Canucks. Bravo, Don Sweeney.