BruinsFanSince94
The Perfect Fan ™
If you take the offseason roster as a given (including DK retiring), I don’t see how Sweeney can catch much flack for this deal. It’s a short term, middle money contract, for a veteran who hopefully is on the third line but very well may be asked to do second line center duty if no one else can take the spot. I’m sure most of us wanted DK back with a newly signed Hall, but if he truly did want to leave purely for family reasons, what better options (considering both player and term/money commitment) did Sweeney have?
And the Backes comparisons are ridiculous. As has already been pointed out, Backes was getting leaned on as a key piece to the team going forward from the moment he signed that contract. Does a 2 year 3.8 AAV deal really set up in an at all comparable way? What are the chances this deal hurts us three or four years down the road? Answer is none.
Extremely well said. You also nailed the “what better options” when you hit term/money commitment because I was expecting to see a lot of “Phillip Danault was available” responses to this point.
This is the type of contract you sign guys like Foligno/Backes to. Short term deals to help the now. It’s hard to always get them to agree to it but when they do, its a minimal risk move. Literally next season, if shit goes to hell, you have a player you’re looking to get something for which will help down the road.