The Athletic - Boston Down Goes Brown: What was the single biggest upgrade/downgrade in Bruins history?

[Fenway]

Personally I think spotting a young player at a tournament in Gananoque, ON playing for his hometown of Parry Sound in 1961 changed everything.


Down Goes Brown: What was the single biggest upgrade in...

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[Lobster57]

Raycroft for Rask

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

I'd assume it's finding Orr?

 

[RoccoF14]

Personally I think spotting a young player at a tournament in Gananoque, ON playing for his hometown of Parry Sound in 1961 changed everything.


Down Goes Brown: What was the single biggest upgrade in...
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.....and water is wet.

 

[member 96824]

Eriksson over Seguin

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Chara for Thornton (indirectly)

Talk about an upgrade in player, captain and leadership

 

[Kalus]

Chara for Thornton (indirectly)

Talk about an upgrade in player, captain and leadership

In the past 20 years for sure.

 

[EvilDead]

There is an argument to be made that flipping Glenn Wesley for the picks that became Sergei Samsonov and Kyle McLaren was an upgrade until Samsonov had his career derailed by injuries.

I would also say the Bruins getting Mike Knuble for Rob DiMaio was a steal and flipping three pick in 2004 for the second round selection that we used to take David Krejci.

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

Orr for sure is #1 I'd say signing timmy is #2 and drafting Bergy is #3 for me

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

If they win another Cup with Pasta I'd say #4 for him but idk much before say 1995 so yeah...I guess that's my vote in my lifetime. March gets an honorable mention

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Anson Carter for Dollar Bill Geurin.

 

[Olden McGroin]

Cam Neely and a 1st round pick for Barry Pederson

 

[RoccoF14]

Chara for Thornton (indirectly)

Talk about an upgrade in player, captain and leadership

Nonsense. If you think that the Thornton trade was part of some elaborate scheme to eventually land Zadeno Chara, you are giving Mike O’ Connell and Harry Sinden waaaaay too much credit.

a broken clock is right twice a day.......

 

[RoccoF14]

Cam Neely and a 1st round pick for Barry Pederson

In hindsight, an all time great deal for Boston. But I can distinctly remember being seriously pissed off when that deal was made.....

”We traded Barry Pederson for who????”

 

[KnightofBoston]

Orr is definitely the best because it turned the franchise around and gave us 1b of the best player in history and the best defensemen or all time

Ray slipping to 8 was pretty good

Getting Neely


In the last twenty years I’m going to throw Horton into the ring.

The trade was an absolute win in Boston’s perspective because the assets they lost weren’t working out here and Horton went on to scoring multiple huge goals that same season propelling us to the cup. Remember, Thomas himself said in game 7 against the Bolts that he was more concerned we wouldn’t score on them rather than him letting up a goal.

 

[finchster]

I can't say Pederson for Neely was an upgrade, but a trade a the right time. I think many forget how good Pederson was and if it wasn't for his shoulder surgery, he would've been among the greats of the 80's.

In his first three seasons
He had two forty goal seasons
Two 100+ point seasons

Lead the Bruins in playoff scoring twice with 18 points in 11 games and 32 points in 17 games.

Pederson for Neely was the right trade at the right time, but if you had Neely and Pederson at their best, I think Pederson is better.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

In hindsight, an all time great deal for Boston. But I can distinctly remember being seriously pissed off when that deal was made.....

”We traded Barry Pederson for who????”

No shit, but they are 100% connected.

The team made the decision that building around Thornton was not the path they wanted to take. And the upcoming free agents were well known when the trade was made.

No they may not have had Chara in mind but they knew they were freeing up cap to rebuild.

Move A directly led to move B since it freed up the space needed and opened up the 'C' and team leadership spot.

 

[DaStinger]

Mark Recchi

 

[AngryMilkcrates]

View attachment 345809

How to troll a fanbase 101.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

I can't say Pederson for Neely was an upgrade, but a trade a the right time. I think many forget how good Pederson was and if it wasn't for his shoulder surgery, he would've been among the greats of the 80's.

In his first three seasons
He had two forty goal seasons
Two 100+ point seasons

Lead the Bruins in playoff scoring twice with 18 points in 11 games and 32 points in 17 games.

Pederson for Neely was the right trade at the right time, but if you had Neely and Pederson at their best, I think Pederson is better.

But Pederson wasn't that player anymore when he was traded.

Bruins don't go to the finals 2 of the next 4 seasons if Pederson is still there instead of Neely and Wesley.

 

[RoccoF14]

I can't say Pederson for Neely was an upgrade, but a trade a the right time. I think many forget how good Pederson was and if it wasn't for his shoulder surgery, he would've been among the greats of the 80's.

In his first three seasons
He had two forty goal seasons
Two 100+ point seasons

Lead the Bruins in playoff scoring twice with 18 points in 11 games and 32 points in 17 games.

Pederson for Neely was the right trade at the right time, but if you had Neely and Pederson at their best, I think Pederson is better.

I agree with everything you said, right up until that last sentence.

Barry Pederson was an absolute STUD for us until he had his shoulder problems. But he never scored 50 in a season, and wasn't the physical presence that #8 was.

 

[Number8]

Personally I think spotting a young player at a tournament in Gananoque, ON playing for his hometown of Parry Sound in 1961 changed everything.


Down Goes Brown: What was the single biggest upgrade in...
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I'm not a big fan of this Down Goes Brown guy's writing, so I'm biased. However, by ANY measure, the biggest and most impactful moment in Bruins history was not Harry Sinden becoming GM. It was, IMO without any doubt, what you spelled out. Young Robert Gordon was going to change forever the way the game was to be played. Thank God he did it in Boston.

 

[Greek_physique]

The Wesley trade...that just keeps on giving

 

[UncleRico]

Rask for raycroft has to be top 10.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Nonsense. If you think that the Thornton trade was part of some elaborate scheme to eventually land Zadeno Chara, you are giving Mike O’ Connell and Harry Sinden waaaaay too much credit.

a broken clock is right twice a day.......

Yup. Remember we stunk horrifically the first year of Savard and Chara.

But I’m not sure anyone has added 2 players that good in their primes via free agency. The botched lockout and no rollback on Joe was best followed by the bottoming out.