News Article: Elliotte Friedman tidbits on Bruins weekend

[Latrappe]

without looking at cap space (yes I realize this is important), I think there are several teams who would gladly take Chara off our hands because they'd see him as a guy who can help them take the next step. Colorado, Washington, Anaheim, and probably others could use a guy like him where he wouldn't have to be "the guy" but would be a good complement to what they've already built and help them make a push to win their conference.

If you exclude the cap constraint, they would have been, at least, 5 teams who would have inquired. That's for sure. If we find a way to reduce Chara's workload, he's gonna be very good for us. Sweeney has to get a top 4 D-man before the season open. It's way too dangerous to rely and count on Morrow and co to fill the gap. That strategy already failed with Rask and Svedberg. I don't think anyone in here think that overworking Chara is a viable option.

 

[InterimGM]

Or how about maybe, hypothetically they had a deal worked out for Dougie for#3, and told Dougie this, then they had Zona pull out so they went with door #2?

If that's the case, they again, should have signed or matched his offersheet. You either trade Dougie Hamilton for something really good, something that doesn't get you called a laughingstock around the league, or you hang onto him, bite the bullet on his salary for a year, and deal him later when the circumstances are more favorable.

The excusing of their blue print here sounds pretty familiar. Oh well, trades are hard to make, it takes two teams, the player didn't want to be here.

We didn't like it when the last regime made excuses. We don't like it when the coach and players make excuses.

Why is everyone seemingly so quick to excuse a 1st time general manager that quite clearly did a piss poor job on his first test as a GM.

Maybe Malcolm Subban will be an all-star goalie someday, but no one's doing to look back and say his 1st start was a success. The Hamilton situation was a botch. Clear as day.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Are you trying to be funny?

Nope.

I see the examples are pouring in.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

As far as Harry is concerned.

Nobody is suggesting he has power again but it seems obvious he is again being asked his opinion which wasn't the case when Chia was in power.

What none of us knows is how involved Papa Jacobs is in this as he is still the owner.

If 82 year-old Harry is sitting in the backroom hammered on his 5th scotch and Sweeney & Neely are going to him for advice, that's pretty bad for the B's. If they are actually taking his advice? Who's the fool in this scenario?

 

[Banded Peak]

the bolded is kind of a slippery slope. from there you can come up with any sort of hypothetical to justify this trade.

So far most reliable reporters (corroborated by Sweeney's own words) have the Bruins making him one offer, Dougie's camp made one counter-offer, and the Bruins moved on after that.

No attempt to negotiate, no counter-offer, nothing. And Sweeney was specifically asked if Dougie asked out and emphatically said "no".

So honestly I wonder if the Bruins even knew if Dougie wanted to stay long-term. Seems to me they saw his demands and assumed that he didn't want to be there long-term, but there is no indication that he really felt that way or said told them that was the case.

This is the running theme so far.

They didn't negotiate at all with Hamilton or Lucic. Money for Dougie and term for Looch too high at first ask? See ya. No meet me half way just a knee jerk trade instead. Sweeney didn't even ask Lucic about money to see if he'd take a front loaded deal to bring down the cap hit and the return while technically decent was still complete ****.

Obviously there's no haggling over Rinaldo. It's like Hextall said third round pick and Sweeney just said okay.

That's bad. Very bad going forward. A gm who can't negotiate. Heaven help us.

 

[captain stone]

Surely I can be. Mark it, revisit it, and we'll see if I'm right. Lucic was consistently one of Boston's most productive players on the ice and constantly Boston's most physical. The last time Boston had a roster this soft was coincidentally immediately before Lucic's addition to the roster when Dave Lewis was running the show. When guys like Stan Chistov and Brad Boyes were forced to do the heavy lifting for the team (not a joke).

Boston now has what has to be one of the weakest winger pools in the NHL. Eriksson and Marchand are easily the Bruins best and they're best suited for second line roles on good days. Behind them are a slew of unproven at best hopefuls. Pastrnak, Connoly, Griffith, Ferlin, Florek. It's hard to see any of them stepping into a top line role anytime soon if ever, or even into a consistent top 6 role, and asking them to do so is setting everyone up for disappointment.

That's not even touching on the defensive issues now facing this team. An aging Chara, a Seidenberg who hasn't been in top form since 2011, an overpaid bottom pairing Dman in McQuaid, an unproven commodity in Joe Morrow, and Torey Krug.

Where is Boston strong? Up the middle and goalie. Other then testing the theory that center and tender are the most important positions what do people honestly see this roster accomplishing? Even our organizational strength is highly dependent on others. Krejci is a setup man, who's he going to set up this year? In my opinion this is year people start to realize he is more dependent on his wingers then vice versa. Bergeron will no doubt bring his Selke level defensive game once again but will also bring the consistent offensive production with it. Spooner slots in at 3rd line C, but barring injury isn't pushing one of the other two out and as such, will have fairly limited impact. I don't even know where Kelly slots in any more, most likely on Spooner's wing knowing Julien.

There'll be no "big or bad" this season, and that's the only identity the Bruins have ever been able to succeed with. They've lost by far (I can't stress that enough) their most physical player. Every other time they've ventured off of that beaten apth it has failed horribly.

It will be a long year for Rask because there will be little to no offense. Without more major changes I can easily see this team finishing well into the bottom half of the league for offensive production. It will be Thomas in 2006/2007 all over again. No matter how many times he stands on his head, the team in front of him will allow more quality opportunities. He'll be an easy whipping boy.

I'm painting an incredibly bleak picture I know and it's all just opinion (I don't claim to be psychic) , but to be fair this isn't our first go around. People here didn't believe trading Kessel would kill this team offensively, but it did and they didn't get it back until they went out an acquired Horton. This Lucic deal will be much the same. For some reason some Boston fans too readily dismiss the value of wingers and we really shouldn't. They were already down a top winger, now they're down two.

And you did ask.

Oh, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see LA win the cup. That's my bet anyway.

I don't really disagree with anything here, and I do agree that we are weaker today than we were one week ago, but paying Lucic for 8(!) years at an AAV of $7M is simply bad cap management. I would be absolutely shocked if he's performing up to that salary during years 5-8, if not 3-8.
The bleak situation at Forward is the direct result of the ChiaPet & Friends putrid drafting that should've had, among others, Brandon Saad waiting to assume the #1 LW role at a much lower cost for the time being.

The Hamilton trade is, of course, inexcusable and again the situation on Defense is the direct result of such blunders as drafting Jared Knight instead of Justin Faulk and throwing away a 2nd-rounder which could've been used on promising LD Brayden McNabb but was instead used to acquire the uselessness of Nokelainen.

You know the more I think about it, the more it does indeed look like Rask is in for a long, long year.