Speculation: Has the Boychuk deal destroyed Bruins and Chiarelli?

[Fenway]

The author watches many games on Level 9 at TD with credentials from the team. He is not a random blogger.

He doesn't mince words.

Imagine, if you will, that you were a general manager of a National Hockey League team and you had an impact defenseman, capable of playing in almost any team in the league’s top pair as a trade chip, headed towards Monday’s trading deadline. In an atmosphere that saw a 43 year old Jaromir Jagr fetch a second and a third round pick from the outside looking in Florida Panthers, I bet the return you would get would be something that could help you rebuild on the fly as you sit stuck in the mud due to your struggles with the salary cap.

That is exactly what Peter Chiarelli had on October 3rd of this year in Johnny Boychuk, until he felt compelled to deal what would have been his ace in the hole the following day, for what looks to be a pittance in a pair of late in the round second round picks in return.

That, in a nutshell, is why Don Sweeney will be the general manager of the Boston Bruins by the 4th of July this year.

http://www.bostonsportsdesk.com/has-the-boychuk-deal-buried-bruins-chiarelli/

Click to read more...

 

[LSCII]

Yes.

 

[ranold26]

add in about 10 other things too.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

No. The lack of moves after the 2013 finals did.

 

[TheReal13Linseman]

The author watches many games on Level 9 at TD with credentials from the team. He is not a random blogger.

He doesn't mince words.



http://www.bostonsportsdesk.com/has-the-boychuk-deal-buried-bruins-chiarelli/

difficult to argue. Seguin was really bad; Boychuk looks even worse at moment. Just hope he doesn't make an even worse move.

 

[LSCII]

add in about 10 other things too.

Cap mismanagement
horrendous trades
piss poor drafting
Coveting grit at the expense of skill
overpaying aging vets
blocking prospects
NTC/NMC for everyone
Devaluing speed
Reactionary instead of proactive
abandoning his plan to get younger and faster before preseason ended
not taking Julien to the woodshed when he needs it
Inability at deadlines to bring in any real help

 

[Scotto74]

can't argue with what he says about the Boycheck deal. When it was step one in a series of moves i was willing to say ok I will wait and see what happens. Well that was a long time ago and nothing has happened.

 

[Over the volcano]

Non one considered him a top pairing impact defenseman this summer, he wouldn't be considered an impact top pairing defenseman right now had he played in Boston all year and no one would be willing to trade him right now if he had stayed in Boston. This kind of article is easy revisionist/hindsight thinking.

I loved boychuck when he was here but his stock has climb significantly since he's flourished on the island.

 

[alg363636]

I don't necessarily think that deal in a vacuum destroyed him, but I think that deal was the tipping point that sank the Titanic.

I can follow the rationale objectively. No NTC clause, Seids was coming back, 2 2nds isn't bad, you get 3+ mil of space. But subjectively? Expecting a 33 year old to come off a major surgery like new is ridiculous. To expect a 37 year old not to age is ridiculous. To expect a 21 year to suddenly be able to anchor a top pairing is ridiculous. And then to assume a guy who couldn't play #4 minutes last season to magically develop that ability is ridiculous.

Out of every defensemen we have, there was one guy you knew was going to stay reliable and play hard minutes. That was Johnny B. Only 30, no injuries, had a great season before.

And we had to make this decision because of cap mismanagement. Not to beat a dead horse but who gives a 30 year old 3rd liner a NTC? Paille + Campbell = over 3 million.

I don't understand how you take a team that loses in the second round of the playoffs, subtract their top goal-scorer and their #2 defenseman and call it a day. Why would that team do better next season? In what universe is that team a contender? If they can't do it with a 30 goal scorer and a rock solid D-man, why on Earth can they do it without?

 

[LSCII]

can't argue with what he says about the Boycheck deal. When it was step one in a series of moves i was willing to say ok I will wait and see what happens. Well that was a long time ago and nothing has happened.

1. Rip out heart of team by dumping Boychuk for no valid reason, while weakening team to boot, say it's step one in series of moves
2. Fail to follow through with second step in series of moves
3. Get fired

Oh, I guess it is a series of moves after all...

 

[Scotto74]

1. Rip out heart of team by dumping Boychuk for no valid reason, while weakening team to boot, say it's step on in series of moves
2. Fail to follow through with second step in series of moves
3. Get fired

Oh, I guess it is a series of moves after all...

still too much time between that series of moves. When I think series of moves I think its all going to happen one right after the other not over the course of a freking year!!

 

[zaYG]

I don't know if it killed the team but it certainly has done a lot more damage than expected. This trade will go down as just as bad than the Seguin trade, if not worse. Maybe it won't look that way in the eyes of outsiders, but to Bruins fans, trading Boychuk was an absolute disaster.

 

[LSCII]

still too much time between that series of moves. When I think series of moves I think its all going to happen one right after the other not over the course of a freking year!!

At this point, I have to think the handwriting is on the wall and he's a lame duck GM. He has to be.

 

[alg363636]

I don't know if it killed the team but it certainly has done a lot more damage than expected. This trade will go down as just as bad than the Seguin trade, if not worse. Maybe it won't look that way in the eyes of outsiders, but to Bruins fans, trading Boychuk was an absolute disaster.

That's a great point.

On the main boards and around the media people point at the Seguin trade as Chiarelli's disaster. And I think most of us agree it was a bad trade and we will hate it for years to come.

But internally I think we can all see that it was really the Boychuk trade that killed this team. Our offense is bad and would be better with Seguin, but I also think all our offensive players are just having a super down season. I would be shocked if at the very least Krejci, Bergeron and Marchand didn't rebound next season.

But the defense? That is just a really awful d-corps. Dougie will get better, but Chara and Seids won't. Everyone else except maybe Morrow had a #5 ceiling.

Our offense could get better with just about any guy with a scoring touch. Our defense (and locker room) needs a player exactly like Johnny B. I think that's something only people who follow the Bruins can really see.

 

[TheReal13Linseman]

At this point, I have to think the handwriting is on the wall and he's a lame duck GM. He has to be.

Big Daddy Jacobs took the keys away.

 

[smithformeragent]

I'm always hesitent to over simplify things.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Big Daddy Jacobs took the keys away.

As much as I hate him, he has nothing to do with the cap jail that Chia has locked himself into to start the season. Nearly 20 M on over the hill guys like Kelly, Seidenberg, Chara, Campbell, Paille, Gagne.

 

[Fenway]

I don't know if it killed the team but it certainly has done a lot more damage than expected. This trade will go down as just as bad than the Seguin trade, if not worse. Maybe it won't look that way in the eyes of outsiders, but to Bruins fans, trading Boychuk was an absolute disaster.

The one thing I noticed first hand when the deal was made that the life was sucked out of the Bruins room.

What hit home for me is how universally panned the deal was.

Now I wonder if Chia is afraid to pull the trigger before the deadline.

 

[CDJ]

Non one considered him a top pairing impact defenseman this summer, he wouldn't be considered an impact top pairing defenseman right now had he played in Boston all year and no one would be willing to trade him right now if he had stayed in Boston. This kind of article is easy revisionist/hindsight thinking.

I loved boychuck when he was here but his stock has climb significantly since he's flourished on the island.

Well put.

 

[LSCII]

Big Daddy Jacobs took the keys away.

I certainly hope so. You'd have to be brain dead to think the guy who ****ed it up this badly is the answer to getting out of this self created hole. I want zero part of a panicked Peter Chiarelli making deadline deals in an effort to save his job.

 

[Arthur*]

If the Bruins go down to Toronto in game 7, and the Penguins get to the finals, months after he got embarrassed by Iginlagate, does Peter even have a job on July 4th to trade Tyler Seguin?

That team's run to the finals, basically on the back of Rask in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, and the fact that they went through the Pens and completely shut out Iggy made fans forget the fact that Shero and Iginla embarrassed the hell out of Chiarelli. And Peter goes right back to Jarome in the offseason, torpedoing his 2014-15 cap by giving a proven loser a bonus-filled contract.

The span of time from Iginla to Seguin in March-July of 2013 should be what destroyed him. Boychuk was just the coup de grace

 

[TheReal13Linseman]

Yup. I don't hate any of the Jacobs' or even your avatar man anymore; 2011 cured that. Chia's the drunk driver who has caused this wreck; I agree. Now they've taken the keys away, but dead bodies still remain astrewn in the road...

 

[CombatOnContact]

Non one considered him a top pairing impact defenseman this summer, he wouldn't be considered an impact top pairing defenseman right now had he played in Boston all year and no one would be willing to trade him right now if he had stayed in Boston. This kind of article is easy revisionist/hindsight thinking.

I loved boychuck when he was here but his stock has climb significantly since he's flourished on the island.

He's been considered an impact top pair defenseman for a while now. 20+ min guy who plays in all situations, that's a top pair no matter how you slice it. The difference between him and a guy like Petry, is that he plays for a team that's supposed to be good, defensively sound. So I'm pretty sure there would be a HUGE market for him right now, even if all things were exactly the same and the only difference was that Boychuk was a Bruin.

Yes it is revisionist/hindsight thinking, but that unfortunately is where we're left. To me, it is the kind of mistake that should cost a GM his job. It was pre-mature and short-sighted.. all of those things.

Not saying that unloading Kelly, Campbell, Paille would have been easy, but he could have found a way considering the Leafs even found a way to rid themselves of Clarkson.

I enjoy revisionist/hindsight thinking. Especially right now because it takes me back to a better place.

October 3rd, 2014... Bruins trade Campbell, Kelly, Paille in separate deals for future considerations/late round picks.

Enter the season with a roster of:

Lucic-Krejci-Eriksson
Marchand-Bergeron-Smith
Spooner-Soderberg-Fraser
Caron-Cunningham-Gagne

Chara-Boychuk
Seidenberg-Hamilton
Krug-McQuaid

Rask

February 27, 2015... Fraser is gone, Gagne is gone, replaced by Ferlin and Pastrnak. Spooner has fallen out of favor, Koko was tried but not ready, and the Bruins sit in 8th with only a 2 point cushion. Boychuk couldn't be re-signed and is expected to leave at season's end.

That's a much better situation to be in right now... Boychuk would net much more than 2 seconds and a conditional 3rd.

 

[qc]

Yes.

What he said.

 

[Trap Jesus]

I see the Iginla deal bonuses being transferred over as the big one, coupled with some of the NTCs on the team (I'm looking at you, Kelly). Paying a player millions of dollars when he isn't on the team when your team is so close to the cap is a recipe for disaster, and Boychuk was traded as an indirect result of that deal. Chia went all-in with that move hoping it would pay off in 2013/14. That was a legitimate calculated risk to take, but it didn't end up paying off.