Oral History of the Ray Bourque Trade to Colorado

Ziggy Stardust

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Interesting read. Wonder what could have been had Bourque been dealt to the Flyers, and who the Flyers would have sent that would be the equivalent of Brian Rolston, Sami Pahlsson, Martin Grenier, and a 1st round draft selection.

BSN Exclusive: An oral history of the trade that sent Ray Bourque to Colorado – BSN Denver
Bourque, at first, actually requested one team, in particular, to be traded: the Philadelphia Flyers, who would go on to win the Atlantic Division, a team loaded with offensive talent but missing a guy from the blueline like Bourque who might make a championship difference.

Bourque: We were building a big house on a golf course at the time, and I thought Philly at that time was probably the best team in the East. We were looking at them as a team that had a really good shot to get somewhere, and so Harry said, 'Yeah, I'll try to accommodate you.' And I knew what was going on, on the other side, because (former Bruins teammate) Reggie Lemelin was (the Flyers') goalie coach and I was hearing everything that was going on with the Philly side, and I thought it was a done deal.

The Bruins played the Flyers on March 4, a 3-0 Philly win in Boston. Bourque legitimately thought he'd be leaving with the Flyers on their flight out as the team's newest member.

Bourque: It was a Saturday afternoon I remember. After the game, Reggie said, 'It's done.' But then nothing happened. I went looking for Harry and asked him what was going on. This had been dragging on for about 10 days now and I was like, 'come on, let's get something done.' But then he says, 'well, there's more teams involved.'
 

JackSlater

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Nice read. Seeing as in 2000 Philadelphia blew a 3-1 series lead to New Jersey and lost game 7 by one goal, it's very interesting to think about that team with Bourque. Looking at what Philadelphia had and what Boston ended up receiving, I'm guessing that Boston wanted something built around Langkow. Langkow, Philadelphia's first and two or three prospects matches Colorado's offer. That trade really hurts Philadelphia's centre depth but its defence is vastly improved with Bourque. Another what if in this scenario, I suppose, is Lindros. Lindros' second (and more serious) concussion during the regular season happened after Bourque was traded. Maybe Lindros is healthier going into the playoffs if Bourque is there and the games play out differently. Even the famous Stevens concussion in the playoffs may not have happened. Of course it was Lindros, and his initial concussion happened in Bourque's last Boston game, so concussions may have been inevitable.
 

tony d

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Bourque on that Flyers team with Lindros and Leclair would have been nice to see. ? is do the Avs still win the Cup sans Bourque in 2001?
 

Johnny Engine

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Anyone have any insight on what the Bruins ended up doing with Sami Pahlsson? The article mentions that Sinden was eager to get him as a prospect, and later admits the Bruins didn't benefit much from the trade. Pahlsson played for the team for about a month, before new GM Mike O'Connell sent him to Anaheim for Andrei Nazarov and Patrick Traverse, who were both 26 with not much upside. Sinden was still the team president at this point.
What were the still-rebuilding Bruins trying to achieve here? Could this move have been Keenan-influenced?
 

quoipourquoi

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Anyone have any insight on what the Bruins ended up doing with Sami Pahlsson? The article mentions that Sinden was eager to get him as a prospect, and later admits the Bruins didn't benefit much from the trade. Pahlsson played for the team for about a month, before new GM Mike O'Connell sent him to Anaheim for Andrei Nazarov and Patrick Traverse, who were both 26 with not much upside. Sinden was still the team president at this point.
What were the still-rebuilding Bruins trying to achieve here? Could this move have been Keenan-influenced?

At the time, it sounded like they were going for size on the blueline, but it might have just been O’Connell changing things around to make it feel like his own.
 

Ziggy Stardust

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Bourque on that Flyers team with Lindros and Leclair would have been nice to see. ? is do the Avs still win the Cup sans Bourque in 2001?

Pierre Lacroix himself said that there is no way they win the Cup without Ray Bourque.

What's remarkable about Bourque in his final season was that at the age of 40, he finished 2nd place in Norris Trophy votes behind Nick Lidstrom. He still averaged 26+ mins during the regular season and saw his ice time increase to 28+ mins during the playoffs.

And he was among the top 3 highest scoring dmen in the league in 2001 with 59 points, and added 10 more points during the Cup run.

I'm going to have to agree with Pierre Lacroix. The Avs certainly don't win that Cup in 2001 without Ray Bourque.
 

Admiral Awesome

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Pierre Lacroix himself said that there is no way they win the Cup without Ray Bourque.

What's remarkable about Bourque in his final season was that at the age of 40, he finished 2nd place in Norris Trophy votes behind Nick Lidstrom. He still averaged 26+ mins during the regular season and saw his ice time increase to 28+ mins during the playoffs.

And he was among the top 3 highest scoring dmen in the league in 2001 with 59 points, and added 10 more points during the Cup run.

I'm going to have to agree with Pierre Lacroix. The Avs certainly don't win that Cup in 2001 without Ray Bourque.
Gonna agree here. It's not like the Avs steamrolled their way through the playoffs that year, as they were pushed to the brink by both LA and NJ. If you take a minute-munching Norris candidate out of the picture, they may not even make it past the 2nd round, let alone win it all.

I think the more interesting question is: if Bourque signs on for another season, do the Avs win another Cup in '02?
 

NYR94

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Interesting read. Have to give Lacroix credit for not being afraid to make win-now trades, whether it was Bourque, Ozolinsh, Lemieux, Roy, Fleury or Blake.
 

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A good friend of mine worked for the Flyers then and I remember him calling me and saying, "We just made a Bourque jersey. It's a done deal, the jersey is already made."

Needless to say, I was devastated when he went to the Avs. But, somewhere out there, someone has a real Bourque 77 Flyers jersey. :laugh:
 

jghockey

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A good friend of mine worked for the Flyers then and I remember him calling me and saying, "We just made a Bourque jersey. It's a done deal, the jersey is already made."

Needless to say, I was devastated when he went to the Avs. But, somewhere out there, someone has a real Bourque 77 Flyers jersey. :laugh:

I heard that Harry Sniden, who was the Bruins GM at the time, did not want to trade Bourque to an Eastern Conference Team anyway.
 
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Ziggy Stardust

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I heard that Harry Sniden, who was the Bruins GM at the time, did not want to trade Bourque to an Eastern Conference Team anyway.

If you read the above article, you'd find that Sinden didn't think he was getting much of a fair offer from Philly, so I can see why he'd turn them down.

Sinden: I did think it would be relatively straightforward to make a deal with Philly, and I knew that's where Ray wanted to go. But the truth is we couldn't really get very far at all. They didn't want to give up anyone of quality from their current roster. And I think they thought Ray might retire when the season was over. I went to New Jersey after that, but it was pretty much the same thing. And I wasn't going to just give him away. He was Ray Bourque, still a hell of a player.

Doesn't sound like Sinden cared where he went, so long as he got the best offer, and that is where Pierre Lacroix had Philly beat.
 
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Pokecheque

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Bourque on that Flyers team with Lindros and Leclair would have been nice to see. ? is do the Avs still win the Cup sans Bourque in 2001?

Definitely not. In fact they were struggling mightily before the trade and then exploded down the stretch. The next season they were well on their way to a President's Trophy win even before the Blake deal was consummated.
 

jghockey

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If the trade between the Flyers and Bruins was a done deal, why didn't Bob Clarke call the NHL to make it official?
 

Brodeur

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I suppose "done" was more "pretty close, might as well have a jersey ready since he's in the visitor's locker room and might leave with us after the game." Circa 2001, some folks found (poorly) hidden pages on the Flyers website for Jan Hlavac, Kim Johnsson, and Pavel Brendl a few days before the Lindros deal was officially processed.
 

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If the trade between the Flyers and Bruins was a done deal, why didn't Bob Clarke call the NHL to make it official?

Just speculating, but Clarke and Sinden probably "agreed" to a trade and Sinden probably said he'd talk to Bourque and make it official, etc.

I mean, look at the Lindros to Philly to NY deal. That was "done" on two separate occasions. There's "done" and "done, done" lol.

Clarke probably took Sinden's word of "we have a deal" as gospel. Those men had history and Snider / Jacobs had history.

The issue was Sinden never "wanted" to deal Ray to the East, he was torn between his loyalty to Bourque and his GM responsibilities to send Ray to the West.
 

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