The Boston Bruins launched into rebuilding mode at the NHL draft.
Advertisement
Looking at it from General Manager Don Sweeney’s point of view, the blockbuster moves the Bruins made – dealing defenseman Dougie Hamilton and left winger Milan Lucic – were reasonable and sensible.
The 22-year-old Toronto native is a restricted free agent. First off the Dougie Hamilton is an all around good young defenceman and the Flames should feel blessed that the Bruins are neck deep in cap trouble. Scored 15 goals and tallied 36 points in 60 QMJHL games last season.
Hamilton developed into a solid defenseman after Boston took him with the ninth pick of the 2011 draft at the age of 18.
Obviously, the news caused mixed reactions. Next July, when Lucic could become a free agent, he’ll be 28 years old, making him a power forward in his prime that, for all his faults, has a special skill set that teams salivate over.
While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. That was the big mistake they made on Joe Thornton all those years ago.
The amateur side of the Bruins’ management seems to have its act together.
In the words of Bruins executive director of player personnel John Ferguson, the organization used the draft to build going forward, and it believes it has the assets to improve the team. The biggest gap between the pair of blueliners has been Hamilton’s relatively smaller share of ice time in Boston.
Initial reports suggested that the move was financial and that the Bruins and Hamilton could not find common ground for a new contract.
With the addition of Hamilton, not only do the Flames now have three players who could be considered number one defensemen, but they have a couple of number four type guys in Russell and Wideman who will battle to play on the second pairing and then have one of them left over to play on the bottom pairing with a good young defenseman like Wotherspoon or a veteran like Smid of Schlemko.
This was less of a surprise.
The Bruins have traded forward Milan Lucic to the Los Angeles Kings for their 2015 1st round draft pick (13th overall), goaltender Martin Jones, and Collin Miller, a prospect who plays with the Greyhounds in the OHL, as reported by Darren Dreger. “It gives the players a good chance to get their rest and get re-energized and back into tip-top shape and refocused and hungry again”.
LUCIC: “I know Drew Doughty a small bit. It’s really hard to put into words how much this means to me”.
The 53rd pick came to the Flames in the deal that sent foward Sven Baertschi to Vancouver.
So that leaves the Bruins with three straight picks (13-14-15). Are they going to keep all of those picks?
LUCIC: “It’s amusing. I did not really know what to think, to be perfectly honest”. The Bruins traded their fifth-round pick, the No. 135th selection, for Minnesota’s fifth-round pick in 2016… “I like that defense”, Treviling said in NHL. I am an avid Tampa Bay fan which is odd for someone in Canada but I embrace the team.
The Bruins get the 15th, 45th and 52nd overall picks in the draft from the Flames. But he does realize that there is a full season next year right?
Advertisement
There is one significant upside to these trades: more cap space.
