Trade Deadline Reaction

Some B's fans are unhappy, but really, what did you expect Peter Chiarelli to do?

"Get a scorer!"
"Get a puck moving defenseman!"
"For the love of God, get rid of Michael Ryder!"*

*Let it be known that BHN is a huge Ryder fan, and will not, I repeat, NOT, advocate trading him.


At the end of the day (or more specifically, at the 3 p.m. EST deadline), Chiarelli hadn't done much: out were Derek Morris, Byron Bitz and some picks/prospects, in were Dennis Seidenberg and another prospect.

When I first heard of the Morris trade, it screamed "salary dump." Morris for just a fourth-round pick? He hadn't lit the world on fire here, but was solid enough. So I, along with most other Bruins fans, waited for the other shoe to drop.

Well it's now two days later, and that shoe still isn't here. Chiarelli ended up adding Seidenberg after the Morris move, but that was it. The B's closed up shop, and no offensive help arrived.

Here's what I think happened, and remember, this is purely my opinion: Chiarelli moved Morris to make room for another play, probably a scorer, but the right deal never materialized. Why else would he dump Morris? He clearly isn't giving up on this team yet, so it's not like the B's are in full-on salary dump mode.

As most other pundits have said, there really isn't exactly a wealth of scorers available. The biggest name, Ilya Kovalchuk, was moved weeks ago, and the remaining pickings really were pretty slim.

Ray Whitney? Raffi Torres? Clark MacArthur? Would any of these guys really have put the B's over the top, or been worth the picks/prospects that would have gone the other way?

No, probably not. The truth is that there really isn't much that can be done at this point to make the B's a bona-fide Stanley Cup contender. Even if they had added Kovalchuk, the team has been too inconsistent and frustrating to make fans believe a run at the Cup was possible for this year.

I still think this team has the horses to make serious noise in the playoffs, and hey, with a hot goalie, anything can happen come April/May.

But give Chiarelli credit for one thing: he has seen the writing on the wall in regards to this team, and didn't go for the knee-jerk reaction, which would have been an attempt at a quick fix. Chiarelli has a plan, and has been very patient so far. If he has another season next year like he has this year, both he and Claude Julien will likely be scouring Craigslist for job opportunities.

But with a top-three pick coming regardless of where the B's finish, the team is still in good shape, regardless of the lack of moves on Wednesday.

Overall, I'd give Chiarelli a grade of a "C." I'd rather have Morris here, but Seidenberg is a bit more defensive-minded, and seems solid enough. Chia's grade is really just average: he didn't improve the team, didn't hurt the team, didn't really do...anything.

Reports: Savard close to a new deal

Various reports from across the internet came out today saying that the Bruins and Marc Savard are close to a contract extension. The Boston Globe's Kevin Paul Dupont reported earlier today that the talks between the two parties "remain on course", and suggested that the final deal would be something like seven-years, $32 million, a cap hit of $4.6 million per season.

Another source, RDS' Bob Hartley, reported that the deal was imminent, and his figure was seven-years, $39 million. Savard would be 39 years old entering the final year of any seven-year deal, but if the B's can retain their top scorer for somewhere between $4.6 and $5.6 million, sign me up. Savard has been all that the B's could have hoped for when they signed him away from Atlanta, and if he puts up points at his current pace for the next few years, this deal may prove to be a steal.

Again, nothing is definite as of right now, but Dupont mentioned in his blog that he expects the deal to be done sometime around Thanksgiving. If so, B's fans will certainly be plenty thankful to have someone of Savard's talent level around for another seven years.