Awkward Savard, a few signings and more

It's safe to say that it's been pretty far from a quiet summer over on Causeway Street. There have been trades, re-signings, "draftings" and enough rumors and scuttlebutt to make even the most avid TMZ reader jealous.

And while the arrival of Messrs. Seguin and Horton and the returns of Mark Recchi, Johnny Boychuk, Dennis Seidenberg and Daniel Paille are important, the biggest story surrounding the B's remains the mysterious case of Marc Savard (sounds like next year's big summer blockbuster).

The reason the whole situation remains puzzling is due to the lack of anything concrete from...well, anyone. Savard hasn't commented publicly at all, and Bruins' GM Peter Chiarelli has been vague and cryptic at best. Fans still have very little idea as to why Savard would be on the trade block, so the rampant speculation will continue.

On the surface, there are a few reasons why a trade would be plausible:

• Reason 1: The Bruins feel like Savard, especially with the major concussion he sustained just this past season, is no longer worth the cap space, this despite signing him to a huge extension just a few months ago.
• Reason 2: Savard asked to be traded to be closer to his kids, who live in Ontario.
• Reason 3: The Bruins are tired of Savard being a less-than-ideal teammate, as some sources have painted him as a bad teammate. People who believe this theory point to his delay of game penalty in Game 7 against the Flyers (and subsequent failure to own up to it) as "the last straw."

But really, do any of these reasons, save for Savard asking out, justify trading your number-one center?

The short answer is no, while the long answer is more of a "well, not really." The B's brass clearly think David Krejci is ready to step into more of a number-one role, that Patrice Bergeron will continue to improve and that Seguin is NHL-ready. But trading Savard would leave a giant hole in an offense that was already anemic to start with after last season.

My real question now isn't really whether or not Savard will be traded, it's more of whether or not Savard can actually come back and play for the Bruins at this point, hence the "awkward" title. True, these players are professionals and understand that trades are part of the business, but if Savard didn't ask out, these talks and rumors must have blindsided him.

After all, he did just sign an extension and had wanted to retire as a Bruin. I still don't think trading Savard is a good idea, but at this point, one has to wonder if the bridges have been too badly burnt to be salvaged.

Other tidbits of Bruins happenings:

• Johnny Boychuk returns- A good signing by Chiarelli. Boychuk really emerged as a solid, dependable blueliner last year, and the B's will likely use his howitzer of a shot from the point on the power play from time to time.
• Daniel Paille returns- Another good signing, but I would have preferred to see Paille only get a one-year deal. He was a rock for the Bruins on the PK last year, and will likely partner up with Shawn Thornton and Gregory Campbell on the fourth-line again this year, but I can't help but feel that a year from now, one of the Bruins' youngsters would be able to fill his spot for less money.
• Still no sign of Wheeler or Stuart- The former has elected for salary arbitration, while the latter decided against it, apparently because an extension is imminent. It will be interesting to see how the B's go about the arbitration process with Wheeler, and how much money he gets. It's no secret that he's talented, but some B's fans have grown tired of waiting for Wheeler to change his game to more of a power-forward style.

So much for the summer not being hockey season. Things continue to heat up, both Bruins-wise and temperature-wise, and it doesn't appear that the rest of the summer will be any different.

Rumors Everywhere!

The days leading up to the NHL Draft are usually pretty interesting. Teams are looking to move up or down and are sometimes looking to flip picks or prospects for established players that will have an immediate impact in the upcoming season.

The Bruins are in the rare position of both anticipating their own draft choice and looking for NHL talent that could push them into Stanley Cup contention. Rarely does a team with a top-five pick have Cup aspirations for the coming season, but that's the place Peter Chiarelli and Co. find themselves in.

The B's will select either Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin with the number-two pick, acquired in the Phil Kessel trade, and are considered by some to be a scorer or defenseman or two away from being serious Cup contenders. The B's should return relatively the same team next year, with the addition of Hall/Seguin, a healthy David Krejci and newly-acquired Nathan Horton. A few players, including Dennis Wideman, will be out of the fold, but with their additions, the B's should be a formidable group.

Entering tonight, the only real certainty is that the B's will take either Hall or Seguin at the number-two spot. The rest is completely up in the air, and a number of B's players have been rumored to be on the trading block.

The biggest names that have been bandied about are Tim Thomas and Marc Savard, one an obvious trade candidate and the other a head scratcher.

Thomas has been on his way out since Tuukka Rask took over last season, and now it appears that the first "trade wheels" are in motion. Trading Thomas would free up about $5 million in cap space, valuable money that the B's could use to fill holes elsewhere, namely on the blue line.

There are a number of rumored suitors for the former Vezina winner, the most viable of which appear to be San Jose and Philadelphia, with Washington a dark horse. San Jose let Evgeni Nabokov walk earlier this week, meaning they'll probably be in the market for a new goalie. I suppose it's possible that the Sharks go with Thomas Greiss this coming year, but I can't see a high-caliber team like the Sharks entering this season with an unproven rookie in net.

However, San Jose can probably be crossed off the Thomas trade list, due to Sharks' GM Ron Wilson's assertion that he won't spend too much on goaltending, citing the Blackhawks as an example of how a high-priced goalie doesn't bring Stanley Cup success.

The Flyers remain a viable option for Thomas, as many maintain that the Flyers would have won the Cup if they had a competent netminder.

The other rumor floating around, the more confusing one, is that the B's are looking to trade Savard.

Savard has a partial no-movement clause, allegedly limiting his trades to teams in the East so he can stay close to his family. To me, trading Savard would be absurd. The pivot signed an extremely cap-friendly deal to remain with the Bruins, and has said that he loves playing in Boston. The reasoning for the rumors seems to be that if the Bruins draft Seguin, they'll have him, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Savard down the middle.

Apparently, Savard would be traded to make room for Seguin. This boggles my mind on multiple levels.

• Trading Savard after the deal he just signed would be like a slap in the face to a player who took a pay cut to stay in Boston. The B's don't have great PR in the eyes on many casual fans in Boston, and trading a big name and fan favorite like Savard wouldn't help much.
• Seguin is already going to be under immense pressure to produce as a number-two pick. Trading Savard would essentially place even more pressure on the rookie to produce, be it as a third-center or as a winger.
• The B's had the league's worst offense last year. Why trade your best playmaker?

The hope here is that these are mere rumors and speculation, and that Chiarelli's refusal to shoot down such scuttlebutt amounts to nothing more than good business tactics.

Matt Kalman of the BruinsBlog agrees with me, but ultimately it's up to the Bruins' brain trust. The sentiment of this blogger, however, is that trading Savard would be a huge mistake.

Wides out, Horton in

Wailing and gnashing of teeth for Wides aside, this is a pretty good move for the B's. Horton's stats over the last two seasons are 42 goals and 60 assists for a total of 102 points, all for Florida Panther teams that didn't really sniff the postseason.

The 25-year-old Horton is a pretty big kid, coming in at 6 ft. 2 in. and weighing around 230 pounds. He had recently asked out of Florida, and new Panthers' GM Dale Tallon was apparently happy to oblige him.

Horton was the third pick on the 2003 draft, picked behind Marc-Andre Fleury and Eric Staal and ahead of players like Thomas Vanek, Dion Phaneuf and Ryan Getzlaf.

Hopefully, the big winger can learn a thing or two from a former big winger, current B's president Cam Neely. The 15th overall pick was sent to Florida as well, along with another pick in 2011. The B's now have the 2nd, 32nd and 45th picks in this Friday's draft.

In all likelihood, B's GM Peter Chiarelli isn't done dealing yet. Late June days are usually the hockey doldrums, but the next week could shape up to be a pretty interesting one.

Evander Kane KO's Matt Cooke

Matt Cooke may not have gotten the beating many felt he deserved from the Bruins, but he certainly got what many felt he had coming to him last night at the hands of Evander Kane of the Atlanta Thrashers. Coincidentally enough, the young Kane is named after Evander Holyfield, who undoubtedly approved of the right hook the Thrasher used to drop Cooke.

Best line of the Internet's reaction to the whole thing? "Evander Kane just made Marc Savard's Christmas Card list."

For those who are wondering, Kane isn't an RFA until after the 2012-2013 season.

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.

Satan aboard, Julien unhappy, Bergeron injured...happy times in Bruin land

In case the sarcasm didn't come through in the title, these are hardly happy times in the life of the common Bruins fan. Just days removed from an exhilarating 2-1 OT win over the Flyers in the Winter Classic, doom and gloom rule the day.

However, before I go on to the aforementioned doom and gloom, a bit of regular B's news: the signing of Miroslav Satan.

Satan, who was out of hockey completely before signing on with the B's, comes cheap: his cap hit will be around $300,000 for the remainder of the season (the contract was one-year, $700,000, but will be pro-rated since the season is already half over). He's being brought here really for one reason: to try to bring some offensive firepower to a team that is sorely lacking in the goal scoring department.

Satan is really an enigma, a player who seems to have immense skill but doesn't exactly play his hardest at all times. He's not exactly known for his defensive prowess either, which makes his addition to a Claude Julien "defense-first" club somewhat strange, but the team doesn't seem too concerned about it:

"Generally speaking, you're not going to get a perfect player on the free-agent market at this time of year," he said. "He's been more of a one-dimensional player over the course of his career. But, as I said, we watched all his playoff games and he was above-average on the defensive side of the puck. And those playoff games, they're high-tempo, high-intensity."
-Matt Kalman, ESPNBoston.com

Satan will be re-united with his friend and Team Slovakia teammate Zdeno Chara, so it will be interesting to see if the captain can light a bit of a fire under his countryman. If Satan can re-discover his touch and knock in 10-15 goals in the team's final 40 or so games, then Chiarelli will look like a genius. If he washes out and is a bust, it's only $300,000 in cap space (hey, this is Jeremy Jacobs' money, not mine).

However, Satan's signing may serve a bigger purpose as well, one that Julien illustrated in his post-game comments following the team's horrible showing on Broadway last night.

"There were times in the past that they had their dressing room under control," Julien said. "Right now, you have to coach, you have to be a cheerleader, you've got to wake them up. You've got to do too many things that a coach shouldn't have to do at this level. These are professionals and they've got to take ownership of their dressing room at some point.

-From above ESPN link

Julien was clearly unhappy with his team's effort, and one can't help but wonder if complacency is a factor. There are a number of players who have been under performing all year, and the addition of Satan coupled with the return of Milan Lucic in the coming days will make playing time a luxury, not a right.

Among those who may be destined for the press box are Blake Wheeler, Vladimir Sobotka and Michael Ryder. Wheeler and Ryder have had very disappointing seasons, while Sobotka may just end up being the odd-man out in the battle for playing time, mainly because he won't have to clear waivers to be sent down to Providence.

The above comments are pretty strong coming from Julien, especially given that his team has played pretty well as of late. However, he made it quite clear that mediocrity or poor play will not be tolerated, and it's now up to the team to respond. They have a chance to show their coach what kind of team they are right away with a game in Ottawa tonight. It's the opinion of this writer that if the B's come out flat again, especially following a chewing-out by their coach, then it may be time for concern for B's fans.

Of more pressing concern, however, is the health of forward Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron took a Dennis Wideman shot off of the hand in the second period of last night's game, skated two more shifts and then didn't return. Bergeron didn't travel with the team to Ottawa, and is (as of 1 p.m.) still being evaluated by doctors at MGH. A broken hand would likely see Bergeron miss upwards of a month (and would thereby sink his chances at playing for Team Canada in Vancouver), whereas a broken finger may sideline him for less time. Chances are, however, that it's some kind of fracture; the hand isn't exactly an area where sprains or strains are common.

If Bergeron misses significant time, the Bruins are in a bit of trouble. He has been the team's best overall player all season, and would be a huge loss. One can't help but feel for the kid as well: just days after being told he'll represent his country in the Olympics, he's felled by an injury. Here's to hoping it's not that serious, for both his sake and the team as a whole's.

UPDATE: According to Boston.com, Satan will make his Bruin debut tonight in Ottawa. Still no update on Bergeron's status.

Bergeron makes Team Canada

Team Canada announced its 23-man roster for the 2010 Olympics today, and one Bruin made the cut: center Patrice Bergeron, who was named to the team after a couple of weeks of having Steve Yzerman, Team Canada's Executive Director, in the arena during some B's games, specifically to watch Bergeron play.

The 2010 games in Vancouver, B.C., will be Bergeron's first Olympiad, though he has represented Canada in other international competitions. Bergeron projects to be a third or fourth line player for Canada's stacked squad, and he will likely be relied on for strong defensive play and his ability to win face-offs.

Making Team Canada completes a whirlwind coupe of seasons for the Quebec-born forward, as he is just over two years removed from suffering a devastating concussion, an injury that caused him to miss nearly an entire season. He returned to play in time for the start of the 2008-2009 season, only to miss a bit more time after suffering another less serious concussion.

This season, Bergeron has solidified his spot as the Bruins' best all-around player and has shown signs of returning to his pre-injury form. More often than not, he has been one of the better Bruins on the ice this season.

Bergeron's selection is also particularly notable because of who didn't make the team. Big name players like Jeff Carter, Vincent Lecavalier, Martin St. Louis and Ryan Smyth were left off of the roster, as were defensemen Mike Green and Jay Bouwmeester.

For the full Canadian roster, click here.

In other Bruin Olympic news, Zdeno Chara was named to Team Slovakia (I know, shocking!), where he will be counted on to provide leadership to a Slovakian group that is sure to be a medal underdog, and David Krejci was named to the Czech Republic's squad.

Tuukka Rask, who has played brilliantly for the B's so far this season, was left off of a goaltending-rich Finland squad (Miikka Kiprusoff, Niklas Backstrom and Antero Nittymaki were the three goalies who made the team).

The United States will announce its team during the Winter Classic on Friday, but it appears that no Bruins will be on the roster. One player sure to be wearing the Stars and Stripes is former-Bruin Phil Kessel, who will likely get a reprieve from booing from American B's fans during the Olympics.

Games begin for the male Olympians on February 16.