Boston Sends Its Future Packing
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Times have definitely changed in the National Hockey League. It used to be that superstars were dealt only for other superstars or, more frequently, when fiscally strapped franchises simply could not afford to pay fast-rising salaries. But as the Boston Bruins’ illadvised trade of Joe Thornton on Wednesday made clear, some basic notions of team management have been thrown out the window.
The most prominent superstar dump came in 1988, when the Edmonton Oilers sent Wayne Gretzky to L.A. in the first of a series of money-driven moves that dismantled a dynasty and sent shockwaves across Canada. A similarly emotional move came in 1996, when the Winnipeg Jets traded their most popular player, Teemu Selanne, only months before relocating to Phoenix. In 2001, the Pittsburgh Penguins dealt Jaromir Jagr to the Washington Capitals in a desperate effort to preclude bankruptcy.
The Bruins, in contrast, are one of the NHL’s most profitable franchises. But they have long cultivated a reputation for thriftiness, and their support of the NHL’s hard-line stance during the lockout buffered the perception that Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs is more concerned with the team’s profit margins than its chances of winning a Stanley Cup.
When the lockout ended – and the league got the collective bargaining agreement it wanted – the Bruins were well positioned to take full advantage. With only five players under contract, Bruins GM Mike O’Connell had a unique opportunity to revamp the team. In an uncharacteristic shopping spree, he signed high-profile veterans Glen Murray, Brian Leetch, and Alexei Zhamnov and inked Thornton to a multiyear deal worth $6.67 million a season.
Many picked the new-look Bruins to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals,but they did not gel.With his team mired in an atrocious 1-8-1 stretch, O’Connell decided to take the drastic action of sending Thornton to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm, and Keith Primeau in a deal that could best be described as a salary dump.
Thornton had been a bit of an enigma in Boston. The first overall draft pick in 1997, he possesses gobs of talent, but his low-key demeanor was misinterpreted as aloofness. The Bruins wanted the 6-foot-4-inch, 223-pound Thornton to be the second coming of Cam Neely. Instead, he seemed content to play a finesse game along the periphery rather than use his size and strength to wreak havoc in front of the opposing goal. Nonetheless, he has already accumulated 169 goals and 454 points in 532 career games – not bad for a 26-year-old.
For the Bruins, Stuart, 26, is certainly the key to the trade. Drafted third overall in 1997, he was one of the Sharks’ finest blueliners and should significantly shore up the Bruins’ defense. But he’s unlikely to develop into a perennial All-Star, as Thornton is. Sturm, 27, is a speedy, talented forward who has topped 20 goals in three straight years, but he shouldn’t be expected to score much more than half as many points as Thornton does in any given year.
Teams that trade superstars in their prime almost never come out ahead – as the Oilers, Jets, and Penguins all found out. But what the Bruins did on Wednesday was doubly bad, because they failed to establish a proper market for Thornton.
Many NHL general managers heard about the trade after it had already been announced, meaning the Bruins missed out on an opportunity to parlay Thornton into far more than the triumvirate of Stuart,Sturm,and Primeau. At the least, the should have forced the Sharks to include Patrick Marleau – rather than Sturm – in the deal. Looking around the league, it seems clear that other trade partners could have surfaced in Florida, where Roberto Luongo and Jay Bouwmeester might have been available; Colorado (Alex Tanguay, John-Michael Liles); and even Detroit (Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg). Thornton is simply that big a talent.
Boston fans are rightly up in arms: After eight years of building around Thornton, their hometown club has gone from being a very good team playing poorly to a mediocre team with far less upside. There was no pressing reason for O’Connell to jump at the first offer he received for Thornton, and there was no good reason why the deal couldn’t have waited another month. Leetch and Zhamnov both missed considerable portions of the season’s first two months, and it would have been wise to see if things could have been turned around. Unless Stuart evolves into a Norris Trophy-caliber defenseman – and that seems unlikely – the Bruins will regret this trade for a decade.
Mr. Greenstein is the editor in chief of InsideHockey.com.