Monday, February 12, 2007
Ok...
...let's review:
The Bruins traded their star and captain, Joe Thornton, for Wayne Primeau, Brad Stuart, and Marco Sturm. Their "Rookie of the Year" goaltender, Andrew Raycroft, has the temerity to hold out for more money, so the owner criticizes him in the papers, and when he has a bad start due to a knee injury they run him out of town on a rail, and get nothing in return.
They stumble onto Tim Thomas, who turns in the season of his life, giving them a goalie on the cheap, and giving the crowd one of only two reasons to cheer (the other being Patrice Bergeron).
But the next year, they make Thomas fight for the job against Hannu Toivenen, a youngster with a nervous stomach and a habit of going down too early and giving up high shots -- a lot -- even though Thomas is getting paid like a starting goalie and Toivenen is making chump change. So Thomas has to play an ungodly number of games, tiring him out -- but their goalie payroll is moderate.
Specifically, it's actually about $600,000 less than it would be if they'd platooned Thomas with Raycroft, who ended up as the starting goalie in Toronto, and who's been on fire lately. But they did save that $600,000.
Then they trade away a 6'4" 240 lb 23-year-old defenseman for "a fourth-round conditional draft pick" -- even though he'll be a restricted free agent next year, instead of trading Stuart, who makes much more money, is an UNrestricted agent next year, has been playing poorly, and whose wife wouldn't move to Boston.
THEN -- they trade Stuart and Primeau, leaving only Marco Sturm in return for having traded away Thornton -- at least until the end of the season, when he walks away as a free agent.
Meanwhile, they're well under the salary cap.
WTF?
The Bruins traded their star and captain, Joe Thornton, for Wayne Primeau, Brad Stuart, and Marco Sturm. Their "Rookie of the Year" goaltender, Andrew Raycroft, has the temerity to hold out for more money, so the owner criticizes him in the papers, and when he has a bad start due to a knee injury they run him out of town on a rail, and get nothing in return.
They stumble onto Tim Thomas, who turns in the season of his life, giving them a goalie on the cheap, and giving the crowd one of only two reasons to cheer (the other being Patrice Bergeron).
But the next year, they make Thomas fight for the job against Hannu Toivenen, a youngster with a nervous stomach and a habit of going down too early and giving up high shots -- a lot -- even though Thomas is getting paid like a starting goalie and Toivenen is making chump change. So Thomas has to play an ungodly number of games, tiring him out -- but their goalie payroll is moderate.
Specifically, it's actually about $600,000 less than it would be if they'd platooned Thomas with Raycroft, who ended up as the starting goalie in Toronto, and who's been on fire lately. But they did save that $600,000.
Then they trade away a 6'4" 240 lb 23-year-old defenseman for "a fourth-round conditional draft pick" -- even though he'll be a restricted free agent next year, instead of trading Stuart, who makes much more money, is an UNrestricted agent next year, has been playing poorly, and whose wife wouldn't move to Boston.
THEN -- they trade Stuart and Primeau, leaving only Marco Sturm in return for having traded away Thornton -- at least until the end of the season, when he walks away as a free agent.
Meanwhile, they're well under the salary cap.
WTF?
