Hurley: Peter Chiarelli Completes Underwhelming Trade Deadline For Bruins
BOSTON (CBS) -- Five months have passed since Peter Chiarelli, in an effort to make the Bruins cap compliant, traded Johnny Boychuk to the New York Islanders in exchange for a pair of second-round picks and a conditional third-rounder. It was a deal that unquestionably made the Bruins worse in the short term, but the general manager promised it was the first step in a series of move that would eventually make sense.
And so, we all expected to gain a clearer picture of that vision on Monday, trade deadline day around the NHL.
Instead, we got to see Max Talbot, Brett Connolly, and ... that was it.
As one might expect, Boston is not exactly abuzz following the moves.
What Chiarelli said back in early October after trading Boychuk was clear: "I look at this a little bit globally, like this may be one in a series of two or three steps throughout the course of the year. I wish I could do everything at once. ... Those are real viable picks that can be used to draft players or acquire players."
He was saying, essentially, "I know this is bad now, but trust me, I have a plan." Fans rightfully held that over his head, shouting on the radio and mashing keyboards with regularity, as their only sliver of hope to save a lifeless season was to inject some talent into the roster prior to the deadline.
And while we cannot know whether or not Chiarelli truly did have a grand plan, we do know this: If he had a plan, he failed to execute it.
Now, the Bruins sit with 20 games left in their season. They're holding on for dear life their two-point lead over Florida for the final wild-card spot in the East. They trail Washington -- a team that added Curtis Glencross and Tim Gleason prior to the deadline -- by seven points, so any hope of the Bruins moving up in the standings would have to come from a wildly optimistic place. It has all come to this: The Bruins have gone from making the Cup Final, to earning the Presidents' Trophy, to scrapping with Florida down the final stretch to secure the final playoff berth in the conference.
The reasons for that rapid descent are many, but they all eventually lead back to the man in charge.
Last year at this time, Chiarelli was scoffing at suggestions that the Canadiens did well to acquire Thomas Vanek, snidely telling reporters, "It never seems that we're an anointed winner of trade deadline day, and I'm fine with that." Since that date, if you include the playoffs, the Canadiens have gone 62-29-6, and the Bruins have gone 53-29-13. The Canadiens sit comfortably atop the conference and just added Devante Smith-Pelly, Jeff Petry, Brian Flynn and Torrey Mitchell. The Bruins are the East's eighth-best team and just swapped Jordan Caron for Max Talbot.
There's no way to paint a pretty picture on what transpired, and there's no real reason to feel too great about the Bruins' prospects for the next two months. Even Chiarelli himself didn't oversell the expectations for the team.
"I feel that we have a team that will make the playoffs and, if you can get in, when you get in, anything goes," he said Monday afternoon at TD Garden.
He's not exactly mapping out a parade route.
Still, some of Chiarelli's perceived missteps this season can be explained. The biggest issue has been the $4.2 million in bonuses the team paid to Jarome Iginla, all of which counts on this year's salary cap. That is a tremendously large set of handcuffs to deal with while building a team. (Though of course, it was Chiarelli who included those bonuses in the contract in the first place).
There was also the lower salary cap, thanks to the Canadian dollar. When Chiarelli signed Iginla, he did so under the assumption that the 2014-15 salary cap would be around $71 million; instead it was $69 million. It may not seem like much, but for a stacked team that went all in to win a Cup last year, it could have made the difference between keeping Boychuk or trading him away.
And then, one more hurdle stood in Chiarelli's way, thanks to his boss essentially putting everyone in the front office on notice that missing the playoffs would lead to some changes. When the person on the other line knows that Chiarelli is making a phone call while his job hangs in the balance, it's difficult for the GM to negotiate from a position of power.
Of course, none of that is to distract from the matter at hand, which is that the Boston Bruins are not very good. The standards have been set high around here thanks in large part to Chiarelli himself, along with Claude Julien and the famed "core" of players that have been on the roster for years. Really, nobody in that group should be excused from blame, but this was deadline day, and so the spotlight tightens on Chiarelli.
This has not been a banner year for the GM. He traded Boychuk, he's lost two players (Matt Fraser, Craig Cunningham) for nothing on waivers, his Bruins are a .500 hockey team and his deadline moves aren't likely to make many notable improvements.
Whether Chiarelli will be in the same position come next March is now up for debate, but it's indisputable that once again, nobody will be anointing the Bruins as winners of trade deadline day.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
