Bruins Hang On To Loui Eriksson Past NHL Trade Deadline
BOSTON (CBS) -- Loui Eriksson will remain in Black and Gold, at least until the end of this season.
Despite being discussed heavily in the hockey world as a player likely to be moved prior to Monday's 3 p.m. trade deadline, Eriksson will remain with the Boston Bruins.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney was mostly quiet on Monday, but a pair of deals trickled through the news wire shortly after the deadline. Those deals -- the acquisitions of veterans Lee Stempniak and John-Michael Liles -- did not involve Eriksson, who's in the final year of his contract.
In 62 games this season, Eriksson scored 23 goals and posted 23-25-48 totals to go with a plus-13 rating. He ranked second on the team in points, second in power-play goals, and third among forwards in time on ice.
Eriksson, 30, is in the final year of the six-year pact he signed with Dallas back in 2010 which has paid him an average annual salary of $4.25 million. He was traded to the Boston Bruins as part of the famed Tyler Seguin trade in the summer of 2013, along with Joe Morrow, Reilly Smith and Matt Fraser. Last season, the Bruins lost Fraser on a waiver claim by Edmonton. Last offseason, they traded Reilly Smith to Florida in exchange for Jimmy Hayes.
Bruins president Cam Neely told Felger & Massarotti that the team had sent Eriksson's camp a contract offer as recently as last week. Eriksson's agent told Sportsnet on Friday that the two sides weren't quite on the same page in terms of dollars or years, and no progress was made over the weekend.
Yet despite no long-term certainty, the Bruins felt more comfortable keeping him on the roster (he's tied for second in points and goals on the team) and making a playoff push than trading him away for whatever the offered packages might have been.
