30 Years Later, Cam Neely Trade Tree Continues To Grow - Thanks To Neely Himself
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- On June 6, 1986, then-Bruins general manager Harry Sinden planned to play golf instead of work. He had to cancel his tee time because it started raining. Bruins fans should be forever grateful of Mother Nature that day, because it was on that rainy afternoon that Sinden took the phone call from the Vancouver Canucks that led to the Cam Neely trade.
Thirty years later, the Neely "trade tree" is amazingly still growing on the Bruins' side. Of course, the original trade - Neely and a first-round pick to the Bruins for Barry Pederson - went down as one of the great steals in history and the Bruins kept Neely for the rest of his Hall-of-Fame career. But the first-round draft pick they received in 1986 was used a year later to select defenseman Glen Wesley.
The Bruins eventually traded Wesley to the Hartford Whalers for three draft picks, one of which was used to draft Sergei Samsonov in 1997. The team then acquired a second-round pick as part of a trade sending Samsonov to Edmonton in 2006. That pick became Milan Lucic.
In a way, the 1986 trade came full circle in 2015. Neely, now president of the Bruins, approved one of new general manager Don Sweeney's first big moves, trading Lucic to the Los Angeles Kings for goalie Martin Jones, defenseman Colin Miller, and a 2015 first-round pick, which they used to draft defenseman Jakob Zboril. The team eventually traded Jones to the San Jose Sharks for a 2016 first-round pick and center prospect Sean Kuraly.
It remains to be seen what kind of impact Zboril or Kuraly will have on the Bruins, but there is still a first-round pick to be made that branched out from the Neely trade. It's incredible that the Bruins president is now making moves to grow the tree of his own trade from 1986, but even three decades later, the move continues to have far-reaching implications for the Bruins organization. One can only hope that the next Neely emerges from the pack.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
