Chiarelli: Bruins Won't Re-Sign Gregory Campbell, Daniel Paille
BOSTON (CBS) -- Two more members of the Stanley Cup-winning Bruins team is moving on.
Last year, it was Shawn Thornton, and this year, it's Gregory Campbell and Daniel Paille.
"I've spoken with Dan Paille and Gregory Campbell and I've told them that we won't be re-signing them," general manager Peter Chiarelli said Monday.
Campbell, 31, originally joined the Bruins as part of a trade in June of 2010. He, along with Nathan Horton, went from Florida to Boston in exchange for Dennis Wideman and a pair of draft picks. Over the course of the season, Campbell jelled with linemates Paille and Thornton, and the trio came to be known as the Merlot line, for the color of their practice jerseys. The line played a hard, heavy game, forcing opponents into bad decisions in their own end and applying relentless pressure on the forecheck. It was their work that largely kept the Vancouver Canucks from generating any offense in the crucial Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011.
Two years later, Campbell famously suffered a broken leg while blocking a shot against Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference finals, a night when the success of that fourth line effectively came to an end. After the 2013-14 season, the team let Shawn Thornton walk via free agency, and now they are doing the same with Campbell.
The Bruins re-signed Campbell to a three-year, $4.8 million contract in the summer of 2012, one that set him up to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Paille, who will turn 31 this week, was traded to the Bruins early in the 2009-10 season. He played 375 regular-season games with Boston and 74 more postseason games, posting 50-45-95 totals in the regular season and 9-10-19 in the playoffs.
In five seasons in Boston, Campbell scored 39 goals and had 52 assists to go with a plus-12 rating. He also added four goals and nine assists in 59 playoff games.
Last offseason, GM Peter Chiarelli expressed a desire to reshape his fourth line in the form of a faster, more skilled group. That effort began with the departure of Thornton and continues with letting Campbell and Paille enter free agency.
