Bruins Win - Trade Stuart and Primeau
What do I start with trade, or game. First I will say thanks to Heather for the tip on the trade. I was just about to go to bed and up pops MSN! I guess I will start with the trade.
The Boston Bruins have sent defenceman Brad Stuart and forward Wayne Primeau to the Calgary Flames for forward Chuck Kobasew and defencman Andrew Ference. If you're keeping track that is 2/3 of the Thornton deal gone. I am hoping that they will try and re-sign Sturm, as I think he is having an off year, and as of late has really turned it on. Now lets see some stats on the new guys!
Kobasew - 4g 13a 17p (40 games)
Ference - 2g 10a 12p (50 games)
Currently Kobasew is out with an elbow injury and is supposed to be back late February. He is a former first round pick (14th overall) and I think (correct me if I am wrong) he is a restricted free agent at the end of this season. Kobasew is a having an off year and has been injured a lot as well, thus making him expendable. He could easily join the second line when he comes back, but I think he will end up on the third.
My lines would look like this:
Murray-Savard-Bochenski
Sturm-Bergeron-Kessel
Axelsson-Boyes-Kobasew
Donovan-Mowers-Tenkrat
*Chistov is the extra forward (I forgot all about Donovan).
I'm sure PC will call up a centre for the third or fourth line but, I am dealing with what I got. In Ference we get a tough, mobile defenceman who likes to hit. He's also not that bad offensively, scoring a career high 31p last season. I can't find any reference about Ference's salary except on his TSN profile where it lists that he was signed to a 3 year contract extension in October. I imagine he'd cost no more than 1.5 million per season, but we will need to wait and see.
Great trade for Boston. It doesn't improve them any in the short term (Kobasew is injured) but the key to this trade is both players will likely (barring further trades) be with the Bruins for another two years. We may also have saved over a million dollars on the salary cap!
Well I am not going to do the game, maybe myself or someone else will get to it tomorrow. Bruins freakin won that is the important thing!
The Boston Bruins have sent defenceman Brad Stuart and forward Wayne Primeau to the Calgary Flames for forward Chuck Kobasew and defencman Andrew Ference. If you're keeping track that is 2/3 of the Thornton deal gone. I am hoping that they will try and re-sign Sturm, as I think he is having an off year, and as of late has really turned it on. Now lets see some stats on the new guys!
Kobasew - 4g 13a 17p (40 games)
Ference - 2g 10a 12p (50 games)
Currently Kobasew is out with an elbow injury and is supposed to be back late February. He is a former first round pick (14th overall) and I think (correct me if I am wrong) he is a restricted free agent at the end of this season. Kobasew is a having an off year and has been injured a lot as well, thus making him expendable. He could easily join the second line when he comes back, but I think he will end up on the third.
My lines would look like this:
Murray-Savard-Bochenski
Sturm-Bergeron-Kessel
Axelsson-Boyes-Kobasew
Donovan-Mowers-Tenkrat
*Chistov is the extra forward (I forgot all about Donovan).
I'm sure PC will call up a centre for the third or fourth line but, I am dealing with what I got. In Ference we get a tough, mobile defenceman who likes to hit. He's also not that bad offensively, scoring a career high 31p last season. I can't find any reference about Ference's salary except on his TSN profile where it lists that he was signed to a 3 year contract extension in October. I imagine he'd cost no more than 1.5 million per season, but we will need to wait and see.
Great trade for Boston. It doesn't improve them any in the short term (Kobasew is injured) but the key to this trade is both players will likely (barring further trades) be with the Bruins for another two years. We may also have saved over a million dollars on the salary cap!
Well I am not going to do the game, maybe myself or someone else will get to it tomorrow. Bruins freakin won that is the important thing!
posted by TreeBob at Saturday, February 10, 2007
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9 Comments:
Call me the infinite cynic, but I don't like this trade at all. This trade addresses neither their short term needs (they traded for an injured player??) nor does it help the team long term (no draft picks or prospects).
Kobasew is a wild card here since he is a former #14 overall pick. However, he's suffered both a concussion and a fractured elbow this year, the latter from which he's currently recovering (he's also suffered groin and shoulder injuries in the past). Prior to that, he's been inconsistent and somewhat of a disappointment in Calgary. He did re-sign with the Flames in June of 2006, but I'm unsure of the length.
On a somewhat positive note, at least we got a decent defender in Ference who's at least under contract. Still, I think the Bruins could have gotten more...and at least a draft pick or prospect.
As I said, I think it is great. I admit it does not improve them (I alluded to that). It does however keep them the same. Ferrence has played as well as Stuart has this year, better even. Maybe we loose some grit with Primeau but like you said Kobasew is a former number one and who know if he will blosom or not.
I still think the key to the whole deal is the 2 contracts! We have Kobasew who is restricted, and Ference who is signed for two more years. Calgary gets two players who are not much better and who have to be resigned and quick if they wish to get anything out of the trade.
How could we have gotten anything better Doobie? Draft picks are great, but we got young signed players that will be with us for atleast two years! To top it off we saved big money which gives PC a lot of room to pick up someone else this season or wait until the summer. I like draft picks but in this case they make no sense.
I really have mixed emotions about this trade.
I believe that the teams that will succeed in the "new NHL" are the ones players want to sign with. So at the start of the season I felt Stuart's resigning was a sort of litmus test for PC. Maybe Stuart just didn't think he fit. Maybe his agent told him to test the waters no matter what. Regardless, I have to worry a bit. Are the B's a team players want to play for?
I also really hated losing Preems. I know everyone will think I'm an idiot, but I really liked him, hooking penalties and all. I look for players who play with heart because come playoff time that's what counts. Nobody else seemed to notice, but when the B's were on the floor a while back and somebody needeed to stand up, Preems was one of the guys who did. I think he'll be sorely missed on our PK.
All that said, PC has pulled players out of his hat all season for a song, so maybe this trade will show him to be a genius. We'll just have to wait and see I guess.
I was waiting for you to comment number4.
I don't think Stuart did not want to re-sign because he didn't like Boston. I think he just wanted to be a west coast player. Whether this was because his wife is in LA or if it because he is from Alberta. The fact of the matter is, PC was at a disadvantage from the start. He did not choose to come here nor was he drafted by us. He was forcefully traded to us.
Besides that most people are looking at what we lost and not what we gained. Why does everyone think we could have gotten more from an underachieving UFA?
I also didn't like loosing Primeau, in fact I liked him too. But again, he had to go, because odds are he would not be here come summer.
Number4 email me dude. james.eakins@dragonrun.com
Know what, TreeBob, you may be right. I'm treating Stuart like he's a top notch defenseman...which he's not. Plus, he's essentially a rental for the Flames for the rest of the season unless...like you said...they can convince his California wife to stay in Alberta. So if they went the draft pick route, they may not have been able to get much more than a 3rd or 4th rounder for him.
I'm still not crazy about either Ference nor Kobasew, but the simple truth is that the market may not have been offering much more.
Talent wise I feel it was an even trade for both teams - Stuart was not the elite defenceman that some believed he was.
I like the trade b/c I love the way Ference plays. He is a very good defensive defenceman (we need this now) and he is a big hitter - forwards are made aware of his presence. I am a fan of his and now he is on The Bruins - Good trade.
I will miss Primeau a little bit. Not a great point getter but knew his role and played it well - I did like him and The Mellow One together.
While I don't think this does anything to make the Thornton trade look any better, it's not a bad trade for Boston. They were going to lose Stuart (I'm also in the Stuart is overrated camp), so to get two guys who will be around for a couple years is nice.
I really like Kobasew. He's just 24 and he's leaving a very rigid system in Calgary - I think he's got a strong chance of flourishing in Boston. As an added bonus, he went to BC and played a season in Lowell, so he's got some experience with the, um, locals.
Plus, if Boston keeps trading for guys who wear #19 (Sturm, Kobasew), maybe eventually they will get Thornton v2.0
"He's (Kobasew) just 24 and he's leaving a very rigid system in Calgary - I think he's got a strong chance of flourishing in Boston."
That could be true indeed.
Hey Treebob, check out a site called Hockey Analysis.com. It's full of rich stats including team-by-team salaries and terms!
Zan, i go there all the time it rocks! The only problem with it is he seems to stop updating after a while.
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