Ward move not done with Kessel in mind
Chiarelli
Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said today during a conference call after his trade of Aaron Ward to Carolina for Patrick Eaves and a fourth-round pick that the deal was not done to clear cap space for restricted free agent Phil Kessel but more because he’s “looking at another defenseman.”
Chiarelli would not say whether that player would come to Boston via trade or free agency. In a follow-up answer, he said he “would expect to add a defenseman.”
As for Kessel, Chiarelli continued to hold the line by stressing that he will match any offer sheets presented to the winger and then he wants to retain Kessel’s services.
We will see Kessel in a Bruins Uniform and Char I think your right, if someone wanted Kessel they would have made a offer for him already. I say Phil sign for one year and go from there.
Use a little common sense.
Kessel is an RFA with next to no leverage. Unless some other team blows him away with an offer sheet (and how many other teams have massive amounts of cap space, and are willing to gamble on a 21-year-old who won’t even be ready at the start of the season?), the Bruins will retain him.
Ok, well this is just how it goes now in the NHL Cap days. But of more importance, do Thornton or Lucic still go beat the snot out of Scott Walker for his playoff cowardly action on Ward even if the offender and the offendee are now on the same team? What’s the take on the unwritten rules on this? We need to unwrite some more down I think.
My take, game 2 this year, hunt Walker down….beat the crap out of him…..then find Ward……give him a wink….and go back to playing hockey….score settled….go Bruins!!!
chiareli also said lewis wasn’t going to be fired, a few weeks passed and boom!
if this move was done to strengthen defense, how can anyone in their right mind think that he will keep kessel? at this point, assuming chiarelli finds a defenseman that he has always talked about acquiring, someone of the quality to take up the remaining cap space (4-5mil), he will have to trade both kobasew and sturm, or ryder alone, just to make the cap room for kessel and a depth player to round out the loss of 2 forwards. not saying its out of the realm of possibility but all signs point to kessel being gone. julien wants ryder in town, kobasew is the type of player, although a little small in size, that chiarelli wants in favor of smaller fast guys like kessel, and sturms production along with kobasew, ryder, a continuing to develop lucic, a year seasoned wheeler, and a year of full recovery for bergeron, and a healthy krejci, chia probably believes that his scoring troubles minus kessel are solved.
i hope to god that kessel stays because i like him a lot and i think he fills some roles that the b’s desperately need (speed, goal scoring, young, and getting better) just as much as the type of players chia says he wants (big, physical, puck movers, puck protection/possession, puck pursuit) it takes all kinds to build a successful team, chia knows this and thats why he says he will keep kessel, but im not sold
//As for Kessel, Chiarelli continued to hold the line by stressing that he will match any offer sheets presented to the winger and then he wants to retain Kessel’s services.//
I hope to God this puts a stop to the “I smell a Kessel trade” baloney.
Then again, it probably won’t.