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Who says things don’t get done on Independence Day? In what’s a special year due to the late finish to the season, the Bruins and Stars sent off some early fireworks on the Fourth of July by completing a blockbuster trade. Following many Draft rumors, Tyler Seguin is no longer a Bruin. The center was finally dealt as part of a seven-player trade. Perhaps the night life caught up. The Bruins weren’t pleased with Seguin off the ice. The key pieces are Seguin and Loui Eriksson, who goes from Dallas to Boston.
The official announcement came down an hour ago. The Bruins send Seguin, Rich Peverley and Ryan Button to the Stars in exchange for Eriksson, Joe Morrow, Reilly Smith and Matt Fraser. In order to complete the trade, Eriksson agreed to waive his no-trade clause. A no-brainer with a chance to play in Boston and compete for a Stanley Cup. Eriksson turns 27 on July 15 and has three years remaining on a contract that pays him an average of $4.25 million. He’s less expensive than Seguin, who is set to begin a new six-year deal worth $34.5 million that averages out to $5.75 million and runs through 2018-19.
Seguin is a great talent who’s only 21. Acquired as part of the Phil Kessel blockbuster with Toronto, he was selected by the Bruins second overall in 2010. In three seasons, he totaled 56 goals and 65 assists for 121 points over 203 games. That included three goals and four helpers during Boston’s run to the Cup in 2011. Following a big sophomore year where he set career highs in goals (29), assists (38), points (67), games played (81), plus/minus (34), power play goals (5), game-winners (7) and shots-on-goal (242), Seguin tallied 32 points (16-16-32) with four PPG, 2 GW and a plus-23 rating this year. However, he struggled in the postseason only notching one goal and seven assists with Boston losing the Cup to Chicago.
Part of that was due to coach Claude Julien, who preferred Jaromir Jagr on the top line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. Jagr had his own struggle failing to light the lamp for only the second time in his career. He still had 10 assists. Seguin made some key plays despite inconsistency. He’s awfully young to give up and should benefit from a scenery change that’ll allow him to center the Stars’ first or second line depending on Jamie Benn. Benn shifted to center in ’12-13.
The Stars parted with a smart hockey player in Eriksson, who should fit right in in Beantown. For his career, he’s played 501 games and tallied 150 goals with 207 assists for 357 points. He’s a disciplined player who only has 114 penalty minutes over seven seasons. The former All-Star has scored at least 26 goals-or-more in four seasons including a career best 36 in ’08-09. He’s posted three 70+ point seasons and went 12-17-29 in 48 GP this year. He definitely can improve and should on a better roster. The Bruins gave up penalty killer Rich Peverley. Eriksson is strong on the PK and a shorthanded threat. For his career, he has seven shorthanded goals.
With David Krejci and Bergeron the Bruins’ top two centers, it’s understandable why they moved Seguin. While it’s easy to criticize them for a lack of patience, they got an excellent return also landing D prospect Joe Morrow. Morrow was drafted by the Pens and included in a deal for Brenden Morrow. Obviously, the Stars felt landing Seguin was well worth it. This is one of those trades we won’t the winner for a while. There are a lot of components. It’ll be interesting to follow the path of both teams.
