Making An NHL Roster Of Traded Bruins

Trades are a part of sports. Every team needs to make trades in order to better their status in their league. Some trades are good and some are downright bad. For the Boston Bruins, they meet both of those categories. In terms of good, getting rid of Dennis Wideman and a couple of picks for Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell was a trade the Bruins really cashed in on. But the bad ones are also there. Trading guys like Tyler Seguin and Joe Thornton are ones we’ll file under the “bad” category.

With all trades we can sit back and reflect on what could’ve been. How might your team be different had they not traded away all those guys? Like I said, trades are a part of sports. Trades need to be made in order to keep a team under the salary cap or in order to have the right amount of depth at a certain position. The Bruins made certain trades because they thought it would help their franchise. Some did and some didn’t. To this day many of their traded pieces are still playing in the NHL. With the help of the internet, I was able to put together a team of traded Bruins that are still, for the most part, playing in the NHL. Let’s take a look at the team (Credit to cap friendly.com for the roster being made):

Not a terrible team, eh? Let’s break it down by position:

Forwards: 

There are worse forward groups on current NHL rosters compared to what we have here. Tyler Seguin, Blake Wheeler, and Phil Kessel headline the group of forwards and they’re followed by Joe Thornton, Milan Lucic, Ryan Spooner, and Reilly Smith. That’s not a terrible group of guys to be leading your offense. As we get lower in the lineup we find guys like Carl Soderberg, Matt Beleskey, and Jimmy Hayes. All of those men have seen better days in the NHL, but make no mistake, they can still play in the NHL.

I honestly wouldn’t take this group of guys over the current Bruins offense, but there are certain teams in the NHL who would probably prefer this group over their current forward group.

Defense: 

The defensive group isn’t one to be scared of. Aside from Johnny Boychuk and Dougie Hamilton the group is pretty weak. The left side of Matt Hunwick, Rob O’Gara, and Ryan Lindgren is a side that would get eaten alive in the NHL today. The right side has Boychuk, Hamilton, and Steven Kampfer, so it’s a little sturdier, but nothing to be excited about. Overall, this is a defensive group that would suffer big time in the NHL. It’s undoubtedly the position that would lead to the failures of the club. 

Goaltending: 

Goaltending is tough because the Bruins haven’t traded many goalies recently. The only guy that’s still active in the NHL that they’ve traded is Martin Jones. Jones, as many people know, never suited up for the Bruins. The team only held his free agent rights for about a week before trading him to San Jose. Personally, I wouldn’t take Jones over Tuukka Rask as my starting goalie, but there are a number of goalies in the NHL that I would take Jones over. He’s a reliable starter in the NHL and would be a valuable piece for many teams in the league. As for his backup, well, there isn’t one so it looks like he’ll have to play all 82 games.

So there it is. You could fill a roster with guys that the Bruins have traded over the last 10–15 years and that roster could probably win a few games. Would they make the playoffs? Absolutely not. But the offense of this club and having Martin Jones as the starting goalie would help them grab a few wins and score some goals.

As previously mentioned, trades need to be made in sports. Some are good. Some are bad. Looking at this roster, there are a lot of names on there that make you think, “wow, that was a bad trade by the Bruins”.

Kevin Maggiore (@kevin_maggiore)