It’s almost anticlimactic that Tomas Kaberle is now a member of the Bruins. Fans have been customizing jerseys with the Czech blueliner’s name for years now, but they can finally don those sweaters without getting funny looks.
The B’s swung a deal Friday that finally landed them the 32-year-old Kaberle in exchange for 21-year-old center prospect (and former 16th overall pick) Joe Colborne, Boston’s 2011 first-round pick, and a conditional pick, which will be a second-rounder in 2012 if the defenseman either re-signs in Boston or if the B's make the Stanley Cup finals. It was by no means a giveaway on the Leafs’ part, but the Bruins did what they had to in order to reel in a guy they have targeted for quite some time.
With this move, the Bruins have landed their biggest fish in trading season since Mike O’Connell brought in Sergei Gonchar at the 2004 deadline. As a result, and with all due respect to Dennis Seidenberg and Mark Recchi, this marks the first time in Peter Chiarelli’s time as Bruins GM that he pulled off a blockbuster to significantly improve the club for the final month and a half of the season.
What Kaberle brings to the Bruins is undeniable. He gives them another guy on the blue line capable of playing significant minutes, and gives them the veteran puck-moving defenseman (hockey’s equivalent of “DE/OLB 'tweener” in the Big Book of Overused Sports Clichés) they had been clamoring for since they shipped Dennis Wideman to Florida in the deal that netted them Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell.
Kaberle has three goals and 35 assists for 38 points on the season. Twenty-two of those assists have come on the power play. His 38 points on the season are more than any current Bruins blueliner and would currently put him sixth on the Bruins.
Furthermore, Kaberle’s 22:28 of ice time per night would be third on the Bruins, behind only Zdeno Chara (25:54) and Seidenberg (23:40). He changes the entire dynamic of Boston’s blue line with both his ability to generate offense and his reputation as a guy capable of racking up minutes.
As for how those numbers might look once he’s wearing black and gold, Kaberle has every reason to turn it on over the rest of the season and playoffs. To use a second baseball reference, think of this as Carlos Beltran going from the Royals to the Astros. All eyes are on him and his team with high expectations, and it just so happens to be the final year of his contract. Kaberle is playing for both a Stanley Cup (something he’s never won) and a new contract (something that won’t necessarily be with the Bruins).
The move also meant that another defenseman, and potentially another forward, would be on the way out via a salary cap-clearing move, and that was exactly the case when the B's traded Mark Stuart and Blake Wheeler to Atlanta in exchange for Rich Peverley and Boris Valabik. The move improved the roster while also saving them money. Stuart didn't have a spot on the Bruins' blueline, and Perverly, who has 14 goals and 20 assists for 34 points, has outperformed Wheeler at a cheaper pricetag. Furthermore, Peverley and his $1.325 million cap hit are signed up for another year past this season.
Steven Kampfer is another guy that benefits from the Kaberle deal. The Michigan product has, in his adjustment to a new league, been more than a pleasant surprise for the B’s since being called up in Decemeber, but the acquisition of Kaberle gives them an All-Star puck-mover that will take pressure off the 22-year-old to do more in his rookie year than he may be capable of doing.
Chiarelli said prior to the All-Star break that he wanted to add “a defenseman that could log some minutes, but that’s in a perfect world.” The package that the Bruins ended up having to part with serves as the reminder that in order for the B’s to get that sought-after blueliner, it wouldn’t come cheap.
Make no mistake: This trade was not the lopsided deal many around these parts are used to the Bruins making with the Leafs. While losing a late first-rounder when you already own a top-6 pick doesn’t sting, losing Colborne does. The Bruins like their centers small and nimble (6-foot-2 Patrice Bergeron is the team’s tallest pivot), so it would have added an interesting dynamic to one day see the 6-5 Colborne operating in Boston.
By the same token, there is always that logjam down the middle when trying to figure out what future lineups may look like. After this season the B’s have one more year of David Krejci (though he’d only be a restricted free agent), two more of Tyler Seguin (also a restricted free agent at the end of his deal), three more of Bergeron, and six more of Marc Savard.
The Bruins are probably in your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine mode regarding how much longer Savard actually ends up playing, but nevertheless, they have four big-name centers under contract that don’t appear to be going anywhere. Campbell will be an unrestricted free agent after next season, but it’s hard to imagine Colborne being properly utilized as an “energy line” player, and it’s even harder to imagine this team letting Campbell walk after seeing what he’s brought to the B’s.
There is no denying that Kaberle gives the Bruins something that they need right now, and the fact that they moved as much as they did to acquire him shows that they believe this can be the year that Boston fans spend late May and early June watching hockey rather than lamenting another second-round exit.
View the original article here
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.
