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Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Great S.I. Article

From SI.com

Boston Bruins

On the spot: GM Peter Chiarelli

Greatest needs: A change in culture, a top-two defenseman; speed and skill up front; signing the team's young core forwards.

Did he fill them? Teams that miss the playoffs by 18 points, as the Bruns did last season, tend to have too many holes to fill in just one summer. Yet somehow, in the span of a few weeks, Chiarelli and assistant GM Jeff Gorton managed to re-shape a team littered with kids, malcontents and AHLers into one that could contend for the Cup -- not this year, but certainly in a four-year window.

Windows are the way of the New NHL, and the Bruins opened theirs with the signing of the top defensive and offensive free agents of 2006: Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard. Chara gives the B's a legitimate No. 1 blueliner, while Savard solidifies a second scoring line that also could feature promising sniper Phil Kessel, the fifth overall pick of this summer's draft.

Those moves alone would have earned Chiarelli/Gorton top marks, but they also inked the speedy and very underrated forward Shean Donovan as the final piece for the third line, shipped locker room cancer Nick Boynton to Phoenix for Paul Mara, and pulled off a stunning deal by shipping third-wheel goalie Andrew Raycroft to Toronto for 20-year-old Tuukka Rask -- arguably the best puck-stopping prospect in the world.
The cultural makeover the franchise so desperately needed was almost total. Chiarelli replaced Mike O'Connell. Dave Lewis replaced coach Mike Sullivan. Harry Sinden stepped down. And in a move the value of which should not be underestimated, the B's swiped Jim Benning from the Sabres to be their director of player personnel.

Add deals that will keep offensive centerpiece Patrice Bergeron draped in black and gold for the next five years, and Brad Boyes for two, and things simply could not have gone any better for the Bruins this summer.

Chiarelli gets an A.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Simply because this team start this season with the full roster in august; Chiarelli deserve an " A ". It's the 5 of september and speak about hockey and not holdout... A +

3:29 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

matt, did you bold the rask comment? ...he is not likely to be traded...at least not before the bruins get to see him in a p-bruin jersey

7:44 PM  
Blogger Matt said...

Yes, I bolded it, and after reading more about this kid, I rather keep him. Unless a unbeleivable offer came along.

8:09 PM  

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