The Boston Bruins aren’t done yet. After landing Garnet Hathaway, Shane Bowers, and Dmitry Orlov last week, they’re now set to add even more punch to their group. The Bruins have acquired Tyler Bertuzzi from the Detroit Red Wings.
In return, they will send their 2024 first-round pick and a 2025 fourth-round pick. Detroit retains 50% of Bertuzzi’s remaining salary, and the first-round selection is top-10 protected.
It’s not like the Bruins need any more help, as they can become the fastest team in NHL history to 100 points with a win (or overtime/shootout loss) against the Buffalo Sabres tonight. The 47-8-5 Bruins are the class of the NHL already, and will only get better with the addition of the pending free agent forward.
Bertuzzi, 28, has only played in 29 games this season but is coming off a 30-goal campaign and is exactly the kind of in-your-face player that Boston has coveted for years.
Given the Bruins have recently lost some forwards to injury—Taylor Hall is seeking a second opinion on his lower-body issue, according to Darren Dreger of TSN—Bertuzzi could immediately get elevated into a significant role in the Boston lineup.
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that the last contract negotiations between the Red Wings and Bertuzzi were in December, with no progress on a possible extension. With recent losses turning the Red Wings into sellers, this was one of the biggest chips that general manager Steve Yzerman had available.
Landing another first-round pick means the Red Wings now have four over the next two drafts, to go along with three second-round selections this year. Whether they actually use those for prospects remains to be seen, as this week’s extension of Dylan Larkin signals the team is ready to start competing for the playoffs.
If Bertuzzi wasn’t going to re-sign, though, the Red Wings did well to land a significant asset during a down year. Limited by injury, he has just four goals on the season. Retaining half of his $4.75MM contract makes it worth it for the Bruins, as they load up for a Stanley Cup run with Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci on bargain-basement contracts.
In fact, nearly the entire Bruins forward group is on expiring deals. Bergeron, Krejci, Hathaway, David Pastrnak, Nick Foligno, and Tomas Nosek are scheduled for unrestricted free agency this summer. If the unthinkable were to happen, and Pastrnak takes his talents elsewhere (or Bergeron decides to retire), going all-in on this deadline makes perfect sense.
With more than 24 hours left before the deadline, the Eastern Conference (and the Atlantic Division in particular) continues its arms race.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet broke news of the trade on Twitter.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Perfect fit for Bertuzzi. Can’t wait to see what Stevie got for him.
Nothing
Another player moving to the loaded Eastern Conference playoff picture. I’ll be gobsmacked if a Western Conference team wins the Cup this year
My money would certainly be on the East. But hockey is unpredictable. A little puck luck or a hot goalie can ruin a season in a seven game series. The Bruins are far and away the most likely to lift the cup. But they are also one Andrei Vasilevskiy or Igor Shesterkin hot series away from getting bounced.
It’s not like the collective talent of the East helps a team win the Final. The championship will still be decided by the balance of power between two teams, not 32.
Having many talented beefed up teams in the East may cause more attrition than strength for the East finalist as well. I wouldn’t bet on the winner coming out of the East, but I will be more interested in watching their early rounds unfold.
In your face player??? Redwings are one of the softest teams in the league and when Reaves and Tkachuk bullied them where was Bertuzzi?
Injured
Not in Ottawa.
Coming off 2 broken hands this year, I’m sure Bert was told not to fight
The kid is 186 lbs. He’s not fighting Reaves.
Decent return for a player that wasn’t coming back. Detroit now has $30mill to use in the offseason.
Bertuzzi, Hathaway, Marchand… I can hear the other Eastern Conference playoff teams moaning from here.
The sound you hear all over the conference is testicles retracting into body cavities.
Hextall is dying to get blown out of the water by this team in the first round
What are you talking about. I mean granlund and his 5 mil salary is obviously the missing piece. Lol
Dumb question but what does top 10 protected mean?
If Boston’s 2024 1st-rounder somehow ends up being a top-10 pick, then Detroit does not get that pick, they have to negotiate a different pick (typically the next year’s 1st-rounder instead.) Unlikely, but put in there just in case.
Good Return for the Wings for a player who they likely would not be re-signing
someone has to be traded or sent down to meet Roster size limit.
people on leafs for no draft picks in future but the bruins are truly ALL IN. no 1st next 2, no 2nds next 3.
This is the year for them to do it. One last run with this core.
Wouldnt be shocked if Pasta left too.
Not so fast.
This aged well.
It’s common knowledge that Pasta was never going to leave
Communh Nawwlidge
Good fit for Coyle to play with..
Now they should trade Griz for some picks well his have a good yr because the guy sux in the playoffs because the games are too physical for him
Bruins making all the right moves.
Was just perusing over at the Hockey Reference site and comparing who the Preds picked ahead of where the Bruins picked Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak. What a difference scouting makes!
You’ll drive yourself mad if you look at what could have been.
Too late. When you miss as often as the Preds have in the draft, it’s hard not to notice the trend. :/
Wings trading on ice talent in Bert and Fil for potential draft talent with no dividends for years down the line. What is it Yzerman said, 1 out of 11 top picks ever even appears in the NHL? Have to trust what he is doing, and hope that it plays out, but it will now be a longer play. Hope some of the remaining “core” are up to the additional time waiting for the upswing. They aren’t getting any younger and maybe are getting a little impatient. Next might be to trade some of the future draft picks for some right now talent??? We’ll see.
Old D
Seider ain’t old and this has been the most steady D for the Wings in years. You don’t know if they will stay draft picks but if they do, Steveies crew will sniff them out. The Yzerplan stacked TB, it can work in Detroit too.
Yzerman built a great skill team in TB, but it wasn’t until that team made moves to add toughness and grit that they went on their incredible run. Yzerman seems to have learned nothing from that as he seems to once again want to build a team lacking in toughness and grit. NYR had to learn this the hard way too, toughness is coming back in a big way and it’s left Yzerman behind.
I would also say that Yzerman’s plan in Detroit has not gone so well. He once labeled his core as Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi and Athanasiou as Detroit’s core of the future. Only Larkin remains and now I guess they’re gonna have to start over. Maybe I overestimated where the Wings are. They looked really good at the start of the year, but now they’re selling off Bertuzzi after falling off significantly.
The Yzerplan isn’t working too well in Detroit though the team is obviously much better now. Still nowhere near championship caliber though. Buffalo and Ottawa are having much more success with their plans.