Posted in Transactions, Toivonen, Ex-Bruins July 23rd, 2007
Today the goaltending situation got a little clearer as former prospect Hannu Toivonen was shipped off to St. Louis for center Carl Soderberg.
Who is this Soderberg guy, you say? Here’s a snippet from hockeysfuture.com who have him listed as the #5 prospect in the Blues organiazation. He was also the 49th player taken overall in the 2004 draft.
Talent Analysis
Söderberg is a very explosive player. He is a good skater and has a powerful stride. With his quick feet he very easily gets around the opponents. He has an accurate shot, has a fine scoring touch and is a good playmaker as well. His hockey sense is top-notch and the way he handles the puck in full flight is very impressive. A strong player with great size combined with good technical skills. Earlier his defense was somewhat questionable but he has become a much better player without the puck.
Even better, he looks frighteningly like Billy Idol.
I guess this was inevitable. With his performance last year and with the acquisition of Manny Fernandez, Hannu really had no shot in Boston this year. That, and with Tuukka Rask as the current goalie-prospect-du-jour, he had a questionable future with the team in general. Without a trade he would have been forced to fight for time in Providence. So right now it appears that it’s going to be Fernandez/Thomas in Boston with Rask probably getting most of the time in Providence.
As everyone knows, I’ve been a Toivonen backer. I’ve always felt he had more of a future than Tim Thomas did as a “franchise” goalie. But, hey, when he needed to step up last year, he didn’t. By placing him in a time share role with Thomas, the Bruins tipped their hand that they wanted one of the two to step up and claim the #1 spot as his own. And, to me, I always felt that the organization preferred Toivonen since he was the high draft pick while Thomas was the “pleasant surprise” in the organization. And with pleasant surprises, you’re happy with unexpected performances but your future expectations are tempered by past performances that may not have been spectacular as the recent past. And with Tim Thomas being a former 9th round pick who kicked around in five different leagues (AHL, IHL, ECHL, Finnish SM-liiga and Swedish Elitserien) for six years before playing in Boston, the expectations weren’t as high as Toivonen’s.
But c’est la vie. Toivonen isn’t the first prospect to fail and he certainly won’t be the last. Since he’s in another division and another conference, I wish him the best of luck.
That is, until the Bruins play the Blues for the Stanley Cup in 2009.
Posted in Transactions July 17th, 2007
Today the Bruins dealt Shean Donovan to the Sens for Peter Schaefer. Frankly, I think this a nice upgrade for the B’s. Donovan’s a decent player, but had limited production last year. That and he’s essentially a journeyman…the Sens will be his seventh team since debuting with the Sharks in ‘94-95. Schaefer, on the other hand, is two years younger and nearly tripled Donovan’s point total last year (46 points to 17).
But enough about that, let’s talk beer. The acquisition of Schaefer means yet another beer-themed player to be donning the Spoked B jersey.
Let’s look at some of the frothy names off the top of my head:
Anyone got any more they can think of?
Posted in Transactions July 15th, 2007
To put it mildly, the Bruins’ 2007 offseason activity thus far has been less than noteworthy. Aside from a signing of a coach with a decent track record (Julien) and the acquisition of a decent goaltender, the transaction list has been filled with the signing and re-signings of people who may not be any better than 2nd line material (Shawn Thornton, Dennis Wideman, Bobby Allen, Brandon Bochencski, Jeremy Reich, etc.)…and that’s being generous for most of them.
And the move that MIGHT help the team the most is probably also the most controversial…the acquisition of Manny Fernandez for Petr Kalus and a 2008 pick. In essence, they required a goaltender who’s on par with, if not slightly better than current starter Tim Thomas. And they gave up a top prospect in their farm system to do it. Here’s a note to the Peter Chialrelli: when your team gives up the sixth-most shots on goal in the NHL, getting a slightly better goaltender isn’t going to fix your problem. Not unless you’re planning to put them out there as a 3rd defenseman. It’s like putting a slightly bigger bucket under that hole in your roof.
So what message is being sent by this lack of activity? Although there haven’t been any big-name acquisitions this offseason, the Bruins did splurge for Chara and Savard last off-season. Plus, they also have a young Phil Kessel to build off of. Does PC think that Dave Lewis was responsible for most of this team’s ills and that Claude Julien can take the existing talent and make them a contender? Hmmmmm….
Posted in Transactions July 2nd, 2007
For those of you reading the headlines yesterday and thought the Bruins re-acquired Joe Thornton, you were wrong…the Sharks already re-upped him on Sunday. What the Bruins DID do though, is sign tough guy (and former Canadien) Scott Thornton.
Heck, if they’re going to start signing cheap knockoffs, Colton Orr, Rene Bourque and Sergei Fedotov might still be available…
(Correction: Thanks to Russ at The Bruins Report (COUGHCOUGHnew podcast available) for reporting that it should be SHAWN Thornton…not Scott…who the Bruins picked up. I was duped by ESPN.com who has SCOTT Thornton listed as the acquisition on their Free Agent tracker. Apparently, even *they* can’t get their knockoffs straight. )
