Don Sweeney Explains How He Botched Not Re-Signing Tyler Bertuzzi
What was the Taylor Hall trade for again? Wasn’t the whole point so that you could keep Bertuzzi? The Bruins dumped Hall’s $6 million AAV to watch Bertuzzi sign with Toronto for $5.5 million? It just doesn’t add up. In case you wanted an explanation, Bruins’ general manager Don Sweeney tried to explain it. His explanation is poo, but you already knew that beforehand.
“Again, his goal – and I’ll speak more generally than just about a player on another team at this point in time – there were players that were looking for longer-term deals,” Sweeney said. “My discussions were focused around that, and some teams were in a very good position to be able to absorb shorter-term deals at the right numbers.”
“We had to go and fill our gap from [Bertuzzi], and to open up the space we needed would have required us to be more proactive and do deals that we explored, but we didn’t feel that the value was there to open up even more space,” he said.
“Again, there’s a risk-reward in the strategy,” he said. “Some teams were in position to probably — some teams have an LTIR situations they may be able to utilize and be patient in that regard. Other teams were very aggressive on Day 1. … We needed to fill some holes.”
Nope. Just an absolute brain dead response and I’ll tell you why. This just screams unorganized. Here is a perfect example. The Vegas Golden Knights, a well run oiled machine that does nothing but win, needed cap space to re-sign Ivan Barbashev. Reilly Smith was traded and the Barbashev deal was announced minutes later. I disagreed with the approach but at least there was a plan and they weren’t left empty-handed. If you’re going to trade Taylor Hall, the Bertuzzi deal should have been done. You’re allowed to be over the cap during the offseason. They do get that part, right?
His response doesn’t even make sense. It’s a fart in the wind that’s gone in 12 circles.
Is this the part where I’m supposed to pretend AJ Greer is an upgrade over what they had a year ago?
Way to go, Don Sweeney. You got Bruce Cassidy fired and then he proceeded to botch the offseason letting Bertuzzi walk. Why is this guy still employed again? I went this long and haven’t even mentioned the 2015 Draft!
