Boston Bruins Give Brian Rolston A Second Term Through Deadline Deal

Brian Rolston has yet to go a full NHL season, of which he has played 15 going on 16, without cracking double digits in the goal column. Although there is more than a decent chance that trend will be bucked this year, Rolston’s final overall numbers for 2011-12 will probably warrant an asterisk.

After all, until the Boston Bruins acquired him on the cusp of Monday’s NHL trading deadline, he was on a plebeian New York Islanders’ team that entered this week tied with Columbus for the third-most retched output in the league. In addition, he has missed 13 of the first 62 possible games, logging a modest 4-5-9 transcript over his 49 appearances.

Regardless, Bruins fans should, at worst, accept the transaction as better than nothing. Boston was in dire need of insurance on offense, preferably by way of a seasoned veteran, and needed to avoid sacrificing any part of its established NHL core.

General manager Peter Chiarelli managed to checkmark both fronts in the deal that imports Rolston along with defenseman Mike Mottau in exchange for a pair of AHLers in Marc Cantin and Yannick Riendeau.

Rolston is almost one week removed from turning 39, an age that eclipses the rest of the Bruins’ skaters by at least five years. And he is relatively familiar with the environs, having played 338 games in a Boston uniform in a previous stint of four-plus seasons, culminating in Patrice Bergeron’s rookie campaign immediately prior to the lockout.

Rolston also brings the requisite supply of unfulfilled hunger to the defending champions’ dressing room. His career began with a Stanley Cup title in his first of two nonconsecutive swings with the New Jersey Devils in 1995, but he has since been a part of only one playoff series victory.

That would be in 1997, when the Devils abolished Montreal in the first round and then submitted to the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. In the 15 years since then, Rolston has been a part of nine playoff runs with three difference franchises, always faltering within the first four-to-seven games.

Although he has tapered off in his one, abbreviated season on Long Island, Rolston has otherwise hovered consistently around the upper echelon of any given team’s scoring chart when available for the bulk of an 82-game ride. He placed fourth on a downtrodden Devils’ team last season with 14 goals and 34 points and had his seventh 20-goal campaign in 2009-10.

And since he first came to Boston from Colorado as part of the Ray Bourque trade in 2000, Rolston has tallied no fewer than 17 assists in a single NHL season. That, too, will inevitably end in 2011-12, but he can at least adopt a similar production pace with a smooth transition into a strike force that can still jockey for the league’s best offensive output.

With Nathan Horton’s return date still unclear and Rich Peverley down for roughly another month, Rolston ought to find himself among the top six on head coach Claude Julien’s depth chart. Or, to put it another way, he should present healthy internal competition to the likes of Benoit Pouliot and invite improvement all across the top nine.

For the moment, with Rolston, the Bruins’ game night lineup should have 11 forwards with more than one full NHL season under their respective belts plus Jordan Caron. Barring new occurrences of injury or illness, Boston will no longer need to resort to underprepared Providence players such as Carter Camper and Josh Hennessy.

If and when Horton and/or Peverley suit up again, Rolston’s insertion should automatically make the unripe Caron the top spare forward or the top Black Ace for the postseason. With the sophomore winger still nowhere near a proper playoff compete level, Chiarelli addressed his most basic need by introducing at least one new, proven face.

Beyond that, Rolston brings in a combination of size, which the Boston strike force has been missing in Horton’s absence, and both seasoning and hunger for one last run at a Cup, which they lost last spring with Mark Recchi’s retirement.