Boston Bruins: Peter Chiarelli and Cam Neely: Do They Know What's Best?

With all the changes and adjustments that need to be made, a lot of Boston Bruins fans are asking President Cam Neely and GM Peter Chiarelli the similar question that was asked of former President Harry Sinden and former GM Mike O'Connell: do they know what is best for the Boston Bruins?

They ask this because of the recent history in the previous management, where they had a team of stars in Joe Thornton, Adam Oates, Ray Bourque, Bill Guerin, Brian Rolston, Mike Knuble, Nicholas Boynton, and Byron Dafoe.

During this time, the Bruins making the playoffs was all but certain. Then the wheels started to come off.

One by one, there were key players traded for little to no return at the beginning, and the Bruins were starting to become the team that "might" make the playoffs.

There were players such as Michael Nylander, Sean O'Donnell, Knuble, Rolston, and Sergei Gonchar in the 2003-04 season. O'Connell blamed owner Jeremy Jacobs for not signing the free agents. While this part could be true, it is the club's president and GM's role to get the job done. Where was Sinden in all of this?

The final straw was when Mike O'Connell traded Thornton (then the most valuable player in the NHL and Hart Trophy winner) after he signed a contact extension, and Sergei Samsonov for practice pucks.

This put the Bruins out of playoff contention as the Bruins missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in decades (1966-67 and 1967-68 were the last consecutive seasons the Bruins missed postseason play).

The thing that many people did not understand was that the Boston Bruins were contenders and were not missing the playoffs. Although the fire sale did occur, players like Patrice Bergeron, Mark Stuart, P.J. Axelsson, and David Krejci were acquired under O'Connell's tenure. While they did and are proving to be good moves, they didn't make sense at the time on a roster of stars that were capable of taking it all the way.

Still, the Bruins were faithful that they had enough and there was a huge public outcry to oust the current management. Their wish was granted.

Mike O'Connell was fired the following season on March 25th, 2006, and Joe Gorten was at the helm as the interim GM. Shortly after that, Peter Chiarelli of the Ottawa Senators was called upon to take on the job.

Harry Sinden stepped down as president and became the Senior Adviser to Jeremy Jacobs.

Just recently, former Bruins forward and the first player to be defined as a power forward, Cam Neely, has taken the role as the the eighth president in the club's history.

So far with Chiarelli, there has been some rebuilding that occurred during the last four years by making some trades and draft picks. Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, Zach Hamill, Joie Colborne, Jordan Caron, Ryan Button, Jared Knight, Ryan Spooner, and Tyler Seguin were the most notable to date.

The most questionable trade that he has made thus far was that of Phil Kessel. Kessel was playing as advertised, getting the goals needed to help lift the Bruins out of the have-not ranks. 

In the 2006-07 rookie season, he played well with 11 goals and 18 assists, earning him 29 points. In just his second season, he improved to 19 goals and 18 assists to get 37 points. Kessel 's third season was very successful as he amassed 36 goals and 24 assists for 60 points.

Kessel was asking for more money after his successful season. With the cap world and other players that were contributing with a proven track record, Chiarelli traded Kessel to the Toronto Maple Leafs for first and second round draft picks for 2010 and a first round pick in the 2011 draft.

While Kessel will be a great player in the NHL, he was expecting too much, too soon on a team that was more than halfway through a rebuild.

Some fans were contemplating what Chiarelli was thinking while others recognized that one player doesn't make the team— even if Kessel was a perfect fit for center Marc Savard.

While Kessel had a good first year in Toronto, he did not top his best of 60 points, and fell from a plus/minus of plus-23 to minus-8 year over year. The Maple Leafs were in 29th place out of a possible 30 teams in the league. Ironically, he registered just one assist in five games against the Bruins last season and was a minus-4.

This put the Bruins at the second over all pick in the standings and guaranteed third over all pick in the lottery. The lottery changed nothing and Boston got Tyler Seguin as the second pick in the 2010 Draft.

Current rumors put center Marc Savard in trade talks with possibly the Ottawa Senators or the Toronto Maple Leafs; both divisional rivals.

So far, there has been chatter that Ottawa will not pursue Savard as they are close to the cap and Toronto's GM, Brian Burke, has stated he will wait until the UFA to look for any additions. He also added that Savard is not in that plan.

Most say that the move to Toronto would not make any sense as it would give Toronto a one-two punch in reuniting Kessel and Savard, who proved to play very well together. But, it could also further dilute the 2011 draft pick by providing that offensive power to the maple Leafs.  

On the other hand, Savard just came off a Grade-2 concussion—one of four in his career. I cannot see how the Bruins would trade to Toronto for the reasons stated, but stay tuned to this one.

Burke has been known to play cat and mouse with the media and he knows full well to be careful to say anything regarding trades in risk of breaking the anti-tampering rules.

Most recently, Calgary is interested in Savard (reportedly).

David Warsofsky, of Boston College, was traded for center Vladamir Sobotka. The Bruins, rich in quality centers, needed to clear the position when they got center Tyler Seguin in the draft. Although Seguin will most likely play the wing, the center roster still needed to be cleared and it seemed that Sobotka was low on that totem pole.

Warsofsky is a puck-moving defenseman, which the Bruins needed, and to top it off he is a native of Marshfield, MA. Playing as a kid with the Bruins jersey, he gets an opportunity to play for real at the Garden. Currently, his plan is to stay in college.

Does Chiarelli know what he is doing?  So far, he hasn't made any wrong moves, but that is still yet to be determined.

This is Cory Ducey saying "Hit Hard, But Keep It Clean ."