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Chiarelli vs. O’Connell

by Mike Chen on 02/10/09 at 01:41 PM ET
Comments (7)

Much of the Boston media’s talk today surrounds the pretty obvious topic of Joe Thornton and whether or not his departure was good. I think we can all agree that for the actual transaction, then-GM Mike O’Connell got pretty fleeced. For a #1 center, a 100-point player and a franchise guy, he got a 2nd-line wing (Marco Sturm), a #4 defenseman with a history of injuries (Brad Stuart), and a checking center (Wayne Primeau).

Ok, but let’s look beyond that. Some people seem to think that if Thornton was still in Boston, the Bruins wouldn’t have the cap space to put together their current squad. In other words, the argument seems to be that it was trading Joe Thornton’s cap space value for free agents Zdeno Chara, Marc Savard, Michael Ryder, and the ability to resign their own players.

That’s simply not true. Savard’s cap hit is $2.2 million less than Thornton’s. Sturm’s cap hit (currently on long-term injury) was a long-term resigning at $3.5 million. I’m guessing in an alternate world, you could swap Thornton for Savard, remove Sturm from the lineup and mix-and-match players, then argue whether or not the roster was better (they wouldn’t have Andrew Ferrence or Chuck Kobasew, the players involved in the Brad Stuart deal). However, Thornton’s salary wouldn’t necessarily cripple the team’s maneuverability, so that argument goes out the window when looking at the deal.

(Quick aside: Now whether or not Thornton would have evolved into the Hart Trophy winner he is today while remaining in Boston, we’ll never know. And for those that point to Thornton’s supposed ineptitude in the playoffs, look at these numbers. With the Sharks, Thornton has 30 points in 33 games.)

Instead, I think it’s better to put things in the context of former-GM Mike O’Connell and current GM Peter Chiarelli. Because ultimately, the reach of the Thornton deal doesn’t really directly impact the team that much anymore—Sturm’s out with injury, the other guys are gone, and no major draft picks were acquired from the deal.

O’Connell was GM from 2000 to early 2006, and he managed to anger fans early by trading Jason Allison at his peak for Glen Murray and Jozef Stumpel due to budget concerns. However, things righted themselves and the team performed reasonably well early on as Thornton matured into the #1 center position. Despite overpaying for some free agents (most notably, the absurd Martin Lapointe contract) and getting mixed returns on some experiments (Bryan Berard, the revolving door of goaltending), the Bruins thrived in the pre-lockout season of 03-04, finishing second in the Eastern Conference.

After the lockout, though, things soured pretty quickly for the Bruins. They quickly lost Michael Nylander, Sergei Gonchar, Brian Rolston, and Mike Knuble to the post-CBA free agent madness. O’Connell nabbed Alexei Zhamnov, who offered up mediocre numbers before ultimately disappearing to injury. He gave Brian Leetch a one-year try, which didn’t do much to the future Hall-of-Famer’s legacy. And then, with the Bruins struggling to figure something out with their depleted roster, O’Connell pulled the trigger on the Thornton deal. A few months later, O’Connell was gone, though one of his final moves as GM was re-signing Tim Thomas to an extension that carries through this season.

Some GMs have their tenures defined by a single transaction. It doesn’t matter that O’Connell crafted a pretty strong 2003-04 team that peaked with a 104-point season. The fact that he acted rashly and swiftly on the Thornton deal, the fact that he pulled the trigger without starting a bidding war for a #1 center in his prime, that alone has defined O’Connell’s reign.

As for Chiarelli, even though he’s at the helm of this current squad, he’s not invincible but so far almost all of Chiarelli’s seemingly questionable moves have proven to be winners. The Brad Boyes-for-Dennis Wideman deal was a high-risk deal that ultimately provided equal value, though it certainly took some time to get there. The signings of Chara and Savard were questioned at the time, though they’ve worked out. Many people scoffed at getting a recycled coach in Claude Julien; however, Julien has shown that he can adapt and thrive with a new, aggressive style emphasizing speed.

So, is Chiarelli a genius and O’Connell an idiot? It’s not that simple. A number of key Boston players were drafted under O’Connell (Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Tim Thomas, Mark Stuart). In fact, if you look at the overall roster, it’s an amalgamation of both O’Connell and Chiarelli. O’Connell’s seemingly greatest downfall was in the area of signing players—either letting key players go, picking the wrong guys, or foolishly overpaying as a reactionary move. A few months after Peter Chiarelli took control, Bruins CEO Harry Sinden stepped down, and one has to wonder just how much influence Sinden’s legendary tight-wad attitude had over O’Connell’s rollercoaster tenure. Considering Sinden’s erratic record as GM in the decade before O’Connell took over, I’m guessing Boston fans have their true villain right there.

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Tags: Boston+Bruins, Joe+Thornton, Mike+O'Connell, Peter+Chiarelli,

Comments

Harrry Sinden was awful. Laziest GM in the NHL....he was living off his resume for the last 20 years. O’Connell wasn’t that bad but he was Harry’s guy so he had to listen to the fool since he was still hanging around because he was Jacob’s buddy keeping salaries down. Once he was gone they got a real legitimate NHL GM and started doing things professionally instead of half azzed. O’Connell drafted alot of good young players but the Lockout killed him and then he became the fall guy. As for Thornton.....O’Connell was right. He’s very overrated. Marco Sturm has scored more goals since “the trade” went down

Posted by kevin from boston on 02/10/09 at 01:54 PM ET

As for Thornton.....O’Connell was right. He’s very overrated. Marco Sturm has scored more goals since “the trade” went down

Apparently you’ve mistaken Thornton for a goal scorer. Thornton has outscored the three guys he was traded for by almost 70 points since the trade.

Posted by HockeyJoe from Upstate New York on 02/10/09 at 02:23 PM ET

Thornton is a 6’5 version of Marc Savard.....with no heart

Posted by kevin from boston on 02/10/09 at 04:07 PM ET

You buried the lede: Harry Sinden helped the J. Jacobs do to the Bruins what Bob Pulford/Bill Wirtz did to the Blackhawks: made a Cartel Six Team a laughingstock.

Current version is Glen Sather (another guy living off the fumes of decades-old glory) making a mess of another cornerstone franchise. Give Bob Gainey enough time and he’ll do the same to the Habs what Kevin Lowe and the other Boys from the Long Yellow Bus are doing to the Oilers.

Why can’t owners bring themselves to fire super-annuated idiots?

Posted by islander on 02/10/09 at 07:38 PM ET

Oh, and any Bruins fan who saw that game against NJ where the Bs coughed up the game off a defensive zone faceoff where Sleepy Joe could barely be motivated to wave his stick at the puck can see why he didn’t last another 24 hours in Beantown.
He’s brutal and will never win a Cup. Ever.

Posted by islander on 02/10/09 at 07:41 PM ET

Wow, harsh on Joe. No heart? Will never win a cup? Your telling me if he played 4th line for the Red Wings last year, he would have dragged them all down? C’mon, lets be real.

Maybe he did play poorly at inopportune times for the B’s (because, you know, we all handled pressure amazingly at 18-24 years old). Shoot, Marc Savard couldn’t even GET his teams to the playoffs until last year! Talk about someone with no heart!

Seriously though, basing the evaluation of one player on the entire team’s success is asinine. As is permanently labeling a player from a 20 game sample size. As Mike said, Thornton has been a virtual PPG player in the playoffs since coming to SJ, while taking the team into the second round. Marc Savard has done no such thing.

Marc Savard and Joe Thornton are both great players who play the game hard. Joe Thornton is better, and their goals of winning the Stanley Cup will rest only partially on their shoulders.

Posted by Ruben from San Francisco on 02/11/09 at 03:56 PM ET

No heart? I wrestled twice with a cracked rib and it was the most painful thing I have ever done. Now imaging taking checks, skating, and driving the net in an NHL playoff series with injured ribs. That not only requires heart, but a huge pain threshhold.

There are fans in Boston who get it, and fans in Boston who along with Kevin Paul Dupont ran Thornton out of town and forced the GM to make a massive blunder. At least with Sinden gone the team can actually pay players.

One flashback from NESN in the leadup to the game featured Al Iafrate. How would the team’s fortunes have changed if they could have had a healthy Iafrate paried with Ray Bourque for a season or two? Look at the impact puck moving defensemen made in the Western Conference playoffs the last few seasons. With actual room to skate and shoot they would have been devestating.

Posted by PJ on 02/12/09 at 10:39 PM ET

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About Mike Chen’s Hockey Blog

Mike Chen prides himself in being the only hockey writer integrating puck discussion with both Morrissey quotes and Star Wars references. Since 2004, he’s blogged about all things hockey and currently contributes to FoxSports.com, the Battle of California, and RotoRob.

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