Peter Chiarelli may no longer be the GM of the Boston Bruins, but he can't seem to keep his name away from the team when it comes to media reports and ruminations. Maybe that's because, despite all the successful decisions Chiarelli made during his tenure and the Stanley Cup he helped aid the team to in 2011, there were also an overabundance of head-scratching and, in some instances, downright awful moves that ultimately doomed the team and his time with the franchise. There may be yet another to add to the list. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.ca posits that last offseason's unexpected trade of defenseman Johnny Boychuk may have been driven by Chiarelli's belief that the team could only afford one of either Boychuk or Dougie Hamilton. Chiarelli, of course, ultimately chose Hamilton, who is now a Calgary Flame, traded away by the team and new GM Don Sweeney this offseason amid reports that he simply wasn't a good fit in Boston, and Boychuk just inked a new seven-year extension with the ascending New York Islanders.
Yet another of those reports regarding Hamilton emerged on Wednesday as Joe Haggerty of CSN New England penned a deep-dive column exploring the issues that divided the Bruins locker room, doomed the 2014-15 season and brought Chiarelli's time with the organization to a close. In it, he asserts that many of the Bruins players felt that the Boychuck deal never should have happened and that Hamilton and young forward Reilly Smith were unable to play the "Bruin Way" and weren't willing to "pay the price to win in Boston."
What it all ultimately seems to boil down to is a Bruins franchise forced to something of a crossroads by the decision-making of a desperate GM. Chiarelli, perhaps attempting to get out ahead of the Bruins aging core, attempted to begin the transition to a new wave of Boston NHLers by shipping out Boychuk in favor of the younger Hamilton. Unfortunately, his transition began with what could, in hindsight, be termed an incredible miscalculation. Boychuk's voice was an important one in the locker room and the Bruins never seemed able to overcome his loss, in the dressing room or on the ice.
Per Friedman, one of the "unconfirmed" stories he was hearing around Boston last year was that veteran players were upset with "new blood" getting power play time. Warranted or not, that's the type of issue that needs to be quashed by a strong locker room of players more concerned with winning and less with personal stats.
What this means for Boston going forward remains to be seen, but it sounds as if the Bruins veteran core better get used to the idea of change. Maybe not this season. Maybe not even next. But soon, this Bruins team is going to look much different than it has in the recent past.
