BOSTON — Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli might have improved his team some Wednesday, but he and his staff certainly didn’t make a splash before the NHL trade deadline.
The B’s acquired defenseman Andrej Meszaros from the Philadelphia Flyers shortly before the deadline and also claimed defenseman Corey Potter off waivers from the Edmonton Oilers. They’re not blockbusters by any stretch of the imagination, rather depth moves made with an eye on a deep playoff run where inevitably there will be injuries and depth is at a premium.
But there’s still part of Chiarelli that wishes he could have done a little bit more.
“Well there was a — there were a few good deals that we were in, and yeah, a little disappointed those deals (didn’t happen),” Chiarelli said. “Sometimes those deals come around in the summer and in the fall, so you lay groundwork. That’s what happens, too, at these, at trade deadline, is that you lay some groundwork for some deals later on, too. And we felt we did that, too. But I thought we were in a couple deals where it would have been good for the acquisitions.”
The silver lining, perhaps, is that Chiarelli didn’t have to move any players off his current NHL roster, a team that currently sits atop its division and is just three points out of first place in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s the chemistry you try to maintain and preserve, and I think we’ve got a good group here,” Chiarelli said. “And it didn’t mean that I didn’t look at potentially moving guys off. Some of those discussions (for higher-end players) I was telling you about just shortly ago was to move off some (current roster) players. I didn’t really do that (move roster players), so I guess mission accomplished there.”
Despite the fact that the Bruins didn’t make a huge splash, the players in their dressing room feel good with what they’ll have the rest of the way.
“I think successful teams are built, they’re not built at the trade deadline,” center Gregory Campbell said. “They’re built beforehand, and it takes years and years of drafting, of signing different players and putting the right players together.
“It’s not necessarily about adding. Sometimes it’s about not making moves and being comfortable with what you have. You don’t just throw a team together. It takes a while to put a team together and you have to be smart about it. Obviously this organization has been very smart about the people they bring in and they take their time and they bring in who they want to bring in.”
