Tyler Seguin is telling his side of the story.
After an unceremonious exit from Boston in 2013, the young Dallas Stars center has blossomed into the player the Bruins hoped he could be when they drafted him second overall in 2010. Seguin, who’s among the NHL leaders in goals (28) and points (52) this season, has kept relatively mum about his time in Boston since being traded to Dallas in the Fourth of July blockbuster, but that’s changing now.
In a piece he penned for the Players’ Tribune, Seguin opened up about his off-ice reputation, the factors that led to the trade and his stint in Boston — something he believes ended too soon.
Despite the early success Seguin enjoyed in Boston, winning the Stanley Cup in 2010 and the Eastern Conference twice, he wrote that his time with the Black and Gold “unfortunately” will be “defined by my exit.” Seguin addressed the rumors and stories that portrayed him as an “immature, unfocused party animal,” and he admitted he made some questionable decisions, but none that ever affected his play.
“The suggestion that it did always bothered me because I fulfilled every role that the Bruins asked of me, whether it was leading the team in scoring as a center or serving as a winger on the third line,” Seguin wrote.
Seguin added that he believes the B’s threw in the towel on him too soon.
“Now that it’s all completely in the past, I can give you my honest answer. Do I think the Bruins gave up on me too early? Yes, I 100 percent believe that,” he wrote. “I had hoped to stay in Boston for a long time. I even put a deposit down on a house there just months before I was traded. I never got to move in.”
However, Seguin said he’ll always reflect fondly on his time with the team: “Boston is always going to be a part of me. I love the city and without question, being a member of the Bruins organization made me a stronger hockey player. For that reason, it’s nearly impossible to look back negatively on my time there.”
Thumbnail photo via Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports Images