Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has been arguably the busiest man in the National Hockey League in the weeks leading up to Friday afternoon’s trade deadline, but it appears Sweeney and company now are able to put their pencils down.
Sweeney acquired winger Tyler Bertuzzi from the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday morning, marking the third new player to be sent to Boston in the last week. Sweeney and the Bruins traded for defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway from the Washington Capitals last week, both additions which already have paid dividends just a few games into their respective tenures.
While meeting with reporters at Warrior Ice Arena on Thursday after the trade for Bertuzzi and extension of David Pastrnak, Sweeney hinted the Bruins no longer are pursuing trades.
“I doubt it,” Sweeney responded when asked if Boston could make another deal before Friday at 3 p.m. ET, as seen on NESN. “Like I said, I haven’t really tried to mess with the chemistry and it’s unfortunate that in the previous situation we lost a really good teammate in Craig (Smith).”
Smith was traded to Washington last Thursday in the three-team agreement that brought Orlov and Hathaway to Boston.
“We haven’t really tried to uproot the locker room in that sense,” Sweeney continued. “We’ve tried to complement and add to it and reinforce in some areas that we felt we could. So I don’t anticipate any more changes.”
Whether Sweeney’s sentiments will prove to be the case, of course, won’t truly be determined until Friday afternoon. However, there’s no debating that Sweeney has provided the Bruins with respectable reinforcements as the league-leading Black and Gold pursue Lord Stanley.
