Boston Bruins Deal For Bruising Ottawa D-Man Brown

The Boston Bruins had blue line size and toughness as a need on the NHL trade deadline checklist and they’ve addressed that need with a deal for 6-foot-5 Ottawa Senators defenseman Josh Brown. The Bruins were also suitors for the similarly physical Jacob Middleton with the San Jose Sharks, but he was dealt for goalie Kaapo Kakkanen and a 2022 fifth round pick to a Minnesota Wild hockey club that’s clearly bulking up.

The Boston Bruins sent a 2022 fifth round pick and first round bust Zach Senyshyn to the Senators in exchange for the 28-year-old Brown and a conditional 2022 seventh round pick.

Brown will undoubtedly serve as a bruising depth defenseman that can play against the heavier opponents and has skated in 46 games this season with six assists while averaging 13:59 of ice time as a bottom-pairing defenseman. Brown can throw ‘em too as we saw when he dropped the gloves with 6-foot-7 Logan Stanley earlier this season and got the better of the other massive blueliner.

On the other end, Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney did a solid for an Ottawa native and former 15^th overall pick in the NHL Draft, Senyshyn, that wanted a fresh start with a different organization. Senyshyn played in 14 NHL games over the course of his career with the Boston Bruins but was never able to make anybody forget that the Bruins passed on Mat Barzal, Brock Boeser, Travis Konecny, Thomas Chabot, Kyle Connor and others in order to select Senyshyn amidst a stacked 2015 NHL Draft class.

The 24-year-old Senyshyn had 19 goals and 31 points this season for the P-Bruins in his best AHL campaign, but it was telling that the Boston Bruins never called him up to Boston at any point this season amidst waiver requirements. The Brown trade continues a busy few days after Sweeney dealt for high-end Anaheim Ducks defenseman Hampus Lindholm and signed Jake DeBrusk to a two-year contract extension that may preclude a deadline deal.