Bruins Stood Pat At Deadline; Sweeney Impressed With Orlov

As expected, the Boston Bruins stood pat on the actual NHL Trade Deadline Day after making two notable trades over the last eight days.

“Alright, nothing to report so time to go home,” Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney joked as he took the podium at Warrior arena about 35 minutes after the 2023 NHL trade deadline had passed on Friday. “No, you guys have waited, so I’m sure you have questions.”

On February 23, the Boston Bruins sent forward Craig Smith, a 2023 first-round draft pick, a 2025 second-round draft pick and a 2024 third-round draft pick to the Washington Capitals for forward Garnet Hathaway and defenseman Dmitry Orlov. The Minnesota Wild also played a role in the trade. With the Capitals retaining 25-percent ($2.5M) of Orlov’s remaining cap hit, the Wild will picked up the tab for $1.2M as well, and the Bruins sent them their 2023 fifth rd pick for that and got prospect Andrei Svetlakov back as well.

A week later – and as a result of potentially regular season-ending injuries to wingers Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno – the Bruins acquired winger Tyler Bertuzzi in exchange for a 2024 first round pick (top-10 protected) and a 2025 fourth round pick with Detroit retaining 50 percent of Bertuzzi’s salary.

So, as the trade deadline approached on Friday, the common feel was the Boston Bruins were done, and that feeling proved to be correct.

Sweeney was asked if anything came across the NHL trade chatter wire amongst general managers in the final hours before the trade deadline at 3 p.m. ET on Friday?

“Yeah, I mean we. …you never really know what other teams are going to present when you get close to the deadline,” Sweeney replied. “There were some things that we were certainly contemplating but we’ve had some moving parts over the last ten days or so but we wanted to make sure if we were gonna take her any further, we wanted to make sure that we were doing it for all the right reasons that fit for us, and not being disruptive. …obviously, Tyler’s gotta a chance to get into our lineup tomorrow and get acclimated. I’m very happy with the way ‘Orly’ [Dmitry Orlov], and Garnet [Hathaway], have come in and been part of it. So, we were trying to be cognizant of all that stuff.”

Obviously Bertuzzi is yet to don the Spoked B in a game, and will do so tomorrow. However, Orlov has made an instant impact. After going pointless in his first game with the Boston Bruins in a 3-1 win over the Canucks in Vancouver last Saturday, Orlov had two assists in a 3-2 win over the Oilers in Edmonton this past Monday. He then followed that up with two goals and an assist in a 4-3 win over the Flames in Calgary the next night, and then a goal and an assist in a 7-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden on Thursday night.

Hathaway added an assist in the wins over the Oilers and the Sabres.

Sweeney was asked about the instant impact Orlov, who won a Stanley Cup with the Capitals in 2018, has had on the Bruins Friday.

“Obviously, we’re extremely happy, and I think he is as well in terms of how he’s come in, and earned the respect of everybody just from Day 1, just wanting to put his work boots on and just join the team,” Sweeney said of what so far has been his best acquisition during this season. “Now he’s won. So that automatically. …he walks through the door and people are like, ‘This guy wants to win; wants to win again’ and you’re seeing quickly, you know, scores goal and the guy has been embraced, and how genuinely excited he is for each and every one of his teammates. It says a lot about what he wants to accomplish as a hockey player, and it’s the thing we were hoping for.”