Taylor Hall Is Sent To Chicago So Boston Can Get Some Salary Cap Relief Before Free Agency Starts

 

    With very little money left available under the salary cap, the Bruins needed to make some moves to clear some space that they hopefully can use on key free agents like winger Tyler Bertuzzi. Boston got what is sure to be a very busy week started this afternoon-with the NHL Awards show, the NHL Draft and NHL free agency all happening-by trading left wing Taylor Hall along with the rights to impending unrestricted free agent left wing Nick Foligno to the Blackhawks. In exchange, the B's received restricted free agent defensemen Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula who I had never heard of before now and truthfully, you have no clue who they are either. This was a good old fashioned salary dump plain and simple and hey maybe one of those guys gives Boston some quality depth in Providence (AHL) which they have lacked for years.

    After playing in Black and Gold for parts of three seasons, it is safe to say that Hall's time here was not all that memorable hence why it is fine to say goodbye to him at this juncture. There is a reason why Chicago will be the former No. 1 overall pick in 2010's sixth NHL club. He perhaps surprisingly proved to be a team-first guy with the Bruins but clearly, wins for the most part have not been a big aspect of his career and save for his random one-off Hart Trophy (NHL MVP) season in 2017-18 with the Devils, he has never really lived up to the hype and the eye-popping skills that show up from time to time. In 158 career regular season games with Boston, Hall had 44 goals, 67 assists and he was plus-37 with 12 power play goals. Those are perfectly respectable numbers but in what should be the prime of his career at age 31, he was relegated to the third line last season with the Bruins which is just not good enough no matter how you spin it. If he had showed more consistency, there is no doubt that they would have kept him since his cap hit for the next two years is only six million dollars for each season. 

    Ironically, Hall was one of Boston's few players that really showed up in their very depressing first round exit vs. Florida a few months ago where they lost in seven games after leading the series 3-1. Taylor had eight points (5 goals, 3 assists) against the Panthers and 17 overall (10 goals, 7 assists) in 25 career playoff games for the Spoked B. Foligno was obviously just a throw in to this deal but he might actually bring a little something to the rebuilding Blackhawks as well if they can sign him. He looked washed up in his first season as a Bruin but bounced back last year with twice as many points (26) on 10 goals and 16 assists. The former Blue Jackets captain is a great leader-at least that is what NESN's "Behind The B" has led us to believe-and if he is still interested in playing, he should be helpful for whatever time he spends in Chicago which will soon have Canadian phenom center Connor Bedard with the No. 1 overall pick on Wednesday. 

    One last gut punch for the 2022-23 Bruins occurred tonight in Nashville at the NHL Awards as Boston came away with not one, not two but three major awards as expected. Center Patrice Bergeron extended his league record by winning a sixth Selke Trophy while goaltender Linus Ullmark won his first Vezina Trophy and head coach Jim Montgomery captured the Jack Adams Award in his first year in charge of Boston. Whatever became of their former head coach Bruce Cassidy anyway? Only the Bruins could pull off that nearly impossible feat and yet not advance out of the first round in that particular postseason. Ugh, they will never have a more loaded team than that as Ullmark and right wing David Pastrnak (runner-up to Connor McDavid for the Hart Trophy) were both named to the NHL's First Team while defenseman Hampus Lindholm (remember him?) was on the NHL's Second Team. No matter who is on the roster next season, Boston will still be one of the favorites to win their first Stanley Cup since 2011 but the PTSD caused from last season is sure to last for a very long time with true Bruins fans. 

UPDATE 6/27/23: This morning, Chicago signed Foligno to a one-year deal worth $4 million dollars. It turns out that being Bedard's babysitter is not such a bad life as you try to hang on in the NHL.

C's Trade Marcus Smart To Grizzlies & Get Kristaps Porzingis From Wizards In Three Team Deal

 

        It has been a rather bizarre few days for the Boston Celtics but with the 2023 NBA Draft just completed a few hours ago, we can officially say that guard Marcus Smart is now on the Memphis Grizzlies while power forward/center Kristaps Porzingis is a Celtic. I won't bore you with all the details of the three-way (hey now!) deal between Boston, Memphis and Washington but the most important part is that the longest tenured Celtic is out of here, the former Knicks All-Star/savior Porzingis comes to his fourth NBA team (NY, Dallas, Washington & Boston) and then point guard Tyus Jones goes from Memphis to Washington along with forwards Danilo Gallinari and Mike Muscala who will join him in DC from Boston. On Wednesday, it looked like another Celtics guard-Malcolm Brogdon-would be included instead of Smart in a three-way deal involving the Clippers and not the Grizzlies to acquire Porzingis but it fell apart at the last moment (the teams faced a midnight deadline for Kristaps to opt-in to his player option for next season) since Brogdon's forearm apparently is in rough shape. Brad Stevens stuck with it though and ended up making a huge move that his club so desperately needed. 

    After going to five of the last seven Eastern Conference Finals (but only winning one of them!), it was clear that the C's needed a real shake up in terms of its roster. Star wings Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are both very good but something always seemed to trip up Boston before they could get that elusive first NBA title since 2008. For his Celtics career, Smart averaged 10.6 points per game, 4.6 assists per game and 1.6 steals per game. Part of why he became so overrated was that certain local announcers and media members would focus on what they called "winning plays," ignoring the fact that he also did a bunch of dumb stuff that constantly hurt his team both on and off the court. Along with being the longest tenured Celtic-he was the sixth overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft-Smart was the unofficial captain of the team and easily the most polarizing Boston athlete this side of former Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask. 

    Much like the sad state of politics in the United States these days, Celtics fans either loved Smart or hated him, there was no in between. Always a solid defensive player (he was on the All-Defensive first team three times), Smart was named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year in 2022. For whatever reason (no Ime Udoka?), the Celts lost their way defensively this past season with Joe Mazzulla in his first year as head coach. Additionally, Smart's overinflated sense of self became comical over the last few years as he talked down to both Tatum & Brown publicly along with Mazzulla which while warranted is still a no-no. He also flops incessantly and whines constantly to the refs which really starts to wear on you when you have to watch it over and over again for nine years. Oh and he was never a great 3-point shooter to begin with but somehow the ball would always seem to find him late in games and he has the confidence of Stephen Curry so he did not hesitate to let it fly.  

    Straight out of Latvia, Porzingis took the league by storm shortly after being drafted fourth overall in 2015 by New York. He was an All-Star in 2018-ironically his last season as a Knick-but not surprisingly for a guy that is 7-foot-3 and only 240 pounds, he has battled numerous injuries since then that have caused him to bounce around to a few other middling clubs. There is no question that coming to Boston should motivate him immensely since he has only appeared in 10 career NBA playoff games (all with Dallas). For his NBA career, Kristaps has averaged 19.6 points per game, 7.9 rebounds per game and 1.8 blocks per game. Especially under Mazzulla, Boston became way too reliant on the 3-pointer and while Porzingis shoots plenty of 3s, at least he makes them at a better clip (36%) than Smart (32%). His health is by far the biggest question mark although he did appear in 65 games last season with the Wizards-his most since his second year as a Knick. He also averaged 23.2 points per game in 2022-23 which was a new career-high. 

    The bottom line is that Porzingis gives Tatum and Brown another guy that can carry the load offensively when either of them has a bad game or series (see Tatum in the 2022 NBA Finals or Brown in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals). The term Big 3 is so played out these days in basketball but at least on paper, this is by far the best running mate that they have had since they were too young when Kyrie Irving (yuck!) was here and Kemba Walker was about to go off a cliff when he was a Celtic. Kristaps will turn 28 in August so theoretically, he should be in his prime. After Smart gets over the shock of going to a new team, he will quickly realize that he is lucky to be in Memphis rather than on some rebuilding crap team like Washington. With Grizzlies star point guard Ja Morant suspended for the first 25 games of the season, Smart will be their starting point guard to begin the year on what was one of the best teams in the Western Conference last season. 

    This could be the rare trade that truly helps both teams. Porzingis gives the Celtics a uniquely skilled player that is much different from their other big guys-the ancient Al Horford and an injury-prone Robert Williams. Smart brings toughness and playoff experience to a Grizzlies team that showed this past postseason that they were not quite ready for prime time yet. Since they lost Game 7 to Miami, Boston had made its coaching staff way stronger by hiring Sam Cassell, Charles Lee, Amile Jefferson (Tatum's buddy from Duke) and former Celtics great Phil Pressey to be assistant coaches. However, those moves mean very little when they are compared to getting Kristaps and saying goodbye to their loudest/most divisive voice in Smart. We wish Marcus well in Memphis but it was time to make a real change and credit to Stevens for having the guts to get it done.