On Johnny Boychuk’s Boston homecoming, Bruins GM under fire

Last season, Garth Snow got aggressive for the New York Islanders, and it was a mistake.

Acquiring Thomas Vanek was a redundant move. It was clearly a rental, as everyone and their mom knew he was going to Minnesota, or at the very least not staying on Long Island. It cost the Islanders a first-round pick in a draft so deep that it probably reaches the Earth’s core.

This season, Garth Snow was patient, and it’s been brilliant so far.

He knew he had two things coming into this season: a weak blueline and a ton of cap space. He knew the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins had two things: a surplus of defensemen and cap problems. So like a frugal shopper waiting for that party dress to hit the clearance rack, Snow acquired Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk, who were thrown together as a pairing and have been part of the foundation for the team’s stunning start.

Boychuk has six points in six games, averaging 22:50 per game. Five of those points have come on the power play, and that’s where the biggest change has come for Boychuk vs. his time in Boston: 4:07 of ice time so far per game on the man advantage for the Islanders; he averaged 0:18 seconds per game on the power play with the Bruins last season.

But that’s because the Bruins had a logjam in front of him: Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug and Dougie Hamilton all played more on the man advantage.

It’s that logjam that jettisoned Boychuk to the Islanders. At the time of the trade, he noted the Bruins had eight defensemen.

“Somebody had to go, and it was me,” he said.

The Bruins could have waited, playing out the season up against the cap before cutting bait with Boychuk in the offseason, when he’s unrestricted. Instead, they opted to move him.

And now Peter Chiarelli’s taking a beating for it. From Eric Wilbur in the Boston Globe:

Less than three weeks ago, Thursday night’s game against the Islanders was little more than an early-season throwaway game for the Bruins. That was before Peter Chiarelli went and angered the masses by trading popular defenseman Boychuk to an NHL franchise that might as well be in Siberia for all the relevance they should muster this season.

Now, Thursday night is as much about Bruins fans welcoming Boychuk back to his old haunts as it is sticking it to Chiarelli, who created the very salary cap shambles that forced him to surrender a top-four defenseman on the eve of what might be another run at the Stanley Cup.

… In many ways, Boychuk made the most sense to go in order for the Bruins to create some cap relief. That doesn’t relieve Chiarelli of the blame though. This is still all his fault for mismanaging the cap to the degree where someone with even the slightest knowledge of the financial workings of the NHL could foresee this was going to become a problem eventually, the way the GM handed out three-year deals like BOGO frozen yogurt coupons at the mall.

Ouch.

Snow, meanwhile, waited in the weeds for the Bruins to get capped out, knowing something would shake loose. It was Boychuk, and he’s having a transformative effect on the Islanders.

The “rings in the room” argument for player acquisition is a myth, but it’s hard to argue that adding a guy from a prestige team who brings it every single shift sets a tone for a roster that’s still trying to figure out this whole “playoff contention” thing.

Now he returns to Boston with an Islanders team that’s tied with them in the standings – a team on the upswing, while we’re all trying to figure out which way the Bruins are climbing.

“It’ll be different to be on the other side,” said Boychuk earlier this month. “The fans, the whole city was always behind us.

“Well, most of the time, depending on how the game was going.”

One assumes he’ll get a hero’s welcome tonight.

 ***

More from Yahoo Hockey