With the deadline approaching on Monday, Don Sweeney has made his first of hopefully one or two more trades.
It was reported by TSN’s Bob McKenzie on Wednesday that the Boston Bruins traded Ryan Donato and a fifth round pick to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for Charlie Coyle.
Not official but hearing the trade is Coyle to BOS in exchange for Ryan Donato and a fifth-round pick. Details to come.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) February 20, 2019
Nothing has been reported as official yet, but it seems as though one Boston native will be headed to Minnesota and the other will be heading home to Boston.
Donato tallied 18 points through 46 games with the Bruins and was sent to Boston’s AHL affiliate after 34 games this season.
With the Providence Bruins, the 22-year-old has tallied 12 points (seven goals, five assists) through 18 games.
Donato has a great offensive game but lacks any sort of defensive capabilities. He also wasn’t the best possession player either.
This season with Boston, he was mainly utilized on the power play where he scored a majority of his points.
Yes, its extremely early to write off Donato as a bust but he wasn’t going to help this Bruins team this year and probably not the next.
With Coyle, the Bruins are getting an established NHL player at just 26 years old. The 26-year-old broke onto the scene at just 20 years old and before that played two years at Boston University.
Through 60 games with Minnesota this season, Coyle has tallied 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists). Not the most impressive numbers, but certainly not the worst.
Coyle is a fantastic player who can play both sides of the puck. He will be able to help Boston make a run for the Stanley Cup.
Although he isn’t having a great season, the kid is just 26 years old and comes at a cap hit of just $3.2 million.
I can picture Coyle centering the Bruins third line, so really his point production isn’t terrible for a third liner.
This is probably the first of a few trades Sweeney will make ahead of Monday’s deadline. He addressed the third line center situation without giving up Jack Studnicka, Jakub Lauko, Urho Vaakanainen, Jakub Zboril, or Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson — thats a pretty sweet deal.
And don’t forget he also only gave up a fifth round draft pick as well — adding to that sweet deal.
Coyle probably hasn’t done as well this season as he’d like because he’s been playing as a right winger. His natural position is at center. If the Bruins plan to utilize him as a center, he will probably play much better.
All in all, this is a pretty good deal made by Sweeney. He addressed one of the teams needs while only shipping out Donato and a fifth round pick.
If he makes another trade for a second line right winger, Boston’s lines could look like this:
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci – Possible 2RW Trade
Cehlarik-Coyle-Heinen
Kuraly-Acciari-Wagner
Don’t forget the B’s also have David Backes and Joakim Nordstrom so some combination of these players will be much better than the Bruins current situation.
Although Donato is gone, the Bruins are getting a much better player defensively in Coyle.