Did the Bruins win the Charlie Coyle trade?
By Scott Roche
Did the Boston Bruins get the best of the Minnesota Wild in the 2019 trade for Charlie Coyle?
At the trade deadline in February of 2019, the Boston Bruins were looking to add depth up front for what they hoped would be a long run in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
General manager Don Sweeney made a call to the Minnesota Wild and was able to swing a deal that landed Boston native Charlie Coyle for Ryan Donato and a fifth-round draft pick. At the time of the deal, it was not a deal that was not seen as a trade that would move the needle in the Eastern Conference.
Coyle, however, came to the Bruins and played a major role in the Bruins advancing to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final that year and he now finds himself as a key piece of the Black and Gold moving forward.
Coyle scored nine goals and had seven assists in the playoffs in 2019 with a plus-eight, but this past season, Coyle was a valuable part of the Bruins with his ability to fill in different needs that the team had.
His natural position for the Bruins is centering their third line, but yet again, as they struggled to find secondary scoring on the right-wing on the second line with David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk, Coyle was skating shifts on the second line. Coyle even found himself on the Bruins second-ranked power-play unit and responded with five points.
The 28-year old, who was drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the 2010 draft, finished the shortened 2019-20 regular season with 16 goals, 21 assists with an impressive plus-nine for a third-line player.
Donato struggled in Minnesota and has already been traded.
After an impressive start with the Wild during the2019 regular-season following the trade, this past season was a disappointment for the 24-year old who was drafted by the Bruins in the second round in 2014.
In 22 games after the trade in 2019, Donato had four and 12 assists, but this past season in 62 games, he had just 14 goals and nine assists. His average time on ice dropped to 10:38 a game.
On Oct. 5, Donato was traded by the Wild to the Sharks for a third-round pick in the 2021 draft.
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With Coyle under contract after signing a six-year extension worth $31.5 million last November and Donato beginning his career in the Bay Area with the rebuilding Sharks, this has to go down as one of, if not the best trades Sweeney has pulled off in his tenure as GM. The Bruins clearly got the best of the Wild and won the trade.