With the trade deadline less than a week away, teams around the NHL have already started making moves. The Bruins are in a strange place heading into the deadline, not being in a buying situation and not possessing many players that are overly appealing to offer to be true sellers. Don Sweeney still has a week to deal if he decides to shake things up, and while he has some time left, the Bruins have shown in the past that some of their most important deals come on deadline day itself and some led to the 2011 Stanley Cup championship.
March 9, 2006: Milan Lucic
On deadline day in 2006, Mike O’Connell made his last move as Bruins general manager, sending Sergei Samsonov to the Edmonton Oilers for Marty Reasoner, Yan Stastny, and a second round pick in the 2006 NHL Draft. The Bruins were in a major state of change post-lockout, and Samsonov was struggling with injury and production issues along with his contract being up at the end of the season. O’Connell was happy with the return of Reasoner and Stastny, but they had no significant impact on the lineup. It was the second round pick that was the most important part of this trade.
The Bruins selected Milan Lucic with the 50th pick in the 2006 draft. When he debuted for the B’s in the 2007-08 season, he came out of the gate swinging. Big hits and brutal fights, he quickly became a fan-favorite in Boston. ‘Looch’ scored 27 points in his rookie season, recording 89 PIM. He was a crucial factor in restoring the ‘Big Bad Bruins’ culture, and reviving the Montreal rivalry that had gone stale since the lockout. Over the years he gained somewhat unfair comparisons to Cam Neely, but nonetheless, he helped Boston transition into a legitimate contender again.
In 2010-11, Lucic had the most impressive season of his career. He scored a career-high 62 points and had a plus-28 rating. The line of Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton was unstoppable. He performed well in the playoffs, scoring 12 points in 25 games, leading to the 2011 Stanley Cup victory. Lucic was an integral part of the Bruins' transformation from league bottom-feeders post-lockout, to Stanley Cup champions.
Lucic played on the Bruins for four more seasons before being traded to the Los Angeles Kings in June 2015 for Martin Jones, Colin Miller, and a 2015 first round draft pick (Jakub Zboril). He finished his stint with Boston with 566 GP, 342 points, and 772 PIM. Lucic signed with the Bruins again in 2023, scoring two points in his four games played.
March 3, 2010: Dennis Seidenberg
Early on deadline day in 2010, the Bruins ended the short-lived Derek Morris experiment. They traded the defenseman to the Phoenix Coyotes for a 2011 third-round draft pick (Anthony Camara). This left an opening on the Bruins back-end, which general manager Peter Chiarelli filled soon after, trading Byron Bitz, Craig Weller, and a 2010 second-round pick (Alexander Petrovic) to the Florida Panthers for Dennis Seidenberg and the rights to Matt Bartkowski.
He made a quick impact in Boston, scoring nine points in 17 games with a plus-nine rating, but on April 3 he suffered a lacerated tendon in his left forearm, ending his season and missing the playoffs. The Bruins re-signed Seidenberg to a four-year extension in the offseason. This cemented his place in Boston for the next few seasons, where he and Zdeno Chara would form one of the greatest defensive pairings in Bruins history. Seidenberg matched a career-high 32 points during the 2010-11 season, and in the playoffs he scored 11 points and had a plus-12 rating in the 25 games leading to the 2011 Stanley Cup win.
Seidenberg played with the Bruins for five more seasons, before his time ended unceremoniously, when new general manager Don Sweeney bought out the final two years of his contract. ‘Seids’ finished his time in Boston with 401 GP, 117 points, and was a plus-54. In the 2016 offseason, Seidenberg signed with the New York Islanders and played 101 games with the team over two seasons before retiring from the NHL.
March 9, 2009: Mark Recchi
The Bruins were at the top of the league on deadline day 2009. They got even better when Chiarelli pulled off a trade that would pay off in spades on the ice and in the locker room. The Bruins traded Martin Karsums and Matt Lashoff to the Tampa Bay Lightning for a 2010 second-round pick (Alexander Petrovic) and future hall-of-famer Mark Recchi.
"To get picked up by a first-place team is really nice and comforting. It's a team that thinks I can help," Recchi told the press in a conference call. "Boston's been pretty successful the last few years with other sports. I think it's Bruins time.”
Recchi was right. The 41-year-old scored 16 points in the 18 games following the trade to Boston and went on to score six points in 10 playoff games. Recchi’s impact on the Bruins goes far past the stats sheet though. Recchi formed a line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, two future captains of the Bruins, and formed a mentor relationship with the two. Both looked up to him, he helped them to realize their full potentials. Recchi left his mark on the future leadership of the Bruins franchise.
In the 2010-11 season, Recchi scored 48 points in 81 games. In the playoffs he scored 14 points in the 25 games, including scoring three goals over Games 2 & 3 in the Stanley Cup Final and over Games 6 & 7 he recorded four assists. This effort helped the Bruins to win the Stanley Cup and was the third Stanley Cup victory of Recchi’s historic career. ‘Rex’ retired from the NHL after the 2011 Stanley Cup win, he finished his Bruins career with 107 points in 180 regular season games and 30 points in 49 playoff games. Recchi was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 13, 2017.