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Five days since a trade that sent him from Los Angeles to Boston, goaltender Martin Jones is on the move once again, as general manager Don Sweeney’s Bruins have sent the former LA backup to the San Jose Sharks for a 2016 first-round draft pick and prospect Sean Kuraly.
The 25-year-old Jones, who had four wins and a .906 save percentage in 15 games this past season for the Kings, was part of the three-piece return the Kings sent to Boston in their trade for Boston’s Milan Lucic last Friday. It was originally believed that Jones was going to be flipped in Boston’s bid to nab the ninth overall pick from the Sharks, but when that didn’t come, the focus began to shift towards the idea of the North Vancouver, B.C. native suiting up as the B’s backup in 2015-16.
Although Jones’ NHL resume features an impressive 16 wins and .923 save percentage in 29 career starts, this trade became an easy move for the B’s (and for Jones, too) when it became apparent that the Bruins couldn’t offer him more than the Kings could, and that he’d be the second fiddle in Boston like he was to Jonathan Quick during his two-year stint with the Black and Silver.
And the return was simply outstanding.
The first-rounder coming back to Boston is not lottery-protected, meaning that another bad season in San Jose -- as unlikely as it sounds -- could give Boston a Top-10 pick in 2016. And Kuraly, a 22-year-old two-way center entering his senior year at Miami (Ohio) University, will eventually join a Boston organization already featuring Redhawk connections in Austin Czarnik and Reilly Smith.
It also means that in five days, Sweeney has flipped Lucic, who is entering the final year of his contract, into two first-round choices, Kuraly, and prospect defenseman Colin Miller. That is an absolute win for the B’s front office, and clearly emerging as Sweeney’s best move after a undeniable rough start.
(Jones ultimately signed a three-year, $9 million contract with the Sharks, confirming the idea that he was not going to be in the B’s plans for the upcoming season. Not at that price, of course, anyways.)
In related news, Bruin-turned-Flame Dougie Hamilton has signed a contract with Calgary.
The deal will pay the 22-year-old Hamilton $34.5 million over the next six seasons. That gives Hamilton, who had 42 points in 72 games for the B’s this past season, a $5.75 million cap-hit over the life of the contract. Would that offer sheet return meant more than the trade? Maybe. But the Bruins clearly wanted an immediate impact in a deep draft, and this lends credence to the idea that Hamilton simply didn’t want to be a member of the Black and Gold moving forward. (The Bruins offered a nearly identical contract before the trade went down, as they were willing to pay No. 27 $33 million over six years.)
Hamilton obviously declined to comment on asking for a trade out of Boston, and said that he ‘didn’t want to talk about the past’. Read as: “Yeah, I wanted out of the Hub, and no I don’t wanna say why.…
Since the trade, I’ve had people tell me that Hamilton was not disliked in the locker room as previously reported. I’ve had people tell me that he was a bit of a loner, too. But those are not reasons for wanting out of a city. No way. My best guess, and this is a mere guess, is that Hamilton didn’t see eye-to-eye with head coach Claude Julien. This, well, makes sense. Julien can be harder on his defenders given the system and what he expects out of them on a nightly basis, and you could see how that tough love approach might do more harm than good to a player with Hamilton’s mindset. This wouldn’t be the first time that Julien had bothered a player not used to being told to be better (Kessel, Phil).
This could be a singular player issue, of course. But it’s always alarming when a player wants out of a city. Especially a city with as strong of a fanbase as the Hub. If there are problems in the B’s locker room, that’s no good, either. But is that necessarily true? You’ve heard tales of the Boston room being a bit more ‘reserved’ or ‘mature’ given the fact that it’s made up almost entirely of veterans with kids and families, and while that’s far from the worst thing in the world (the Kings are an example of the flipside), you could see why that would be ‘boring’ for somebody in their early-20s like Hamilton. Beginning with Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron, it’s clear that the leaders of the Boston room expect certain behaviors and mindsets from all 20 guys in there, and there’s a chance Hamilton didn’t have that.
Stuff always leaks out of a room whenever a player leaves, and it’s always tough to pick exactly what the believe from certain sources (and where they’re coming from). But as Hamilton leaves Boston for a contract way south of the ‘$7.5 million per year’ he reportedly wanted from the Bruins, it’s become a bit tougher to believe that this a Boston not wanting Hamilton issue and not the only way around.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com