How's this for a Saturday stunner: the Boston Bruins have traded top-four defenseman Johnny Boychuk to the New York Islanders in exchange for three draft picks.
Breaking: #Isles have acquired D Johnny Boychuk from the Bruins for a 2015 2nd, a 2016 2nd and a conditional 2015 3rd round pick.
— Arthur Staple (@StapeNewsday) October 4, 2014The picks coming back to Boston are two second-round choices (2015 and 2016), and a conditional third-round choice in 2015. This trade comes as an absolute shock given the team-friendly contracts signed by Torey Krug and Reilly Smith earlier this week.
The 30-year-old Boychuk is in the last year of a contract that comes with a $3.3 million cap-hit, and has spent all but four games of his NHL career (321 games) with the Black and Gold.
Boychuk had a career-high 23 points last year, and really stepped his game up to another level when Dennis Seidenberg went down with an ACL injury.
All things considered, this is a bad trade for the Bruins. This makes them weaker in 2014-15, and without a real plan in the event of another injury to the top-four of the defense.
The Bruins also placed Jordan Caron, Craig Cunningham, and defenseman David Warsofsky on waivers earlier this afternoon.