Twitter is a wonderful thing, and I mean that. It’s honestly fascinating. Ideas are launched, gain traction, and next thing you know it’s trending in your city. But while most trending topics tend to delve into your personal life, such as the “#whyImsingle” trending topic, in Boston many of them tend to gravitate towards the professional sports side of life. That was no exception on Thursday, one of the dullest nights in the calendar year of sports, when Bostonian’s took their Twitter accounts on the way to the trending topic of “#BringBobby2Boston.”
Was Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine stuck in an airport? No, that couldn’t be it, ’cause most people would want him to stay put. Did the Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan decide he was going to hold out unless the Boston paper upped their offer? Well, we’re on the right track, but that’s not it. Instead, it was the local hockey enthusiasts having their say with dream trade scenarios that all ended up with the B’s landing Anaheim’s Bobby Ryan.
Launched by the minds behind 98.5 The Sports Hub’s D.A Show — a weeknight program airing from 6 p.m to midnight — Boston hockey fans spent their warm summer nights developing trades that would land the Ducks’ top-six forward in Boston, with responses varying from downright impossible to incredibly realistic. Focusing on the latter, just how realistic is such a dream-like event?
Could the Bruins really make a push to land the disgruntled Duck?
Well, it’s not secret that the 25-year-old winger wants out given the way he’s been treated by the organization when it comes to his name appearing in trade talks.
“Anaheim to me has been a team over the past year that really has shown me nothing to prove that they want me here, unfortunately,” Ryan said back on the first night of the NHL Draft last June. “Obviously, it’s not the ideal situation. When you get drafted, you want to win championships with that team and every time they look to add a piece to the puzzle, I’m the piece going the other way.”
But the fireworks didn’t end there…
“I gotta be honest with you. At this point, I don’t care: Move me,” Ryan said, clearly not holding back. “It’s just tough going to the rink every day knowing that if something goes wrong, you’re going to be the guy moved.”
I’d say that answers that part of the equation. Next comes the asking price.
It’s been said that the Ducks want a center capable of playing on their second line behind Ryan Getzlaf — an unrestricted free agent next summer — to help lessen the load put on the captain’s shoulders. And in Boston, given the long-term commitments the Bruins have ahead of them with Patrice Bergeron and Chris Kelly in addition to the development of center-turned-winger Tyler Seguin, the status of one David Krejci has been put into question.
(Does this all sound familiar? It should.)
Despite finishing 2011-12 with a career-high 23 goals and modest 62 points in 79 games played, a playoff ‘dud’ of a goal and two assists in seven games from Boston’s top-line center has led many to throw him on the chopping block, completing ignoring the three-year pact worth $15.75 million that Krejci signed with the club earlier this past season. Why? Well, the plan is simple: You move Krejci, promote Seguin up to the first line to center Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton, put Ryan with Bergeron and Brad Marchand and boom, you’re back in the driver’s seat of the Eastern Conference.
Throw Jordan Caron, a defensive prospect, and a first round pick into the pot and it’s all over. Peter Chiarelli makes the call, Bob Murray gleefully accepts, and the Ducks get a nice package while Boston gets a guy that’s never scored less than 31 goals since becoming a full-time NHLer. It’s literally that easy, you guys!
Spoiler: No, it’s not.
While NHL12 fantasies are fun, lest anyone forget that the Cherry Hill, N.J. native presents about 29 other clubs with better options than what they’ve found on the market. Teams that miss out on names like Shane Doan and Zach Parise will be inquiring about the availability of Ryan. Whoever laughs the hardest at Columbus GM Scott Howson‘s demands for disgruntled captain Rick Nash will shoot Murray and the Ducks a text with their emoticons set on Ryan. You know the Philadelphia Flyers — Ryan’s favorite club as a kid — have already hit up Murray’s cell phone on numerous occasions in an attempt to work a deal to bring Bobby home.
Hell, let’s not kid ourselves, just about everyone has inquired about Ryan, and for good reason. Since breaking into the NHL, Ryan’s become one of the league’s best kept secrets, quietly developing a strong resume led by 136 goals and 259 points in just 332 games played. That’s a staggering .78 point-per-game clip, and with an equally impressive eight goals and 11 points in 19 career playoff contests, the hype around Ryan heading towards training camp will be immense.
Oh, and did we mention his modest $5.1 million cap-hit from here ’til the summer of 2015?
To be blunt about this, Ryan is a dreamboat for any team in search of a bona fide sniper to put in their top-six, and he ain’t gonna come cheap. Krejci, for as great as he can be, evident by his ability to step up when it counts by way of a 47-point playoff career that’s just 59 games old thus far, will not be enough to make Murray pull the trigger.
For Boston, you’re looking at a package that’d simply have to focus around names like a Lucic, or even Boston’s prized prospect Dougie Hamilton. Now, regardless of his playoff ‘absences’, I’ll reinforce the idea that Lucic is simply not a player that the Bruins want to part with. I mean, for the love of Orr, if No. 17 wasn’t wearing the Spoked-B, this blog would be about how the Bruins would have to sell the farm to get him in Boston. Since the start of the 2010-11 season, nobody in Black-and-Gold has tallied more than Lucic’s 56 goals, and his ability to bring the physicality (See: 256 penalty minutes and 368 hits over that 160-game stretch) while still maintaining an offensive spark is simply unparalleled. On the Hamilton front, it shouldn’t bear repeating that the Bruins will absolutely in no way shape or form move a 6-foot-5 defensemen who just turned 19, has puck-moving skills like no other prospect in the game, and is wrapping up an OHL career of 146 points in 181 games. And if they did, you’d be among the hundreds of bitter Bruins fans throwing rocks at Chiarelli’s office window for the next 20 years.
But even if you are willing to move these pieces, something that’d make me scratch my head, all you’d have to do is take a look around at some of the other Eastern Conference clubs vying for the 25-year-old’s services and know that even that may not be enough to land the American superstar in the Northeast Division.
On Broadway, the Rangers have the young depth up front and on the blue-line to make an attractive offer, while the Flyers have an advantage given their previous dealings with Anaheim and the aforementioned adoration Ryan has for his ‘hometown’ club, and even Pittsburgh could piece something together that’d set Ryan up with the man that went one pick above him in the 2005 NHL Draft, Sidney Crosby.
Sadly for Bruins fans, it appears that the idea that Ryan could be donning No. 54 for the Bruins this fall is another mere fantasy, joining names such as Jarome Iginla and Mike Modano in the never-gonna-happen department of B’s hockey. But then again, that’s what the Be-A-GM feature is for.
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