The Boston Bruins traded defenseman Aaron Ward to the Carolina Hurricanes this morning for winger Patrick Eaves and a fourth round draft pick. Ward, who still has a home in North Carolina in the off-season, will be returning to his old team. Ward won the Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006. The Hurricanes also have former Bruins' defenseman Andrew Alberts on their blue line.
"I knew right off the bat," Ward said. "It's never good when your general manager calls you in the summer. He told me I was traded. I was pretty happy with the news that I'd get to go back to Carolina. He conveyed to me that he wasn't going to trade me anywhere else but Carolina. It worked out well."
Eaves didn't stay a Bruin for very long either. General manager Peter Chiarelli announced Eaves was placed on waivers with the intentions of buying him out. The trade seems more like a salary dump to make cap space to re-sign winger Phil Kessel.
You may be wondering why the Bruins made the trade at all instead of buying out Ward's contract. Eaves had a $1.4 cap hit and two years left on the contract. That means the Bruins have the buyout hit over the course of four seasons. Ward's contract has one year left for $2.5 million. In the long run, it was cheaper to trade for Eaves and buy him out rather than buy Ward out.
“Because the contract is structured with escalating salaries, we actually get a positive credit to our cap next year in the amount of $41,000,” said Chiarelli, who noted that because Eaves is younger than 26, the buyout is for one-third the value of the deal.
I guess that's why when you're a general manager of a NHL, you need to have superb math skills. Or someone within the organization to figure all of this math out.
The trade thins out the defense a bit, but we knew somebody would have to go to make cap space for Kessel or another defenseman. Chiarelli has said he would do whatever needed to be done to get Kessel re-signed. This was the first move. There might be more moves coming.
I'm kinda sad 'cause Patty Eaves was my boy but I'm kinda happy too because I always liked Aaron.