[Jestor]

Originally Posted by QuestGAV

Yes, and I have a chance of hitting the lottery and becoming a millionaire. It's just not a very good one so I work for a living, which has a much higher probability of feeding and clothing me. There's no way to evaluate trades but by considering the value of the players involved, especially when a superstar like Thornton is involved. Those players are extremely rare commodities and cannot be replaced by "throw feces at the wall and see what sticks" methods of talent acquisition. If you're going to give up a player like that you need to be 100% sure that you're going to be either a) better in the meantime or b) better down the road.

The move is at best lateral in the short term for the Bruins. Given that they're a marginal playoff team at best, making a lateral short term move makes no sense. Stuart is a good defenseman that will upgrade the Bruins on that side of the puck (though you also have to consider that Thornton's unique combination of size, physicality, and athleticism allowed him to contribute more defensively than your average center so the true upgrade in that phase of the game may be less than at first glance). Sturm is a decent forward. Primeau is trash. The Bruins certainly took a huge knock offensively. Bergeron is now forced into the #1 center slot, something he's clearly not ready for.

The move is most likely disastrous in the long term. The players the Bruins got were all Thornton's age or older. If you're convinced that trading Thornton was a good idea because he never met your idea of what his potential is, then you're admitting he could get better. Stuart could get a bit better but isn't as good now and never will be as good as Thornton. Sturm is what he is. Primeau will still be trash in the future. Given that the move is lateral in the short-term, the Bruins should have at least received first round picks in the deal to get fair value.

There is no doubt in my mind that if they were convinced that Thornton was more valuable to someone else than he was to the Bruins that a more beneficial deal could have been found. The Bruins got an itchy trigger finger and dealt their biggest asset for a couple trinkets. Not only did they make an already bad team worse, they also took away their fanbase's hope for a more competitive future.

I agree with everything in this post except the already bad team part. To me they were an average team and are now less than that.