Don Sweeney Offers Details Of Bruins’ Pursuit Of Tyler Bertuzzi

The Boston Bruins made aggressive moves before last season’s trade deadline, but those midseason additions were not retained this offseason.

Dmitry Orlov signed with the Carolina Hurricanes, Garnet Hathaway signed with the Philadelphia Flyers and Tyler Bertuzzi signed with the Maple Leafs.

The latter transaction stood out because he signed a one-year deal with Toronto, but general manager Don Sweeney detailed why the Bruins were not in the market for that kind of deal with Bertuzzi.

“I’ll speak more generally than just about another player on another team at this point in time. There were players looking for longer-term deals, and my discussions were focused on that,” Sweeney told reporters Friday, per Bruins video. “Some teams were in a good position to absorb shorter-term deals at the right numbers. We had to go and fill our gap. We made a move to open up the space we needed. It would have required us to be even more proactive and do deals we explored, but we didn’t feel the value was there to open up even more space or be overly aggressive and have to make a move as a result of that.”

While Bertuzzi remains on a Stanley Cup contender, a one-year deal likely wasn’t the 28-year-old’s goal, and as Sweeney said, the Bruins’ goal was to retain the seven-year forward for the long term.

Boston made multiple moves to increase its depth for this season, and Sweeney noted there would have more flexibility for his team next season. The lack of having to be “overly aggressive” means the Bruins do retain Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark and maintain a “competitive core,” as Sweeney describes this season’s Bruins.

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