| 27 February 2011
The Bruins completed a four-player trade on Sunday evening, sending Brian McGrattan and Sean Zimmerman to Anaheim for David Laliberte and Stefan Chaput. The P-Bruins don't lose much in this trade - Zimmerman has been a -5 so far on the season and hasn't contributed much on the scoresheet, with four assists in 23 games. McGrattan, aside from racking up 97 PIMs, isn't a huge loss either - the right wing has four goals and one assist in 39 games. McGrattan, who earned himself a two-way contract off a training-camp tryout, never really panned out for the Bruins, despite having played an entire NHL season for the Flames last year.
The loss of Zimmerman is an interesting one - he was the last remaining piece of the trades that sent Jeff Lovecchio, Jordan Knackstedt, and Levi Nelson away for Juraj Simek and Zimmerman back in the beginning of the season, after Simek decided to return to Europe.
The players being brought in from Anaheim haven't been there for long. David Laliberte and Stefan Chaput are both QMJHL products who were brought in from Philadephia and Carolina, respectively, within two days of each other in late November 2010. They were both immediately assigned to Syracuse.
The 22-year-old Chaput, from Montreal, Quebec, was drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes 153rd overall in 2006, out of the Lewiston MAINEiacs. His younger brother Michael still plays there, and his father is the governor of the team. He was a member of the MAINEiacs' star-studded 2006-2007 lineup, a team that included Jonathan Bernier, David Perron, and the Monarchs' own Marc-Andre Cliche. After a 2008-2009 season with Carolina's AHL affiliate Albany River Rats in which Chaput only played 15 games, he had a solid 2009-2010 campaign, scoring 10 goals and 28 assists. This season hasn't been his best, as he's only scored three goals and had seven assists in a combined 47 games for Charlotte and Syracuse.
25-year-old David Laliberte, from St-Jean-Sur-Richelie, Quebec, was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers, 124th overall, in the 2004 Entry Draft. He played five seasons for the Rocket of the QMJHL, including their final season in Montreal in 2002-2003. Laliberte was in the Flyers' system for three years, and spent time at all three levels - primarily the AHL, but also earned himself a 27-game stint with Wheeling of the ECHL in 2007-2008, as well as an 11-game callup to the NHL Flyers last season, in which he scored two goals and logged one assist. This season, he has eight goals and 10 assists for 18 total points in 48 combined games for Adirondack and Syracuse.
While the acquisition of these two players hardly provides a scoring punch, it could make things interesting for the baby Bruins, whose odds of making the playoffs become slimmer each week. With the addition of the hulking Boris Valabik, it's possible that management felt Zimmerman wasn't useful anymore, since the two seem to play the same highly-defensive defenseman role. Can these two forwards replace the offensive gap left by Joe Colborne? Possibly, but more likely that gap will be filled in across the board as other players are asked to step up. Whatever the case, it'll be interesting to see how these new players mesh with the team.
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