Former Boston Bruin, Tyler Bertuzzi, signed a one-year, $5.5 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on the second day of NHL Free Agency. On Wednesday’s Felger and Mazz, Felger gave his thoughts on the deal and how he feels the whole situation was poor “General Managership” by Bruins GM Don Sweeney.
Felger’s Thoughts on the Bertuzzi Situation
Felger: There is no other answer other than poor “General Managership”. That’s it. If the Bruins didn’t want Bertuzzi or Bertuzzi didn’t want them or he got priced out, you know, he signed some crazy contract that he wasn’t worth, like, all those things are sort of justifiable. Where the Bruins said, “We have someone else in mind, someone who’s better and we’re going instead of paying Bertuzzi this we’re going to pay player X that”, okay. Or if Bertuzzi said, “You know, I’m close to Toronto. I grew up close to there”, which he did and he said “that’s where I wanted to be”, okay. But none of which is what happened. Don Sweeney said on Saturday that “Bertuzzi was a great piece of our puzzle and we dearly would have liked to have gone down the path to extend him”. So the Bruins wanted him. He was ripe to be had. He could have been there for a contract to come back. He wanted to come back to Boston. You had the need and he signed somewhere else on a cheap contract. I don’t care what other variables you throw at me, that is incredibly poor “General Managership”. And if I had to guess, something went wrong between Sweeney and the agent. Because if you want the player and the market is uncertain, what do you do if you’re the Bruins? What do you do if you’re Don Sweeney?
Mazz: You say go out of the market, tell us what kind of deal you get and then come back to us and we’ll tell you if we can match it.
Felger: I didn’t even need to ask you this before the show. It’s like this “General Managership” 101.
Boston Bruins forward Tyler Bertuzzi skates during a game against the Edmonton Oilers at TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports)
Mazz: Absolutely. If you make it clear to the player you are our priority, you want to check out the market? No problem. We’re going to make it work. So just tell us what it is and we’ll figure it out.
Felger: Let us know what you come back with and if we can’t do it, we can’t do it. God bless you, but give us the last crack at it. And the Patriots do this all the time. And a lot of times they’re right about the market and the player sort of comes back to them and it’s how they get a lot of deals done. Because when they’re talking with free agents before the signing period, they say, you know, under their breath, you’re not worth what you think you’re worth and go to the market and find out and let us know. So something tells me and I forgot the agent’s name, it doesn’t matter, that some bridge was burned or something happened there where when Sweeney and the agent were done talking, it wasn’t like, you know, it wasn’t the thing I just said, let’s keep the line of communications open. Let’s keep our options open. Don’t forget about us. It was more like, go eff yourself. I mean, that had to of been what it would be. I think Sweeney butchered this so poorly. You know, when we talk about Sweeney over the years, I think I’m a little more high on him than most people. Most callers. Maybe you guys on the show. I feel I’m defending him a little bit more than most because I think generally speaking, he’s been okay. Not great, but at least okay. Better than the last guy. Could be better than the next guy. I think generally speaking, he’s made some good moves. But this one, I feel like this is a redo of the 2015 draft. He doesn’t know how to do his job. That’s how bad I think this one is.
