The real draft day blockbuster

Just days after rejoicing over the improvement in Brian Rolston's game, the Boston Bruins did what many thought unthinkable and dealt him to Pittsburgh.

"It really was pretty straight forward - we were approached by Pittsburgh, citing their salary cap issues. They needed to deal Saku Koivu due to his large salary per annum," GM Joshua Anderson explained. "Seeing we had cap room and a similar, cheaper player, they came to us. We weighed the benefits of keeping Brian versus a similar, younger player with a better scoring record, and had to listen."

Anderson paused, then added, "We knew we did not necessarily want to jump right into the deal though. One of our strengths is in maintaining fiscal flexibility to make such moves, but adding Koivu would limit that manuevering room. Looking at his deal, though, and knowing it was only for one year, we decided at once we would try to renegotiate with him for the season and make the deal."

Asked how they got the extra picks tossed in, Anderson smiled. "We were dealing from the strength position. Clearly, with his cap issues, he needed to make a deal, and Koivu was his expendable one. But we weren't prepared to just accept three mill in salary with nothing in return. Even if we were getting the better player, we're not fools - two and a half million bucks is a lot of mone."

"So," Anderson continued, "we told him what we needed - some extra picks. It appeared he did not feel like hanging around for the whole draft, so he offered the additional two picks for 2009. Wondering how far we could push it, we asked for the 2010 third, so we could have some fallback in case Koivu would not return. We got it."

"To kill that much cap room, we had to get a little extra, basically. Doesn't seem unreasonable to me," he concluded. "Besides, after negotiating his salary down, we'll end up okay."

It is expected Koivu will likely line up in the first line to capitalize on his scoring touch, but head coach Robbie Ftorek would not commit to that yet.