One team that made a big impact at the draft was the Boston Bruins, who traded Dougie Hamilton to the Calgary Flames and Milan Lucic to the Los Angeles Kings. Today they made a move sending Reilly Smith and the $4 million of the contract of Marc Savard to the Florida Panthers for Jimmy Hayes.
Last season for the Florida Panthers Haynes scored 19 goals, producing 16 assists, with a plus-minus of minus four in 72 games played. Haynes played a big part of the Panthers season last year, even though they did not make the playoffs they stayed in the hunt for most of the season. Haynes gave them a scoring touch on the offensive side.
Hayes is a great goal scorer something that Boston desperately needed. He has the ability to score 20 plus goals a season, to go along with his great shot and his success on the penalty kill. Hayes will be a good scoring touch on the Boston offense, which was one problem that they had last season. Offense was not able to score many goals to keep up in games.
Boston fans must be happy that they finally get rid of Marc Savard, who hasn't played much in the past few years, and his contract which is now off of the books. It cost them Reilly Smith, a promising scoring winger who they got in the Tyler Seguin trade. Hayes will be most likely be placed on the first or second line, with the possibility that he will play with Patrice Bergeron. He will have the potential to score 20 plus goals a season in Boston. This is actually a homecoming for Hayes who was raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
Florida will be getting a contract of someone who has an injury history, and will most likely never play again, in Savard. The real prize in this trade for Florida is Reilly Smith, a potential top six winger who can potentially score 20 plus goals a season. He might have some time to grow, but when he is done growing he will become a 20 plus goal a season guy regularly.