If A Wideman Falls And No Ones Around, Does It Make A Sound?

In the words of a stereotypical hillbilly: "Hot diggity damn!"

I was sitting through a 3 hour staff meeting when my phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I thought it was many things, my BBM group, my wife, my gym buddy...so I ignored it. After staff meeting, I took my phone out of my pocket to read:

"BRUINS NEWS: Bruins acquire Nathan Horton and Gregory Campbell from Florida."

And I wondered 'who the hell did we give up for that?'

Well, good thing my BBM group is on point. The Bruins have traded Dennis Wideman, #15 overall in this year draft and a 2011 3rd round draft pick for Campbell and Horton.

#1. I love this trade built on the fact that Wideman is no longer on the Bruins. I would trade this mother fucker for a bottle of strained Gerber peas and a bottle of Todd Bridges' taint.

Wideman was AWFUL this season and while he showed improvement in the playoffs, the 82 games before that can't be ignored. Based on NHL.com's stats page, there were 879 players recorded in the plus/minus category. Dennis Wideman was ranked 834 amongst those 879 with a -14. MINUS 14!

Wideman was also ranked 9th overall on the Bruins with 30 points which is very different from his 2008-2009 total of 50 points (and 6th overall in Boston).

Now Horton was a very productive player for Florida. In 65 games played this year, Horton scored 20 goals and helped in 37 others (57 points overall) which would rank him second in goals on Boston, first in assists and first in points.

Cap Situation

Wideman's cap hit was crippling based on his erratic and poor play. Wideman, under contract for the next two seasons, stands to make $4M in 2010-2011 and $4.5M in 2011-2012 before becoming a free agent.

Horton's contract is up after the 2012-2013 season and is in line with the Wideman contract in 2010-2011 season and 2011-2012. In the last year of his contract, Horton will stand to make $5.5M which could be an issue for Boston.

The other piece to this trade, Greg Campbell is a restricted free agent this season.

Overall

Like I said earlier, I love this trade. Wideman was a big reason why the Bruins were not as effective as the year before. His play diminished and his attitude of "I don't care" seemed to rub fans the wrong way. His lack of skating was also an issue as there have been numerous times this year where Wideman has wiped out and left opponents on breakaways.

Horton, on the other hand, is a big guy who can score goals and will drop the gloves if needed. I'd be interested to see where he lands on the lines, but a lineup of Horton-Savard-Lucic could be very dangerous.