A couple days ago, the Bruins seemed to be on the verge of acquiring defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov from the Columbus Blue Jackets. On Thursday night, they instead traded for a different -- and better -- left-shot defenseman, landing Dmitry Orlov from the Washington Capitals along with forward Garnet Hathaway.
The Blue Jackets apparently aren't too happy about it. Citing "multiple team and league sources," Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports that the Blue Jackets "firmly felt they had a deal in place with Boston for more than a week that would have sent defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to the Bruins for multiple picks and/or players."
Portzline adds that the Blue Jackets "believed the deal was done, sources said, but Boston repeatedly asked for more time."
Multiple reports earlier this week indicated that there was a deal in place, but that the hold-up was that the Bruins needed to make another move to free up cap space. However, Matt Porter of the Boston Globe reported as recently as Tuesday that there was no agreement in place, but that the two sides were talking. A source close to the Bruins told WEEI late Thursday night that there was no finalized deal for Gavrikov that had been agreed to.
We may never know exactly what happened here. It's possible that Bruins general manager Don Sweeney and Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen legitimately had a misunderstanding about exactly where things stood. It's also possible that either or both sides are fibbing a bit.
Maybe the Bruins really were intending to trade for Gavrikov, but then a better option presented itself and they quickly pivoted, future relations with Columbus be damned.
Maybe the Blue Jackets weren't willing to budge enough on their asking price, and so a deal got close but never quite across the finish line. The Blue Jackets could have stepped up and taken on Craig Smith or Mike Reilly's contract (like the Capitals did with Smith) instead of forcing the Bruins to shop them elsewhere.
Either way, a trade isn't official until it's submitted to the NHL offices for approval. That much, at least, definitely did not happen.
Perhaps Sweeney will have to mend some fences if and when the Bruins do business with Columbus again. That's a problem for the future, though. In the present, he had to do whatever gives the B's the best chance to win the Stanley Cup this season. And on that front, the trade he pulled the trigger on Thursday night was better than a Gavrikov trade would have been.
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