Jake DeBrusk first went public with his trade request through his agent in late November. In the three months since then, not only have we heard little about a possible deal, but we had also heard little from DeBrusk himself.
The 25-year-old winger had not spoken to the media at all since news of his request broke, but that finally changed late Thursday night.
After scoring two goals in the Bruins’ 3-2 victory over the Kraken, including the overtime winner, DeBrusk met with reporters in Seattle for a postgame press conference. Naturally, he was asked about the trade request.
“To be honest, I had a meeting with the guys when it first kind of hit, or first got out there. I told them I wouldn’t be a distraction, so I respectfully plead the fifth on all of those,” DeBrusk said. “I just want to talk about the game and stuff. Obviously, like you said, I haven’t talked to you guys in a while, so it’s a fair question, but I won’t be answering that.”
DeBrusk was then asked if he has changed his mind at all.
“I think I just said the answer, in the sense that I don’t want to be a distraction or anything,” he said. “It’s one of those things where obviously it’s a tough situation, but I’m focusing day-to-day like I said earlier in the year.”
When DeBrusk’s request first went public, his teammates and coaches made it clear that as long as he was still in Boston he would be treated like a Bruin and would be expected to continue to work hard and help the team win. When asked about DeBrusk in the three months since, his teammates have praised him for handling this like a professional and doing just that.
“It means respect,” DeBrusk said when asked about that support. “It means they think I’m a good guy and a good teammate. That’s all you really want to be at the end of the day. You play in that room for all of those guys.
“Obviously lots of memories, considering playoff runs, and I’ve grown up in this organization, so that’s kind of another thing I said to them too, is I’ll try to keep that the same. Obviously there’s going to be down days, up days, but to hear them say that is obviously really nice. It kind of just amplifies how close we are as a group, and I’ve always said how close of a group we have, and I’ve been very blessed with them.”
Thursday night was DeBrusk’s first game playing on the top line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. Oddly enough, neither of his goals actually came with them. His first came just seconds after the end of a power play, with the whole second power-play unit still on the ice. His second came on a 3-on-3 overtime shift with Charlie Coyle and Charlie McAvoy. Nonetheless, that line looked good. During their 9:51 together at 5-on-5, the Bruins outshot the Kraken 9-3. DeBrusk played 18:46 all together and had four shots on goal.
DeBrusk, who now has four goals in the last three games, is expected to remain on that line for the time being. If he continues to play well, it’s a situation that will both help the Bruins win games and increase DeBrusk’s trade value. Whether he ends up getting moved before the March 21 trade deadline remains to be seen.
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