Bruins pulled off one of the best trades in franchise history
On this day, 36 years ago, the Boston Bruins made one of the best trades in franchise history.
The Bruins acquired forward Cam Neely (on his 21st birthday) AND a first-round pick from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for restricted free agent forward Barry Pederson. The first-round pick ended up being third overall, and with it, Boston selected future all-star defenseman, Glen Wesley.
Still just 25-years-old, Barry Pederson was considered one of the best young centres in the game and had already posted two 100-point seasons. However, his best years were behind him as a result of two surgeries during the 1984�85 season to remove a tumour from his shoulder. He went on to play four seasons and 233 games with the Canucks and collected 60 goals and 137 assists. He returned to Boston in his final season and played 32 games with the club.
Neely had immediate success in Boston, seeing top-line minutes and scoring 36 goals in his first season. He would go on to record 344 goals and 246 assists for a total of 590 points in 525 games as a Bruins, and the team retired #8 in his honour, making him the tenth player to have a number retired by the team. Despite his shortened career, only Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Brett Hull had a better goal per game average throughout an NHL season than Neely did with his 50-goals-in-49-games in the 1993�94 season.
Neely recorded 344 goals and 246 assists for a total of 590 points in 525 games as a Bruins. Neely was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2005. On September 25th, 2007, Neely was appointed vice president of the Boston Bruins and was named president of the team on June 16th, 2010.
The story of the Neely trade actually isn't over, either. It lives on to this day in the form of Milan Lucic, Martin Jones, Colin Miller and Jakub Zboril, who are all tied to trades that wind all the way back to the draft pick that brought the Bruins Glen Wesley.
