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  • Bruins sign Beleskey, trade Smith and Savard’s contract for Hayes

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    Bruins sign Beleskey, trade Smith and Savard’s contract for Hayes

    Tim Rosenthal July 1, 2015
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    The Don Sweeney era might have gotten off to a rough start, but he certainly made up for some of his miscues like the Zac Rinaldo acquisition along with trading Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic — without much to write home about on their returns — over the last 48 hours.

    One day after trading pending RFA goalie Martin Jones to the Sharks — one of the pieces of the Lucic trade to the Los Angeles Kings on Draft day — Sweeney was at it again on the first day of the NHL Free Agency Frenzy.

    First, the Bruins GM inked Matt Beleskey to a five-year contract worth $19 million that includes a two-year no movement clause. Sweeney completed his eventful day when he acquired former Boston College forward and Dorcheter’s own Jimmy Hayes from the Florida Panthers in exchange for Reilly Smith and Marc Savard’s contract.

    Like Jones, Hayes is an RFA who made $925,000 last season. The 6-foot-6 forward tallied a career-high 35 points on 19 goals and 16 assists in 72 games with the Panthers in 2014-15.

    Belesky, like Hayes, also had a career year with the Ducks, surpassing 20 goals for the first time as a professional last season (22). He followed that up with nine points in 16 playoff games during Anaheim’s run to the Western Conference finals. While he’s not a prolific scorer, Belesky adds depth and decent size (6-feet, 204 pounds) to the current roster.

    Both Belesky and Hayes — assuming the Bruins’ resign the local product — project to be in the top nine. But the biggest thing coming out of this is Sweeney being able to shed some cap space by including Savard’s contract in the deal with the Panthers.

    Sweeney, Cam Neely and the rest of the Bruins’ front office still needs to address the defense, find a backup goaltender and look to re-sign Brett Connolly (RFA) during the off-season. Including the Belesky deal, the team currently has $60.9 million committed to 16 players and roughly $10 million in cap space per CapFriendly.com (Belesky’s contract not included on the site).

    As crazy as the start of his tenure has been, something tells me that Sweeney isn’t done wheeling and dealing.

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    Tim Rosenthal

    Tim Rosenthal serves as the Managing Editor of Bruins Daily. He started contributing videos to the site in 2010 before fully coming on board during the Bruins' Stanley Cup run in 2011. His bylines over the last decade have been featured on Boston.com, FoxSports.com, College Hockey News, Patch and Inside Hockey. You can follow Tim on Twitter @_TimRosenthal.

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