Marco Sturm receives teammates' praise in his departure to LA

BOSTON — He called Boston his home for five years; was the last direct piece of a blockbuster trade in 2005; tallied 193 points (106 goals) in 302 regular season games in The Hub; and a couple never forget overtime game-winners [against Montreal in the 2007-08 playoffs and 2010 NHL Winter Classic] but didn’t get a chance to comeback and play one more season after a second knee operation.

Boston Bruins forward Marco Sturm was officially traded to the LA Kings last night before their contest against the Philadelphia Flyers for no compensation. The only thing the Bruins have now is a piece of mind that their salary cap is finally in check.

Sturm, who is an unrestricted free-agent at the end of this NHL season, is just days away from returning to action. Unfortunately his salary ($3.5 million) just couldn’t be finagled with this club, so the former first-round pick will be heading West to the Kings.

After the Bruins 2-1 overtime loss last night, Sturm’s teammates, coaches and brass praised his services here in Boston — not only on the ice, but off. Here are a few kind words of No. 16.

Shawn Thornton
“He’s a great teammate. I wish him all the best…I hope he goes to L.A. and he has a ton of success and he gets himself an extension and makes himself a home there. He’s a great teammate. I can’t say enough about him. My three and a half years, I don’t know if I met a better guy. He’s very mature and I’m sure he’ll make the best of this situation. It’s not the easiest time of the year to get moved with the family and stuff but I’m sure he’ll do what he can.”

Head coach Claude Julien
“…another player that I think has given us a great service here over the years and it’s unfortunate that he’s run into so many serious injuries that’s just kind of knocked him out of the game for long periods of time, and again, I think we could have used a player like him had it not been for the salary cap. It is what it is and you’ve got to make those kinds of moves and you move on. He was a real good team player. I think he was well respected by his teammates. He was well respected by the coaching staff, and even at times when he had those injuries he was always around and finding ways to participate in the team camaraderie if you want, and he purchased some stuff one year just before the playoffs for the players and wanted to do his part and his share, so he was definitely a well-respected team player.“

GM Peter Chiarelli
“Dealing with someone like Marco is difficult. He’s obviously a really good person and I actually, when I was an agent, I actually co-represented him, so there’s a relationship there too. But it helps us with our cap situation and as far as what we got in return, it was classified as “future considerations,” but really it’s nothing. Part of that speaks to the trading him now, versus trading him later on in the year, which we could have done also, but in fairness to Marco it’d be good to allow him to begin his journey, so to speak, at a place that is a good landing spot for him. Dean Lombardi drafted him and knows him quite well. They were looking for a player like that.

“He’s first and foremost a very good person. Speed, you know, he’s obviously part of that big trade. He gave us speed and he gave us timely goals. I think he’ll be remembered, one of the things he’ll be remembered for is that goal against Montreal [Game 6 vs. Montreal, April 19, 2008]. I mean, that was, you could see that emotion when he scores and that’s what he brought to the team. Those are some of the things that guys here remember about Marco.”

Marc Savard
“He’s a great man. I lived in the same building when I came here and we drove together a lot and we became great friends. He’s a great hockey player… I’m sure he’s going to help L.A.