According to Arthur Staple of Newsday, the Boston Bruins have traded Johnny Boychuk to the New York Islanders for a second round pick and a conditional third round pick in the 2015 NHL draft and a 2016 second round pick.

Breaking: #Isles have acquired D Johnny Boychuk from the Bruins for a 2015 2nd, a 2016 2nd and a conditional 2015 3rd round pick.

— Arthur Staple (@StapeNewsday) October 4, 2014

Boychuk, who is on his final year of his contract, has a cap hit north of $3.3 million. Pressed against the cap, especially after the one-year deals to Reilly Smith and Torey Krug earlier in the week, GM Peter Chiarelli now has a little bit of breathing room. With the Boychuk trade and Marc Savard (eventually) on LTIR, the Bruins should have a little over $3 million in cap space to start the 2014-15 season:

With a few paper transactions, #Bruins can maximize Marc Savard’s LTIR and open season with 22-man roster (13/7/2) and $3.1M in cap space.

— CapGeek (@capgeek) October 4, 2014

Still, it was not easy trading a player of Boychuk’s stature. Thanks to his grit and physical game, the veteran was popular in the Bruins’ locker room.

But sometimes business moves don’t turn out to be popular, and that was the case here.

“This is a tough trade. We all like Johnny,” Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli said at his press conference prior to Saturday’s preseason game with the Red Wings. “I spoke with him shortly after the trade was consummated. I told him ‘you know Johnny, you did everything we told you to do. You got better as a player. You were patient. You got better. You’re a part of the fabric of the team and this was really hard to do, but there’s an element of business to it, an element of hockey and we tried to get ahead of it a little bit.’ He was upset, I was upset. I’m still upset.”

“Well I don’t think my thoughts differ from anybody else. I think we’re all disappointed to see him leave,” added head coach Claude Julien. “It stinks for everybody. He was a good player, he was a good person, very well liked. Unfortunately, our game is in that position where sometimes we’re forced to make those unpopular decisions. For a coaching staff, we’ll miss him like everybody else.”

Had Chiarelli not dealt Boychuk, the now former Bruin would have likely stayed in Black and Gold. But given the situation, the Bruins GM thought he had no choice.

“There’s a lot of factors involved. We could have kept him and, you know, if we keep him we’re not trading him at the deadline. We keep him, we’re using him, so that played into the fact” Chiarelli said. “You can see what you could have gotten at the deadline, but I don’t weigh that as one of the factors here.”

Bruins’ General Manager Peter Chiarelli spoke to reporters about the Johnny Boychuk trade on Saturday. Photo by Joe Makarski, Bruins Daily

With Boychuk gone, there’s a huge void to fill on the blue line (and huge is probably an understatement). Young defensemen like Kevan Miller, Torey Krug and Matt Bartkowski will have a bigger weight on their shoulders, while veterans like Adam McQuaid and Dennis Seidenberg – both returning from season ending injuries in 2013-14 – will be relied upon for more leadership as they enter both enter their fifth season with the Black and Gold.

Initially, it looks like the Bruins will take a defenseman by committee approach to fill Boychuk’s void as a top-four guy. That means Krug, Bartkowski, Miller and McQuaid will need to have some sort of breakthrough season skating alongside Seidenberg, Zdeno Chara or Dougie Hamilton.

“I think everyone knew it was going to happen eventually. It was just a matter of time,” Seidenberg said.

“We just have to move forward and pick up the slack that he left.”

Boychuk’s efforts were appreciated both on and off the ice during his tenure with the Black and Gold. Even as reality sunk in, many of his now former teammates, including Patrice Bergeron, had nothing but positive things to say about the newest defenseman of the Islanders.

“We’re going to miss him,” said the Bruins’ assistant captain. “He was a great teammate for us, a great player as well. He always went to battle for us and we won a Cup together. He was definitely a guy that we were all close to and wish him all the best in Long Island.”