Cam Neely admits Bruins 'could have done some things differently' with Tyler Seguin
In the years since the Tyler Seguin trade, the Boston Bruins have been forced to watch as Seguin scored with incredible pace with the Dallas Stars while the team's return for Seguin -- Reilly Smith and Loui Eriksson -- floundered in mediocrity. On Tuesday, Seguin showed the Bruins exactly what they were missing as he notched a hat trick against Boston in a 5-3 Stars win.
So when Bruins president Cam Neely made his weekly appearance on the Felger & Mazz radio show, it was only natural that he was asked about whether he had regrets from the Seguin trade. Neely admitted the trade was not entirely about on-ice factors but said the Bruins might have been able to do more to prevent Seguin from getting into trouble away from the rink.
"I think looking back, we probably could have done some things differently with Tyler," Neely said in the interview. "You’ve got a young kid coming in, maybe we could have handled his living arrangements a little different and stuff like that, that we’ve talked about over the years. It’s something we certainly are addressing currently, and in the future we will continue to address."
Developing young talent seems to be a long-term problem for the Bruins organization. After drafting Phil Kessel fifth overall in the 2006 NHL Draft, the Bruins gave Kessel three years to establish himself as a reliable player on and off the ice before giving up on Kessel in September of 2009 and trading him to Toronto for draft picks.
Recently, the Bruins selected Dougie Hamilton with the ninth overall pick of the 2011 NHL Draft and again kept him for just three years before trading him to the Calgary Flames this past June. Still, Neely said on the radio that he believes the Bruins are improving in terms of developing their draft picks.
"You have to really work with these players and develop them in the professionals," Neely said. "That’s an area where we we’ve really improved in the last year or so."
(h/t CBS Boston)
