Bruins trade for Red Wings’ Tyler Bertuzzi as Taylor Hall heads to long-term injured reserve
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The Bruins are adding another piece ahead of Friday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline: Detroit Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi.
Detroit will get a protected 2024 first-round pick and a 2025 fourth-round pick from Boston in return.
Bertuzzi, 28, posted a career-high line of 30-32—62 in 68 games in 2021-22, but has appeared in just 29 games this season while dealing with assorted injuries. He is due to become an unrestricted free agent after the season.
The Ontario native will provide some insurance for the Bruins, with Taylor Hall being placed on long-term injured reserve and Nick Foligno being placed on injured reserve.
Placing a player on LTIR allows a team to exceed the salary cap by that player’s salary cap number ($6 million in Hall’s case).
Hall left the Bruins’ western swing ahead of Monday’s game in Edmonton. Coach Jim Montgomery said he was dealing with a lower-body injury. Foligno was hurt in a collision in Tuesday’s game at Calgary.
Bertuzzi’s name was on the early trade boards, in large part because of his expiring contract and the fact that Detroit was floundering. But the Red Wings went on a run, and he seemed to be off the market when they got back in the playoff race.
The Red Wings, though, are 28-24-8 and 5 points out of the playoffs with four teams ahead of them. The Bruins, at 47-8-5, hold the best record and most points in the NHL and are on pace to demolish some records.
The deal for Bertuzzi comes a week after the Bruins added Garnet Hathaway and Dmitry Orlov from the Washington Capitals as part of their push for a Stanley Cup.
Bertuzzi made headlines in 2021 when he was the only player in the NHL to remain unvaccinated — a particularly thorny subject, as frequent travel between the United States and Canada is the norm in the league.
This story will be updated.