Bruins Acquire Daniel Paille From Sabres

It didn’t take Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli too long to find an alternative to now former third-line-staple Chuck Kobasew. Today, the club on Causeway announced that they have acquired Sabres forward Daniel Paille in exchange for a third round pick in the 2010 NHL Draft and conditional fourth rounder in ‘11.

While most Bruins fans are no Darren Dreger or Pierre LeBrun, the move has been dubbed as ‘puzzling’, ‘confusing’ and even ’stupid’ on some internet forums so far.

For one, following the placing of Milan Lucic on the long-term injured reserve over the weekend, the Bruins called up forwards Brad Marchand and Vladimir Sobotka to fill in the holes created by Looch’s injury and Kobasew’s departure for Minnesota.

Sobotka, who had an impressive pre-season, creating concerns as to why he wasn’t apart of the NHL roster to begin the season, is absolutely tearing apart the American Hockey League with the Providence Bruins thus far, posting six goals and ten points in just six games so far for the Baby B’s. The same can be said for Brad Marchand, who’s put up eight points, including six goals in six games for Providence.

Seemingly ready for their chance in the National Hockey League, the Boston-hopefuls may have some new competition for ice-time with the addition of Danny Paille into the Boston line-up.

Paille, who’s been a healthy scratch for Lindy Ruff’s Sabres for four games already this season is looking for a new start in the Claude Julien system.

Considering Paille’s decrease in point production by eight points from the season prior, much of that can arguably be attributed to his diminishing minutes as his average time on ice a game went from 13:16 down to 11:54 a game.

So far in 2009-10, Paille has an assist and a +1 in two games for the Sabres. Paille’s career high in goals (19) came in the 2007-08 season, as did his point total, 35, in the same season.

Personally, I love this move. Paille brings many of the same intangibles that Kobasew did, at half the cost with a 1.1 million dollar cap hit. The addition of Paille also gives Boston flexible if Marchand, Sobotka or both, falter at the NHL level, avoiding the idea of thinning out your presumed-NHL-ready depth on the farm.