Well, the Bruins finally got a defenseman.

Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli has traded center Vladimir Sobotka to the St. Louis Blues for unsigned draft choice David Warsofsky.

The 20-year-old Warsofsky, who was originally drafted in the fourth-round (95th overall) of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft by the Blues, is a junior at Boston University and a native of Marshfield, Massachusetts. In 79 games with the Terriers, the 5′9″ Marshfield, MA, native totaled  15-31-46 and 75 PIM. He also played for the U.S. National Development team in 2007-08 with 4-2-6 in 15 games.

Sobotka, 22, was an impending restricted free-agent come Jul. 1, and was most likely dealt to open-up a center spot for No. 2 pick, Tyler Seguin.

The trade: Boston sends defenseman Dennis Wideman, the 15th overall pick this Friday, and their third-round pick in 2011 to Florida in exchange for center Gregory Campbell and right-winger Nathan Horton.

After swirling this trade around in my head overnight, I’ve been thinking of all the pros and cons on this one. I have five reasons to like this trade. (I also have five reasons I don’t, but that’ll have to wait til tonight after work.)

Five reasons to dig this trade for Bruins’ fans:

• A big forward (6′2″ 220+ lbs.) who can obviously hit the back of the net and help the lowest scoring team in the NHL. Horton, who just turned just 25 last month, netted 20-plus goals in five of his six seasons in the league, including one 31-goal campaign; 142-153-295, plus-27, 382 PIM, 962 SOG in 422 career NHL games played. The potential to score 40 is there, and the youngster still has a few years left in his contract to reach that plateau.

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I'm not sure why he's smiling so bright

The Boston Bruins headed into the NHL trade deadline on Mar. 3 after the Olympic break on a sour note. En route to snapping a four-game winning streak, the Bruins lost with yet another lackluster effort Tuesday night, 4-1, to the Montreal Canadiens at the TD Garden.

Going into Tuesday night’s contests in third-place — one-point ahead of Montreal — in the Northeast Division, the B’s dipped back down into the log-jam of the Eastern Conference; parked in eighth-place with 65 points along with the New York Rangers.

A win over the Habs on Tuesday night would have put the B’s in sole possession of seventh-place in the East; two-points shy of the sixth-place Philadelphia Flyers, and five points ahead of the 12th seed Tampa Bay Lightning.

But taking 10 points in the six games prior was an accomplishment considering their horrendous 10-game losing streak that lasted the three weeks prior.

No, Mar. 3 was the day where Peter Chiarelli was going to right the ship by wheeling-and-dealing the appropriate pieces to improve this borderline playoff club. He was going to address two major weaknesses, seek out those suitable replacements, and acquire them. A top-nine forward who can light the lamp, and add another puck-moving defenseman to provide some depth come playoff time.

Click here to read the rest of my thoughts at Examiner.com

It was no surprise that Panthers’ general manager Randy Sexton was going to be a seller by this NHL trade deadline day. It was even more obvious that he was going to deal impending free-agents; such as F Dominic Moore, D Jordan Leopold, and D Dennis Seidenberg.

The Bruins picked-up the 6′1″ 210 lb. Seidenberg — along with Matthew Bartowski in exchange for a second-round pick in 2010 [from Tampa Bay] Byron Bitz, Craig Weller [who was acquired in the Chuck Kobasew trade back in Oct.] — shortly after trading away their own impending UFA, Derek Morris.

George Richards,  the Florida Panthers beat-writer at the Miami Herald, wrote some interesting tidbits on Seidenberg’s existing contract. Here’s an excerpt from On Frozen Blog:

“Seidenberg signed with the Panthers in the first week of training camp when the team was in Nova Scotia. His contract was structured so that he got $1 million in base salary and a $1.25 million bonus on June 30. That $1.25 million — plus whatever is left of the $1 million — now belongs to the Bruins.

Now that’s a Saveology Save!

“That was another big reason they wanted to get rid of me,” Seidenberg said. “They wanted to get rid of the money, and Boston, I guess, made a big commitment to pick up such a big amount of money for 20 games and hopefully maybe more. Maybe they plan on resigning me. I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going to happen.””

So even though just under one-quarter of the 2009-10 NHL season remains, Peter Chiarelli and the B’s are in fact on the hook for over half of Seidenberg’s contract. No pressure to re-sign him on Jul. 1 now, eh?

With Derek Morris now gone, Bruins fans, here’s his replacement: Dennis Seidenberg. A strong blue-liner who eats a ton of minutes and blocks virtually any shot that comes his way. But with 30 minutes remaining in the NHL trade deadline, this had better not be the only acquisition that Boston makes.

With roughly three hours remaining in the NHL trade deadline, Peter Chiarelli is wheeling-and-dealing and making some last minutes moves. Next move: The Boston Bruins acquire two defensemen – Dennis Seidenberg, 28, and Matthew Bartowski, 21,  from Florida in exchange for Craig Weller, Byron Bitz and a second-round draft pick in the upcoming 2010 draft — from Tampa Bay, Mark Recchi deal.

So essentially, Bruins’ general manager Peter Chiarelli is running in place as he trades away an impending UFA defenseman Derek Morris [$3.3MM] — who was brought in to help move the puck — and acquires another impending UFA Seidenberg [$2.25MM].

Seidenberg leads the NHL with 179 blocked shots, and has 2-21-23 scoring totals, including eight power play points through 62 games this season, 116 shots on goal, and log nearly 23 minutes of TOI per game.

So far, the B’s have cleared approximately $1.5MM for the remainder of this season, and nearly $700K for next season with the trading of Bitz. But they still haven’t addressed their needs: depth at defense and a solid scoring option up-front — a top-9 forward.

Now that the ball is rolling, I don’t think Chiarelli is done. If he truly wants to be a buyer and make a legitimate push in this year’s playoffs, he still needs to address their aforementioned voids.

TSN.ca reports that the Bruins have traded Bruins’ defenseman Derek Morris back to the Phoenix Coyotes, where he had spent five NHL season.

The compensation: a [conditional] fourth-round pick in 2011. Dominic Moore = second-round pick in 2010; Jordan Leopold = second round pick in 2010; Derek Morris = fourth-round pick in 2011?  How does this work? Highway robbery considering Morris was a solid No. 2 blue-liner in Boston.

This is an obvious move to clear cap-space, as Morris’ hit was at $3.3M this season. With the Bruins already thin on defense, hopefully this is a move that opens more doors to bigger ones.