Tim Thomas, who took home the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP after he followed a spectacular regular season with an even more impressive postseason performance, almost wasn't around for this Stanley Cup run.
During his news conference Friday at TD Garden, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli discussed how he had explored options to trade Thomas last summer, but fortunately for the Bruins, he never came close to pulling the trigger on a deal.
"Like if you can recall at the time there was a mutual agreement between myself and Tim and Bill Zito, Tim's agent, just to explore it and on the premise that Tim does not want to leave Boston," Chiarelli said. "And that's really where it ended.
"There was some calls in that and they kept him in the loop at all times and he kept stressing he didn't want to leave. And I said I know, let's just look at this very briefly. And I know there are a lot of stories that flowed from it, but I can't stress enough the fact that Tim never wanted to leave."
But with Thomas coming off hip surgery following a subpar year in 2009-10 and Tuukka Rask in place as the franchise's goalie of the future, Chiarelli did look into the option of trading Thomas.
"I wouldn't be doing my job if I at least didn't look at some things, and I did," Chiarelli said. "You go through those things, on a number of fronts, on a number of players. You just field stuff. You look at them. You talk to other teams. And at the end of the day you make the decision yay or nay. And here it was nay. And it was an easy nay."
