Celtic Surprise Hire and Major Hockey Trade

Celtics Make Surprising Hire

-After trading away Doc Rivers to the LA Clippers, the Boston Celtics needed a new head coach. They went to Indianapolis to hire the head coach of Butler University, 36 year old wunderkind Brad Stevens. Stevens, who has only been a head coach for 6 years, lead the mid-major Butler Bulldogs to back-to-back National Championship game appearances in 2010 and 2011.

- Stevens skyrocketed to stardom when he lead his team to a 2010 Championship game loss to Duke. Butler came out of nowhere, and in the process created two NBA players from a school that had no basketball history to speak of. Stevens quit a job with Ely Lilly at the age of 23 to take a volunteer job with Butler. In 7 years he had worked his way to become Head Coach, and in 6 years worked himself into a position to be hired as the next head coach of one of the most storied programs in Basketball.

- Stevens will take over a team in the middle of a total rebuild process. In addition to Rivers, the Celtics have traded away Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in this offseason. Steven’s youth (he is the youngest coach in the NBA) should fit in with this team with only one player who is 30 years old. Steven’s 6-year contract should give him enough time to put together a contender, building around superstar point guard Rajon Rondo.

Bruins, Stars make blockbuster deal
- After an amazing postseason that saw the Boston Bruins complete one of the more stunning comebacks in NHL history (in Game 7 of the first round against Toronto), and sweep top seed in the East Pittsburgh en route to the Stanley Cup Finals, the Boston Bruins are shaking things up.
- On Thursday, the sent forward Tyler Seguin, center Rich Peverley and defenseman Ryan Button to the Dallas Stars for forward Loui Eriksson and youngsters Reilly Smith, Matt Fraser and Joe Morrow, both teams announced Thursday.
- The major player in the deal is Eriksson, a 27 year old LW who averaged 30 goals and 40 assists in the past 4 full seasons (not including this past strike-shortened year) and was also an impressive +38 during that span.
- He will likely play RW as the Bruins already have Milan Lucic, among other players, at LW.
- Despite finishing with a .500 record at 22-22, the Stars fired coach Rich Gulutzan during the offseason and may be looking to rebuild.