Bruins Legend Offers Honest Take On Players’ Mindset Near Trade Deadline

There are roughly 48 hours until the NHL trade deadline, and there are still plenty of rumors about which players across the league will be moved before 3 p.m. ET on Friday.

Bruins Stanley Cup champion Mark Recchi played 22 seasons in the NHL and was part of a trade five times in his Hall of Fame career.

Hearing your name in the rumor mill can be quite daunting to a player, regardless of your position within a franchise.

“It’s unsettling. There’s no question about it,” Recchi told NESN.com in a phone interview. “But, you’re also getting prepared as well. It’s the way it goes in the hockey business and in sports in general. With all deadlines, at least you’re prepared.

“Hopefully, teams are being fairly open with players. I’ve always been very fortunate where teams, for the most part, were very open with what was going on. It just made it that much easier that there’s a chance something can happen.

Recchi won his first of three Stanley Cup championships with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991. The following season, he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers as part of a deal that brought Rick Tocchet and Kjell Samuelsson to Pittsburgh. Recchi was traded again to the Montreal Canadiens in February 1995 before being reacquired by the Flyers in 1999. The next two deals were when he was dealt to contenders in the Eastern Conference — the Carolina Hurricanes in 2004, where he won his second Stanley Cup, and finally Boston in 2009.

“I always took it as business as usual,” Recchi explained of the number of times he was dealt. “My first time I ever got traded, I was going to a rebuild team, and then I was on the other end of it, where I was going to a contender.

“I always just had the attitude of well, I just got to go in and fit in and be a piece. I don’t need to be the savior. And if you just have the right mindset going in, ‘Hey, I’m just a piece of the puzzle and I’m going to go in there and fit in and do my part and just play the way I’m capable of playing,’ then things will work out.”

Recchi said it’s hard to keep that mindset when you join a new team, whether the club is a contender or not. But you just have to remember why the acquiring team wanted you to play for the franchise.

“You just have to have the mentality going to that place and knowing that you just have to piece of the puzzle,” he said. “You don’t have to be everything. They’re bringing you in to help and that’s what you’ve got to do. You just have to play your game to the ability that you can. I always say, ‘Try not to let the pressure bite you in the ass. If you do, then you’re not going to play as well.”

Having a no-movement clause in a contract certainly benefits the player more than the team itself. Recchi had no-movement clauses in his contracts with the Penguins and Hurricanes, but he felt he trusted the general managers enough to make the right decision for the team, his family and himself.

“It definitely has a benefit for the players where they can kind of control it,” Recchi said. “It hurts the team a little because then the value gets dropped a little bit because they have three or four spots, and they have maybe two or three teams bidding for them instead of trading him anywhere.

“If he’s a good player, he’s got 10-15 teams that are bidding. They’re trying to win a Stanley Cup and there’s always that amount of teams that are trying to get to the next level.”

Recchi admitted that being traded midseason is never easy on a player, but it is a bit harder for players with families.

“That’s the hard part at the trade deadline,” Recchi explained. “You’re away from your family. They’ll come back and forth, but they’re usually settled in a spot, the kids are in school — there’s different factors.

“… If you don’t have a family it’s definitely easier because then you’re just moving yourself, and that’s an easier adjustment. But as you get older, and you do have a family, you’ve got those decisions to make and it gets harder along the way.”

The three-time Stanley Cup champion announced his retirement from the NHL on June 15, 2011 — the night he helped the Bruins win their sixth title in franchise history. Even though he hung up his skates more than a decade ago, Recchi still follows the sport closely and has been keeping a close eye on the rumors and deals surrounding Friday’s deadline.

“Oh yeah, I love it,” he said. “I pay attention all the time. I always do, even when I played.”