The Bruins have signed restricted free agent Mark Stuart to a multi year contract extension. Stuart is a former 2003 first round draft pick and played in all 82 games last season for the Bruins. This signing only leaves Pettri Nokelainen, Dennis Wideman, and Glen Metropolit as the only unsigned Bruins from last year’s team.

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Boston has acquired defenseman Johnny Boychuk from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for forward Matt Hendricks. Both players spent the majority of last season in the minor leagues. Boychuk is a 6-2 225 pound pointman who tallied 26 points last season and 17 of those on the powerplay for Lake Erie of the American Hockey League. Boychuk also saw little time with the Avalanche, playing in four games.

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Former Bruin goaltender Andrew Raycroft was put on waivers yesterday by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Raycroft appeared in only 19 games last season after losing his starting job to Vesa Toskala. Raycroft went 2-9-5 with a 3.92 goals-against average and .876 save percentage. He earned $2 million and has a year left on his deal at $2.2 million.

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Marian Hossa has told the Pittsburgh Penguins that he will test free agency making it almost certain that he will not resign with the Penguins. Pittsburgh’s GM Ray Shero cant waste time in seeing what Hossa will do. He has a slue of free agents on his roster that he must take care of. The Bruins tried to get Hossa at the trade deadline, but the Thrashers wanted Phil Kessel and Peter Chiarelli didn’t want to part with him.

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Boston gets another Jumbo Joe. The Bruins selected Joe Colborne with the 16th overall pick in last weeks draft. Joe has the size that every team dreams of but is still learning how to use it to his full advantage. The growth spurt is still relatively recent and so Colborne is still making the adjustment mentally that he can do much more than he believes he can from a physical perspective. Colborne will get some time to fill out his 6-5 frame at the University of Colorado where he will attend starting in 2008-09.

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