Bourque officially a Sea Dog

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MONCTON - Simon Bourque is officially a member of the Saint John Sea Dogs.

In a deal that's been rumoured for a week or so, the Sea Dogs acquired Bourque and a 2018 second-round pick in exchange for defenceman Vincent Martineau, Sherbrooke's first-round pick in 2018, a first-round pick in 2020 and a second-round pick in 2019.

Bourque was not in Saint John's lineup on Friday night in Moncton, having yet to join the team. Bouqrue hasn't played since Dec. 4 due to an injury, but he is believed to be returning soon.

Capitaine Bourque de retour sur la glace ce matin pour l'entraînement! #GoNicsGo pic.twitter.com/0LhwpIaErc

— Océanic de Rimouski (@oceanicrimouski) December 27, 2016

A few other thoughts...

• This definitely feels like the Matt Murphy deal from a year ago. Like Murphy, Bourque is a very good defender and has quite a bit of playoff experience.
• With Martineau and Luke Green traded and David Comeau presumably being used as an affiliate, that leaves Bourque (1997), Thomas Chabot (1997), Jakub Zboril (1997), Bailey Webster (1997), Oliver Felixson (1998), Bryson Michel (1999), Chase Stewart (1997) and Alexandre Bernier (1997) as defencemen on the Sea Dogs' roster.
• On a Sea Dogs pre-game show a few weeks ago, Danny Flynn mentioned that the Pittsburgh Penguins d-core wasn't loaded with star players last year en route to a Stanley Cup. The Pens featured a lot of shutdown guys who didn't get a lot of fanfare. Beyond Chabot, Zboril and Bourque, that's kind of what the Sea Dogs have, with guys like Stewart, Bernier and Webster.
• You've got to wonder if another move will be made with the backend since, with this current roster, at least one older player will have to sit each game.
• There's an interesting arms race that has developed between the Sea Dogs and Charlottetown Islanders, both of whom have been buyers this trade period. The Isles have really beefed up their backend.
• The Sea Dogs once again have eight NHL drafted players on their roster. Bourque was a sixth-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens in the 2015 NHL Draft.
• On Twitter, Bourque said he's "very happy to join the Sea Dogs in their quest for the President's Cup."