WILMINGTON, Mass. — Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli confirmed that Marc Savard was meeting with team doctors on Friday, but had no other updates on the center's condition while speaking after practice at Ristuccia Arena Friday afternoon.
"I haven't been updated," Chiarelli said. "He was seeing our doctors today. I won't have anything for you in the next day or two. I'm meeting with Marc and his agent over the weekend, and I would think early next week we'll have something as far as the global status on him."
Chiarelli had spoken with Savard recently, and noted he was still experiencing symptoms from the latest concussion Savard suffered in Colorado on Jan. 22.
"His spirits were I guess OK," Chiarelli said. "But he's having headaches and vertigo still every day."
Savard could be shut down for the remainder of the season to recover from this injury. While Chiarelli wouldn't comment on that possibility before getting the results from Savard's medical evaluation, the GM did admit that putting Savard back on long-term injured reserve would create some cap space and open up opportunities to make moves before the trade deadline at the end of the month.
"It certainly gives us more flexibility," Chiarelli said. "We'll look at more different ideas.
"We have to try to replace him," Chiarelli added. "We're not going to replace the skill or anything. There's just not that player available, so we're going to have to get creative."
Even if they have to move forward without Savard, adding a forward isn't necessarily Chiarelli's top priority at the deadline.
"I'd like to try and get a defenseman that could help our group," Chiarelli said. "I think our defense has played very well, but [I'd like] to try to ease some of the minutes off of our players. And, of course, without Marc — again I'm not going to replace him exactly, that player is not available — but you can replace bits and pieces of it and hope that some of that stuff falls on the shoulders of the other players."
Chiarelli cautioned against expecting any moves too soon, as too many teams remain in contention with tight playoff races, especially in the Western Conference, limiting the number of teams willing to trade away assets.
"Right now, everything is very, very tight," Chiarelli said. "You hear that from me every year a month before the deadline and it's even more true now. The standings are tight. You look in the West and it's very tight. Usually your trading partners are in the West. It's very, very tight there. From [seeds] 4 to 12 it's like five points or something [separating them], so there's just not a lot of the players that we are looking at [available]. Their teams are still in it."
