ESPN Predicts Bruins To Acquire LA Kings Winger By NHL Trade Deadline

Tyler Toffoli’s prospects for success in 2019-20 will improve dramatically if one prophesy comes to pass.

ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Greg Wyshynski predicted Friday the Bruins would acquire the Los Angeles Kings right wing in a trade on or around the Feb. 24 NHL trade deadline. The struggling Kings are in second-to-last place in the Western Conference and are speeding toward a rebuild. Toffoli will be an unrestricted free agent after this season, and most NHL observers expect the Kings to part ways with him sooner, rather than later. That’s why Kaplan and Wyshynski believe Boston might jump at the chance to rent Toffoli for a few months.

“The Bruins make their annual trade for a winger at the deadline, and this time it’s Tyler Toffoli of the Kings joining the black and gold for the playoff run,” Kaplan and Wyshynski wrote.

Toffoli, 27, has spent the entirety of his seven-plus-season NHL career with the Kings. He has scored 12 goals and assisted 15 more in 45 games this season.

An NHL executive told The Athletic’s Craig Custance this week he expects the Kings’ “reasonable” asking price for Toffoli to be a second-round draft pick and a prospect.

“They’ll get it,” the executive said.

We don’t know whether Boston is willing to give it, but Toffoli is a name worth watching over the next month or so.