Did the Boston Bruins move closer to the head of the class just before the NHL trade deadline?
ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski graded the Bruins’ acquisition of Ondrej Kase as an A- transaction Friday. Wyshynski hails Bruins general manager Don Sweeney for exchanging David Backes and his burdensome contract, defenseman prospect Axel Andersson and a first-round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft for an Anaheim Ducks winger Wyshynski describes as “one of the NHL’s most lauded hidden gems” and “fantastic bargain.”
… Kase has the best goals scored above average per 60 minutes (0.524) of any Ducks player over the past two seasons, according to Evolving Hockey. He’s a forward who drives play — the Ducks get 55.47 percent of the shot attempts with him on the ice at 5-on-5 — and has a knack for drawing penalties, averaging 1.1 per 60 minutes at even strength.
… There’s no question that at $2.6 million average annual value, with a contract that runs through 2021 before restricted free agency status, Kase is a fantastic bargain; but given his health history, it’s not the most solid investment. In fact, he’s currently on injured reserve retroactive to Feb. 7, but was practicing with the Ducks prior to the trade.
Speaking of cap space, there’s obviously another component here for Boston: finding a taker for Backes. He’s signed through 2020-21, and had been jettisoned to the AHL after tallying three points in 16 games with Boston. They were either going to move him or (more likely) buy him out after this season. They ended up retaining $1.5 million of his contract (25 percent) and sent him back to the Western Conference. Other teams looking to dump salary have attached a first-round pick to that contract in order to move them. Not many of them have managed to pull a player like Kase out of the totality of the trade. So this was a nice piece of a business for the Bruins.
Sweeney hasn’t made many missteps. Signing Backes to a five-year, $30-million free-agent contract was certainly one of them. At a minimum, the Bruins hoped to get three solid seasons out of him. Instead, they got two average-at-best ones and two unsatisfactory ones, all of them colored in some way by his unfortunate history with concussions. (That both Backes and Kase have struggling through concussions makes this a very “peak NHL” trade.) But kudos to Sweeney for finding a trade partner that, apparently, intends to play Backes at the NHL level.
Although time will tell whether Kase provides the extra scoring punch many believe the Bruins will need in order to win the Stanley Cup Final, his arrival certainly helps gives them some breathing space under the salary cap they probably will need in order to remain among title contenders in the next few seasons.
