The Bruins are in an interesting position as the NHL trade deadline nears, and as the league’s top team, they’ll play a big role leading up to March 3.
Boston is expected to add at some point before the deadline, but a salary cap crunch means general manager Don Sweeney has some difficult decisions to make in the coming weeks. NHL insider Elliotte Friedman laid out the stakes in his most recent “32 Thoughts” podcast with Jeff Marek.
“The reason I don’t think the Boston deals have happened yet with (Jake) DeBrusk coming off (long-term injured reserve) is Boston I think they have things they’ve gotta do. They’ve gotta figure out their roster and their cap situation,” Friedman said.
In order to activate DeBrusk, the Bruins placed Tomas Nosek on LTIR. As it stands now, the B’s have $1 million in usable cap space, according to CapFriendly.com.
That’s not a ton of room. Obviously, there are ways to get around that, like cap retention or moving out some of their own money. But, to Friedman’s point, the Bruins have to decide whether they want to tweak their roster in dramatic fashion. It obviously has worked pretty well to this point, and a healthy Boston team has proved it is talented enough to make a deep playoff run.
However, the Bruins sound like they want to add. According to Friedman, Sweeney remains interested in Arizona defenseman Jakob Chrychrun, a legitimate game-changer, who wouldn’t come cheap. It’s possible Boston decides to do something smaller, more depth-focused, like adding Columbus defenseman Gavrikov. Just last week, the Bruins were considered a front-runner for Gavrikov.
“I think that’s what they’re figuring out right now,” Friedman continued. “I really do think they like Gavrikov from Columbus, and I do think Gavrikov was pulled from games because I think they were talking to Boston.
“This whole thing with Chychrun, I do think LA is still there, and your St. Louis point is a good one. And I do think on some level, Boston has considered ‘Do we just go for Chychrun ourselves?'”
Regardless, Friedman said “Boston I think is going for a (left-shot defenseman), and we’ll see what else they come up with.”
The Bruins’ depth has been on display all season but especially as of late. There is room for improvement, however slight, so it’s going to be a difficult if not pivotal week and a half of decision-making for Sweeney and the Bruins organization.
