It’s hard to remember a season where NHL trade chatter has been this involved, this far before the actual deadline. But the talk persists, and the league-leading Bruins are mentioned.
The March 9 deadline is still three weeks away, but the Bo Horvat and Vladimir Tarasenko blockbusters kicked off the trade season two weeks ago.
A team like Boston should obviously feel good about its own roster down the stretch. Until a relative five-game malaise recently, the Bruins have been downright dominant. That level of play is unsustainable — in large part because it never has really been sustained for an entire season — and even a record-setting regular season doesn’t guarantee a Stanley Cup.
That, paired with the fact that the Bruins might see this as their legitimately final chance to win another Cup with an aging core could have them aggressive at the deadline. According to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, the Bruins are going big-game hunting with one specific defenseman atop their trade board.
Seravalli, in a Valentine’s Day match-maker piece, paired the Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets with a deal centered around CBJ D-man Vladislav Gavrikov.
Seravalli writes, “depending on who you believe, many league sources suggest the Bruins are the front-runner for Gavrikov’s services.” As part of his exercise, Seravalli suggests the Bruins send their 2023 first-round pick and a fourth-round selection next year to Columbus, who would retain $500,000 of Gavrikov’s contract, in the swap.
It appears Gavrikov won’t play again before the deadline. He has been scratched for the very specific “trade-related reasons,” as the Blue Jackets understandably don’t want arguably their best chip to get injured.
The 27-year-old Russian blueliner stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 213 pounds. He’s largely viewed as a stay-at-home defenseman, one who shoots from the left side. Gavrikov is also in the final year of his three-year contract and carries an average annual value of $2.8 million. For a cap-strapped team like the Bruins, that probably is attractive at this point of the season, especially if Columbus retained even more of the money.
Of course, Gavrikov is a rental, and a first-round pick is surely a steep price to pay for just a few months of service. While there is one side of the argument that says no expense should be spared in a final kick at the can, the Bruins also at some point have to start worrying about the future, too. It’s a delicate balance.
Gavrikov is a defensive-minded player, who has just three goals and seven assists in 52 games this season. He logs big minutes, averaging 22:20 of ice time per game, with nearly 70% of his zone starts coming in his own zone. You can never have too many of those players when the playoffs roll around, so it’s easy to see why a team like the Bruins could be intrigued by the idea of bolstering the blue line with a player like Gavrikov.
