On the Boston Bruins …
Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe: One of the items on the Bruins offseason to-do list is to improve their blue line and get a little bigger.
“As far as size goes,” said Neely, joined by Jeremy Jacobs and the owner’s son, Charlie Jacobs, at the Garden podium, “would it be nice to have a little bigger on the left side other than ? Yes. So that’s something I think Don was going to try and work on this offseason.”
Left-handed Torey Krug and Matt Grzelcyk are behind Chara.
Cam Neely later added that ideally they can find someone that “can skate, retrieve pucks, and is a big body.”
They will check out the free agent market and/or find if there is anyone on the trade market.
Krug has two years left at $5.25 million per and is a potential trade candidate.
On the Buffalo Sabres and John Tavares …
The Fourth Period: TSNs Gord Miller was on TSN 690 earlier this week and he mentioned that the Buffalo Sabres are a potential candidate for pending free agent John Tavares.
“I think (drafting first-overall) makes Buffalo a legitimate contender to get John Tavares,” Miller said. “Tavares wants to win and he wants to play in a good hockey market. Well, Buffalo’s a good hockey market. And now you’ve got Rasmus Dahlin coming. They’ve already got (Rasmus) Ristolainen. They’ve got (Jack) Eichel. They’ve got an owner willing to spend money. It’s close to home, but it’s not in Toronto with all the scrutiny. His uncle John played lacrosse in Buffalo for years, he’s a legend there. All of a sudden, with Buffalo winning the draft lottery, they look like a team that players would want to play for.”
The Sabres currently have $19 million in cap space and that number will go up with the rising cap. If they were able to land Tavares, they could then look to trade center Ryan O’Reilly.
The Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes are believed to have some interest in O’Reilly.
The Sabres will be looking to improve in net next season. It’s not known if Chad Johnson will be brought back. They have tried to trade Robin Lehner.