On the Boston Bruins …
Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe: The Bruins will have to fix their blueline this offseason. They have two first round picks and a bunch of prospects they could include in a deal. They could have accumulated ever more assets by trading pending UFA Loui Eriksson, but decided to hold on to him.
GM Don Sweeney will been looking at the Wild, Ducks and Jets, as all have have defenseman that could be available. Matt Dumba (MIN), Hampus Lindholm and Sami Vatanen (ANA), and Jacob Trouba (WPG) will all be RFAs and depending on what their asking price is, their team may look to move them.
Bruins defenseman Torey Krug is a RFA with arbitration rights and he could ask for $5 million.
Joe Morrow, Zach Trotman and Colin Miller are RFAs, and the Bruins could decide that one or more isn’t worth re-signing.
Joe Haggerty of CSNNE: The Bruins would have been better off trading Loui Eriksson at the trade deadline for good value, and retaining the draft picks they gave up for Lee Stempniak and John-Michael Liles.
There are whispers that President Cam Neely could be on a warm seat.
Sweeney may need to make some bold moves to improve their blueline. Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand or David Pastrnak should not be moved. Players like Tuukka Rask, David Krejci and Zdeno Chara have no-movement clauses, but maybe there are some who would okay a move. Maybe Chara would be willing to be a No. 3 or 4 defenseman on a contender – Kings, Blackhawks, Tampa or Florida?
The Bruins should have traded Chara a couple years ago. He carries a $6.9 million cap hit for the next two years.
They could buy out Dennis Seidenberg to create some more cap space for players like Krug and Marchand, or a new player they add this offseason.
Nothing should be off the table.
