- Joe Haggerty of CSNNE: (mailbag) The Bruins need to find a puck-moving defenseman that can play 20-minutes a night and can play on the power-play. Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg may not be able to carry the blueline anymore. It may be asking for trouble if Torey Krug, Adam McQuaid and/or Kevan Miller are your middle pairing defensemen. Nobody they currently have will replace Dougie Hamilton.
The Bruins might look at, and overpay for, someone like Cody Franson or Johnny Oduya.
Franson will get a big deal from someone. Oduya may not be the puck-moving defenseman the Bruins need, though he could be a fallback for the Bruins if everything else falls through.Haggerty doesn’t think Franson will end up in Boston because of the money he’s looking for.
The Bruins and Blackhawks talked trade at the start of free agency, with those talks centered around Bryan Bickell and Anders Nilsson. Nilsson has since been traded to the Oilers.
- Ansar Khan of MLive: (mailbag) The Blues are more likely to look to move Kevin Shattenkirk next offseason opposed to this offseason if it looks like they won’t be able to re-sign him.
Would have to imagine that the Red Wings would be interested.
Even if things changed and they the wanted to trade Jimmy Howard, you are not able to trade high price goaltenders at the start of season. Even if a team loses a goalie to injury, teams don’t trade for one making $5.3 million for the next four years. The Wings have Howard and Petr Mrazek, and they want them to push each other. They will probably look to move Howard next offseason.The Red Wings would likely look to trade Jakub Kindl and his $2.4 million cap hit if he’s their No. 7 defenseman.
