- Joe Haggerty of CSNNE: Looking at some priorities for the Bruins this offseason.
“Obviously they’ve got to look to trade some people from their roster. I think Milan Lucic is the one they’ve got to look long and hard at entering free agency,” said Joe Haggerty on SportsNet Central. ” probably the most you would get back in a trade except if they start to think about Dougie Hamilton and potentially trading him. Because he’s a restricted free agent, because there could be offer sheets thrown his way.”
If the Bruins move Milan Lucic, they should look at going after Blackhawks Brent Seabrook.
“The Blackhawks are in serious salary cap trouble, they’re going to need to unload in the offseason,” he said. “What I heard last weekend in Buffalo is Seabrook might be the guy that gets traded. They’re going to have to get in line with Edmonton and a lot of other teams to go after him. But that they in your prime, top two defenseman, Johnny Boychuk-style defenseman that they could go out and get to finally replace a guy that they didn’t replace last year.”
If the Bruins are able to clear cap space to go after a free agent, Haggerty thinks they should look at Matt Beleskey.
“I think he’s a power forward, a winger that’s just starting to come into his own,” said Haggerty. “He scored 20-plus goals this year, the first time he was in double digits in goals. I think he’s an intriguing Bruins-type player. Like I said, only if they clear off space. But maybe he’s a left wing choice if they trade Milan Lucic. I’d keep an eye on that.”
- Maple Leafs Hot Stove: Maple Leafs assistant GM Kyle Dubas on TSN Radio yesterday on player movement.
We would like to add more draft picks or prospects that we can continue to work with here and build that way. I think that’s been clear from the outset with Brendan and it’s been hammered home even further when Mike came on a few weeks ago. We know the process that we signed up for. We have our plan in place and it’s going to be through growing internally and developing our own prospects and players, acquiring more draft picks and just continuing to get ourselves more assets that way. At the same time, going into free agency we’ve got some flexibility with the cap; we want to continue to find players that can be competitive here and help us to continue to move this thing along from where we are at right now. We realize that we’ve got a ways to go, but we’ve got solid coaching in place now with Mike and we’ve got quite a few draft picks in the next two drafts, and we’re pretty happy with how our young players are coming along. We’re starting to build it up, but we realize the task at hand is a large one, but an exciting one at the same time.