Bruins Trade Talk: The Evander Kane Dilemma
I’m a strong believer in the Bruins system; especially the yearly emphasis placed on balance and building a roster stocked with players responsible at both ends of the ice. Entering this offseason, there is a divide that exists between people feeling the Bruins need to upgrade on the blue line as opposed to trying to add a top-six forward even though the latter seems to be the prevailing idea.
The first two dominos to fall this offseason have been Brad Marchand being placed on the trading block as well as an admission from writers covering the team that the Bruins would be very active in the trade market this offseason despite remarks from Cam Neely and Peter Chiarelli claiming the team was only interested in making minor tweaks to the roster.
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When I heard the Bruins were going to be active players at the trade deadline, I started to move away from my stance of focusing exclusively on rebuilding from within. My reason is simple and his name is Evander Kane. Now, there have not been any reports linking the Jets directly to Marchand, but interest has been expressed by Winnipeg to work on making a deal with Boston.
If the Bruins were inclined to make a deal for Kane it would have to involve more than Marchand to make it work. At the beginning of the 2012-2013 season, Kane signed a six year $31.5 million dollar deal that averages out to $5.25 million over the remaining four years of his deal. With Marchand’s contract carrying only a $4.5 million dollar cap hit, the Bruins are going to have to include another piece in order to make a potential deal for Kane work. Chances are it would be one of three players going with Marchand; Johnny Boychuk, Chris Kelly, or Adam McQuaid
It’s no secret that Kane possesses attributes that would make him an interesting acquisition for the Bruins. The big and physical 22-year old saw his progress in Winnipeg dip down a bit this past season; not to mention his well documented issues with playing in Winnipeg continued to make for headlines.
The ceiling for Kane as a perennial 30-40 goal scorer is something the Bruins simply haven’t had during the Claude Julien era and with offense as well as a lack of finish being a huge issue; it could benefit the Bruins to lock up one of the best young players in the game. When I think of Evander Kane going from playing with Devin Setoguchi and a borderline AHL center in Eric O’Dell to either on the Krejci or Bergeron line; it could potentially be a perfect match.
Even though Kane is only 22, there are questions that exist in Winnipeg regarding him not being used right as well as not having the talent around him to allow his game to flourish. The Bruins would be taking a risk in investing so much on offense, however I truly believe that the Bruins could finally have found a true offensive stud in their system. At some point a player predicated on skill and talent in the offensive end has to mature and develop within our system.