Bruins At The Deadline
Mar 1, 2014; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins assistant coach Geoff Ward talks to the team during a timeout in the third period against the Washington Capitals at TD Banknorth Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Coming up on Wednesday March 5th is the NHL Trade Deadline. 30 Teams will be possibly making moves and bringing on long term pieces and rentals for the remainder of the season and beyond.
It’s no secret the Boston Bruins need help on the back end with defenceman Dennis Seidenberg out indefinitely with his leg injury. The Bruins biggest potential targets is Ottawa’s Chris Phillips and Philadelphia’s Andrej Meszaros. But there are plenty of other pieces floating around in the trade-verse that the Bruins could potentially make a run at come March 5th.
On The Defence:
The biggest names that the Bruins have been connected to are Phillips and Meszaros, but there are plenty of other blue-liners floating around and that are open for grabs if teams are willing to extend to get them.
The two most prominent names heard in current trade rumors is Buffalo’s Henrik Tallinder and Vancouver’s Alex Edler. There was reason to believe that at the post-Olympic break game in Buffalo that GM Peter Chiarelli was possibly scouring Tallinder and Buffalo has made essentially their entire roster available for grabs and already fired the trade cannon first when they shipped Ryan Miller and captain Steve Ott to the St. Louis Blues. Tallinder recently rejoined the Sabres this season after a 3 year stint in New Jersey but was originally drafted by Buffalo in 1997 and was with the team from 2001 – 2010 and is one of the two best veteran D-men the team has to offer (the other being Christian Ehrhoff, who is more than likely too expensive for the Bruins to go after).
Edler has been with the Canucks since 2006 and has been one of their top D-men but hasn’t really been finding the same spark he’s had in past seasons this year under Torts. Much like Ehrhoff he is offensively minded but wouldn’t be bad to pair with Hamilton or Krug so Chara and Boychuk can stay together and can added a little more back end scoring for the B’s which is especially helpful for a long playoff run.
The biggest issue with this upcoming deadline is that a lot of the movable blue line pieces have a value to them, and for some of them it’s high (especially out in Buffalo) there are very few movable defenceman that are sitting about the NHL (honorable mention going to Sergei Gonchar) but these two pieces alone could be very very helpful for the Bruins in the long run.
Moving Forward:
It’s been made apparent that the Bruins are only looking to add back end depth for the team’s long haul into the playoffs, but there is offence floating around that the Bruins could definitely add on that would be very helpful on the bottom 6 to boost scoring efforts. Much like when the Bruins added Mark Recchi in the 2008-09 Trade Deadline, bringing on that kind of veteran presence again could once more help boost the team and give them the extra push they need.
Two of the best available veteran forwards that come to mind is Dallas’s Ray Whitney and former-Bruin Michael Ryder. Ryder was apperantely close to signing in Boston during the 2013-14 off season but the deal fell through and instead the Bruins added on Jarome Iginla. With New Jersey definitely out of the playoff picture and with Martin Brodeur willing to jump ship come March 5th, it wouldn’t be surprising if Ryder wanted to move to a contender and what a better place to come to then back to the same team he lifted the cup over his head with. Ryder has a knack for turning it on in tense situations (see Game 5 against Montreal and Game 3 against Vancouver) and is exactly the kind of clutch player the Bruins could use in the Bottom 6 and even in the Top 6.
Whitney has a cup on his resume (like Ryder) and has connections to Recchi in Dallas and with the 05-06 Hurricanes (both were members of the cup winning squad) and would be a perfect fit in Boston. Yes, his 2013-14 season has not been exactly stellar but that doesn’t mean a change of scenery wouldn’t help (look at Tampa Recchi vs Boston Recchi). The older he has gotten the more potent his offensive talent has become and would definitely be a great addition to the team. He would be perfect on the third line alongside Soderberg and Erikkson and seeing Jagr’s effect on Soderberg, adding in another veteran could help spread some more skills and advice through out the team.
No Goal:
As much as the idea of landing Martin Brodeur as a back up and winning his final cup in Boston, there is no need to bring him on. Yes he’s a legend, but we don’t need it. Rask is perfectly capable of helping the team along and yes while Johnson can be shaky at times, Svedberg is waiting in the weeds if need be but there really won’t be a need for him (especially with the playoffs creeping up on us.) Goaltending is a very wide open frontier this trade deadline, but expect the Bruins to stay out of it.