Dec 17, 2014; Saint Paul, MN, USA; Boston Bruins head coach
Claude Julienduring the second period against Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center. The Bruins defeated the Bruins 3-2 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
The Boston Bruins are going to keep their hands out of the cookie jar when it comes to trades this December. (While some of you don’t want to hear this, it’s a very good thing for the Black and Gold.) There are several reasons why the Bruins won’t be looking for some mid-season trade action.
1.) Everybody wants to do the Dougie. Dougie Hamilton is a hot commodity in the trade rumors right now. He’s young, still growing into his position, and he’s already a solid top/second line defenseman. He won’t be reaching the peak of his game for several seasons, and he’s already shaping up to be one of the best in the league now. The Bruins have long term (career length) plans for him, and the deal would have to be insanely good for the B’s to give him up.
Hopefully, Peter Chiarelli learned the error of his ways by trading Johnny Boychuk.
2.) Cap Space. According to capgeek.com, the Boston Bruins have less than a million dollars in room to maneuver with. It makes players like T.J. Oshie unreachable. The Bruins would have to give up too much. The fan base is already livid over having too many AHL players on the roster as is, and if we gave up Kelly and a second player to get him, they’d be putting more AHL players on the ice.
3.) No one wants our ‘junk’. This is another argument that goes out to the fans who believe that another team will greedily snap up Matt Bartkowski, Simon Gagne, or any of our AHL players as part of some awesome package deal. Those teams already have their own collection of players they have been disappointed with and/or their own warehouse of AHL potential. The odds of that kind of trade happening are rather low. (Personally, it’s one of the reasons why I think Matt Bartkowski got away with taking the B’s to arbitration. He knew they were going to need him.)
4.) Taylor Hall. A young talented player that doesn’t fit in with the current system. A player that wants to go all in on scoring but seems to care less about defense. A little immature. Does this sound familiar folks? It worked out OK for us when we called him Tyler Seguin, but I severely doubt Chiarelli or Claude Julien are going to put up with that again. If the Bruins were even willing to entertain that possibility, reasons #2 and #3 are still staring the Black and Gold right in the face.