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Boston Bruins: Please Don’t Trade With Colorado

By Andrew Thompson

Dec 8, 2016; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins center Austin Czarnik (27) clears the puck away from Colorado Avalanche center Carl Soderberg (34) with goalie Anton Khudobin (35) in net during the second period at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 8, 2016; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins center Austin Czarnik (27) clears the puck away from Colorado Avalanche center Carl Soderberg (34) with goalie Anton Khudobin (35) in net during the second period at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Boston Bruins seem to have been in talks with the Colorado Avalanche for most of the season. Will this passive-aggressive trade talk continue, or will the B’s finally pull the trigger on some sort of deal? If they do, will it be a smart move for Boston?

The Boston Bruins are improving as a team. Under new head coach Bruce Cassidy, they won their last three games going into the bye week.  The Black and Gold are still holding on to the third spot in the Atlantic Division, but they’re still lacking a few pieces.

The Colorado Avalanche is a mile-high dumpster fire. They’re 15-38-2. In their most recent game, they were shutout by everyone’s favorite former whipping post, the Buffalo Sabres. At this point, Carl Soderberg is willing to trade his good eye to get back to Boston.

I’ll be blunt. The Bruins organization should not make ANY kind of deal with Colorado.  The only pieces that Colorado have worth asking for are pieces that are too bloody expensive for the Bruins to take. Peter Chiarelli’s bad moves led to his dismissal. If  Don Sweeney wants to begin paving the road to his own termination, this would be him pouring the asphalt.

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The Bruins have been searching for a puck-moving defenseman. They’ve been doing that since they got rid of Dougie Hamilton and Johnny Boychuk. They’re not going to find what they’re looking for on that end.

The Avalanche’s defensive core is rather ugly. Tyson Barrie and Nikita Zadorov are good players trapped on a bad team.  The rest are struggling. They’ve got players with no goals and a -20 rating after 50+ games.  So, I can’t see the B’s looking for that.

The Bruins also need a backup goaltender. Sure, Anton Khudobin put up a win last week, but that’s his second win all season. The Bruins will not find any help here either.

The Avalanche ended up calling former Providence Bruins netminder Jeremy Smith, and that’s mostly because the goaltending duo of Calvin Pickard (9-18-1, 2.98 GAA, .905 sv%) and Semyon Varlamov (6-17-0, 3.38 GAA, .898 sv%) just can’t get it done this season. (This is partially due to their blueline making Boston’s blueline look like Bobby Orr.)

So that leaves the Boston Bruins looking for a top-six forward. The two Colorado players most likely on the block are Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog.  Signing either one of these players would be a BAD MOVE for Boston.

Landeskog’s numbers are ugly (but that can be said about the entire team). In 45 games, he has 23 points, has a -17 rating, and doesn’t look like he can offer that much for Boston.

The Bruins could put him on the Krejci line. That would likely send Peter Cehlarik (who looked great in his two assist game over Montreal) back to Providence. Bruce Cassidy likes developing young talent, and moving Cehlarik back down would be a bad move for the player and the organization in the long run.

Besides, Joe Sakic would want (the Bruins to find a way to talk David Krejci into waiving his movement clause) Ryan Spooner and/or (most likely ‘and’) Brandon Carlo, Charlie McAvoy, and an apartment on Causeway Street to move Landeskog. Too much potential for not enough value.

Then there is Duchene. The 26-year old has better numbers. In 49 games, he’s got 33 points, and a -18 rating. He also plays very technically proficient and clean hockey (six penalty minutes all season). It would make more sense to grab him.

But Sakic would want the same thing for Duchene that he would want for Landeskog. Too much potential wasted for not enough value. There’s also the small fact that the Bruins have way too many centers as is, and that’s the last thing the B’s need right now.

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The Boston Bruins have needs. If they want to become a serious playoff contender, they’ll have to continue to make tweaks to the lineup. Right now, there are better options out there and the last thing they need to do is to go dumpster diving while the dumpster is on fire. Don Sweeney and the Bruins will only get burned for their efforts.

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