Boston Bruins: Four bold thoughts on possible moves this off-season
By Kyle Pereira
Who might do the Boston Bruins a favour?
However, what teams would be willing to do the Bruins a favour by taking that contract off their hands? Our site expert here at Causeway Crowd, Ryan Darnley, put out an article himself on the matter. He picked out three general managers that Bruins GM Don Sweeney has dealt with on several occasions.
"He stated the following, “Namely the Florida Panthers’ Dale Tallon, the New Jersey Devils’ Ray Shero and the New York Rangers’ Jeff Gorton.” Darnley then went on to eliminate two of those three GMs, stating “Safe bet, given their status as a fellow Atlantic Division team, is that the Florida Panthers will be unlikely to instigate any sort of deal that gives true value back to the Boston Bruins… Jeff Gorton, with his recent contract extension he gifted to Jacob Trouba and the big summer signing of Artemi Panarin, rapidly jumped from being a General Manager of a team committed to rebuilding to be the General Manager of a team with limited cap space and a few bad contracts still left to get rid of. Perhaps the only hope for calling in a favour lies with Ray Shero.”"
For those that don’t know, the New Jersey Devils have had themselves quite the off-season, bringing in defenseman PK Subban and winger Wayne Simmonds, as well as drafting future superstar Jack Hughes with their first overall selection in the draft.
Yet, despite all of those moves, the Devils still have $16.945M in cap space. So yes, the Devils are absolutely in the realm of possibilities when it comes to where the Bruins could move Backes. But there’s no way around the fact that the Bruins have very little leverage in trade talks.
The Devils have the talent to contend for the playoffs, so long as they stay healthy, and the Bruins are in their conference and ultimately competing against them. The Devils don’t want to make a competitor stronger by allowing them to quickly offload a contract and bring back big pieces to their team.
That being said, the Devils’ Ray Shero will absolutely force the Bruins to sweeten the deal up to the max. It’s also important to note that Shero has been a master at trade negotiations, somehow reeling in Taylor Hall for just Adam Larsson, a sub-top 4 defenseman. The Bruins would be treading on dangerously thin ice and could ultimately regret making a deal with the Devils. So, who else is there?