Boston Bruins: Is there a chance to trade David Backes to Ottawa?
By Filip Canda
The Boston Bruins don’t necessarily have a salary-cap conundrum anymore. However, if they want to maneuver before the Trade Deadline, a David Backes trade might surface yet again. Does the opportunity to trade Backes to Ottawa grow bigger nowadays?
There is certainly no pressure at all for the Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney to pull any kind of significant move. If we are talking about the Trade Deadline, then it’s a wide-open space. If the Bruins were after prominent targets, as Marcus Johansson was last season, they would probably need the David Backes trade.
The Boston Bruins would have some other trade possibilities on the table. Defensemen Kevan Miller and John Moore might find themselves press-boxed when they both return from respective injuries.
Maybe the Bruins will consider trading Torey Krug, David Krejci, or Tuukka Rask. A Boston Bruins classic. But hey, trades of Krug or Rask are not happening.
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On the more realistic note, the David Backes trade is wishful thinking for the Boston Bruins. The most realistic trade partner would need to be the one with a ton of the salary-cap space. Those peers count teams like the Columbus Blue Jackets or the Ottawa Senators.
Firstly, David Backes would probably beg the Bruins not to trade him to Ottawa, he also possesses a limited no-trade clause.
Secondly, if the opportunity presents itself, there is a window opening. The Senators are ready for a shake-up. They would like to trade a veteran winger Mikkel Boedker. Here comes the intriguing part.
Teams around are not taking struggling forwards from striving clubs with the salary-cap hit of $4 million per campaign for the rest of this season. However, the Boston Bruins might at least pick up the phone and exchange pleasantries with the Senators’ GM Pierre Dorion.
The 29-year-old Danish right-winger has been overlooked this season in Ottawa. Nevertheless, he produced a 35-point campaign last season. If the Bruins can sweeten the pot and absorb the whole $4 million-a-year contract of Boedker, there might be an occasion opening to shed Backes’ contract.
One thing is for sure. The Bruins are either going to pay the receiver some extra costs in a David Backes trade or need to absorb another horrendous contract in a bad-contract-for-bad-contract swap.
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It doesn’t even have to be Boedker (no, it’s not going to be Bobby Ryan), but the Senators reportedly seek for forward help, and the Bruins need to get rid of one forward right there.