Boston Bruins: John Moore is the one player that must be traded

When we look at the Boston Bruins roster, it’s blatantly clear that John Moore is the odd man out.

Ignoring the fact that the Boston Bruins have sent David Backes to the Providence Bruins and thus tucked his buried at least some of his cap hit, John Moore is the obvious next most under-qualified and overpaid player on the roster.

Kevan Miller has been unfortunate enough to be on long-term injured reserve for the season and thus we can easily ignore the $2.5 million salary he’s earning. David Backes, safe to say, isn’t worth $6 million for the next season and a bit. Likewise, the $2.75 million that John Moore will earn for this season and next 3 preceding that.

There lies the exact reason that he must be traded by the Boston Bruins. Four seasons (including the current one) at $2.75 million a year for a player that was easily replaced at the start of the year by Connor Clifton, who himself only made the NHL last year!

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Also factor in that Urho Vaakanainen and Jakub Zboril are waiting in the wings, held up by the fact that John Moore is taking one of the spots on the left side of the Boston Bruins defense and you’ve got another reason why he needs to go.

At 29 years old, he’s not about to improve anytime soon and frankly he hasn’t done a great deal this year to merit being picked up by another team. That’s where the sticking point will prove to be.

In order to deal away what is already a poor contract, but long-term will look increasingly bad, even as the cap rises, the Boston Bruins will likely have to part with a useful asset.

Whether that asset is a draft pick; I’m thinking it costs at least a third round pick though, given the Toronto Maple Leafs essentially set the market for acquiring poor contracts when they dealt Patrick Marleau. Of course, his was a bit different and the dollar value higher, but the guess on a draft pick still stands.

Either that or in order to get rid of John Moore, you also end up having to sacrifice Zboril, Connor Clifton or maybe the emerging Jeremy Lauzon if we’re talking blue-liners or at the very least, Zach Senyshyn.

None rank as A-grade prospects, but given that the Boston Bruins’ talent pool is a little slim, especially with us banking on a Stanley Cup run last season and no doubt going all-in (somewhat) again this year, it’s still risky to play with thread-bare prospect cupboards.

Given that Bruce Cassidy recently benched Moore against the Pittsburgh Penguins after a somewhat miserable defensive display, with the blue-liner seeing just six minutes across the final two periods, it’s safe to say that he may or may not have a line-up place going forward.

Best to deal him, if you can, and deal with the fact that it means playing your younger guys at least as third-pairing options.