The Boston Bruins will welcome back Connor Clifton soon; which is equivalent to trading for a bottom-pairing defenseman with Stanley Cup Final experience.
Perhaps the return to health of Connor Clifton means the Boston Bruins don’t need to be in the market for a defenseman this deadline, especially with Jeremy Lauzon also recently emerging as an option to plug into the line-up.
Prior to making his return from the upper-body injury injury he suffered back in late December, Connor Clifton will be assigned to the Providence Bruins for a conditioning stint, with the goal to get a couple of games under his belt prior to be eased back into the Boston Bruins’ fold.
With the trades made today for defensemen, namely Dylan DeMelo, Marco Scandella and Brenden Dillon; it certainly seems that Don Sweeney has a lot of faith in the team’s internal options, of which Clifton proved a key depth piece last year.
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The value for each of those listed above is actually a reasonable market rate with DeMelo costing the Jets a 3rd round pick, Scandella costing the Blues a 2nd round and conditional 4th round pick and Dillon costing the Capitals a 2nd round and conditional 3rd round pick.
Boston clearly has a lot of faith in Clifton and the youngsters in Providence as nobody would be viewing any of those as true over-payments. In fact, they might well have helped bring the market back to reasonable after the exorbitant prices paid for Tyler Toffoli and Blake Coleman.
Many Boston Bruins fans would be aware that Connor Clifton has in fact but back training with the team and out on the ice for a while now, though his lack of clearance by the medical staff to play allows the conditioning loan option to be utilised.
If nothing else, the time spent with Providence should allow Clifton to get some big minutes and ensure he’s not too far behind the play when he eventually returns to the NHL. It also skirts around the waivers issue; no team can lay a claim this way!
It’s going to be great to welcome him back to the fold, but I hope there’s still more reinforcements to come!