Boston Bruins – Buffalo Sabres megadeal.
The Calgary Flames are far from a rebuilding team and just seem to need a shakeup and a few added pieces in order to be a contending team.
In this scenario, the Flames swap second-line left-wingers with the Boston Bruins and get a young breakout player in Nick Ritchie who could immediately slide into the slot on Sean Monahan’s left side. Ritchie only has 7 points less than Johnny Gaudreau up to this point and could bring some immediate size and secondary scoring.
Connor Clifton is a great young and tough defenceman who could immediately slide into a bottom pairing role for Calgary and is under contract until 2023 at a $1 million AAV.
Don Sweeney would have to say goodbye to his beloved draft capital, but you didn’t have to give up any prospects so it’s not all bad Donnie!
For the Bruins, Gaudreau sliding into the left slide of David Krejci would have to be a salivating thought for fans. Johnny Hockey would be an immediate impact guy for Boston’s lackluster secondary scoring and at age 27 could be a long-term piece in the Bruins’ growing young core.
How could the Boston Bruins fit Johnny Gaudreau under the cap?
Johnny Gaudreau’s contract is an absolute steal at an AAV of $6.75 million for this season and next.
Right now the Boston Bruins have just over $5.3 million in cap space and with contracts probably on the way out with any Gaudreau deal – it won’t be a tough task (if any) to squeeze Johnny Hockey under the cap.
With some big contracts coming off the books this offseason, the Bruins would be wise to immediately extend the young Boston College product.