Bruins Rumored to Have Interest in Two Devils

With six days until the NHL trade deadline at 3 p.m. on Monday, the Boston Bruins are going to be one of the teams active in the trade market. There are two needs that the Black and Gold have.

An upgrade for a middle-six winger is a need to add more secondary scoring behind Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak. As is the case with every trade deadline, the Bruins have been linked to different names that could be available for the right price.

Another area that could use an upgrade for the Bruins is on defense. A top-four, preferably a left-shot blueliner, to help with the young players on Boston’s blue line. In the past couple of weeks, the B’s defense has shown signs of leaks. Injuries have not helped out the cause on defense this season, but some of those injured players are slowly getting healthy. Currently, five of the six defensemen from Opening Night in New Jersey are in the lineup with the return of Kevan Miller tonight.

One team that is ready to be sellers again is the New Jersey Devils. General manager Tom Fitzgerald’s phone should be ringing off the hook over the next week. New Jersey has two players that the Bruins should have plenty of interest in, both at forward and on defense.

Kyle Palmieri, who has eight goals and nine assists in 34 games for the Devils this season, was on Boston general manager Don Sweeney’s radar last season and this would be the time for Sweeney to swing a deal with the Devils.

Bringing in Palmieri would give the Bruins top-three right wings of Pastrnak, Craig Smith, and Palmieri. Not a bad set of right wings for the remainder of the season. Palmieri is a free agent following the season.

David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period also said that a reason why the Bruins could be a good trade partner with New Jersey is that they have an interest in defensemen Dmitry Kulikov. A former first-round pick of the Florida Panthers at No. 14 in 2009, Kulikov is in the final year of his contract and would be an unrestricted free agent following the season.

When healthy, the Bruins could roll out this as a top-four defensive pairing,

Charlie McAvoy-Matt Grzelcyk

Dmitry Kulikov-Brandon Carlo

Sweeney could solve two of the Bruins’ needs with one phone call. A veteran right wing and a veteran left-shot defensemen to add to a team that is in need of more scoring and more defensive help. Two years ago at the trade deadline, the Bruins got Marcus Johansson from the Devils and that turned out to a deal that paid off in the postseason.