The NHL three-day Holiday break is over, and the game resumes on Saturday night. The Boston Bruins, who sputtered through a 1-3-1 five-game homestand, which included losing their final four games (one in a shootout to the Vancouver Canucks).
They are on the outside looking in at the Eastern Conference playoff race and begin a five-game road trip in Western New York against the Buffalo Sabres. A Sabres win, and they leap the Black and Gold in the standings and leap the Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs in the basement of the Atlantic Division.
Speaking of the Maple Leafs, they are in the same position as the Bruins. Will they be buyers, sellers, or stand pat at the trade deadline? There is still a long way to go before we figure that answer out, but Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic linked Boston to a Toronto forward in a potential trade.
Bruins writer links Maple Leafs forward to Boston in a potential trade
Earlier this month, Elliotte Friedman linked Boston to the Leafs' 25-year-old forward Matis Maccelli. Now, Shinzawa links the Bruins to him and explains why.
"The left-shot winger would give the Bruins some offensive help in their top nine. He is also 25 years old, which fits the Bruins’ cycle in terms of building for the future while going for a playoff spot,'' wrote Shinzawa.
Maccelli, who was traded to the Maple Leafs from the Utah Mammoth back in June, has five goals and six assists this season in Toronto. Selected in the fourth round of the 2019 MHL Entry Draft by the then-Arizona Coyotes, Maccelli played four seasons for the Coyotes/Mammoth franchise and had 37 goals and 93 assists in 224 games.
Boston has multiple needs coming out of the holiday break, with a right-shot defenseman and goal-scoring winger at the top of the list. Maccelli would be a nice addition not only for this season, but as a building piece for the future. To make this happen, it would also depend on the asking price and what Bruins general manager Don Sweeney would part ways with.