Often, periods of sustained success lead to a quick and rough-and-tumble downfall in today’s NHL. That chain of events appears to be set in motion with the Boston Bruins, who are now facing some significant forward depth issues after a tight salary cap crunch and the retirement of captain Patrice Bergeron earlier this week. With Bergeron and longtime teammate David Krejci not expected to return as their two top pivots down the middle, team president Cam Neely told reporters, including Joe Haggerty, today that the team is doing “whatever we can to bolster that position.”
If Neely isn’t bluffing, expect that to lead to pretty immediate trade speculation regarding the Bruins and some of the top centers potentially available on the trade market. They still have some runway this offseason to make a move before the 2023-24 campaign starts, although a move could always come closer to next year’s trade deadline if the team feels they can be competitive enough to at least stay in the playoff race until that point.
Haggerty mentioned two candidates who, by public consensus, should make the most sense – Elias Lindholm of the Calgary Flames and Mark Scheifele of the Winnipeg Jets. Both have loads of experience shouldering first-line minutes and are pending UFAs next summer, with the status of contract extensions up in the air. If you’re a Bruins fan, don’t hold your breath, though – any trade will be incredibly tough to pull off with limited financial maneuverability and a lack of top-flight assets in the cupboard.
That being said, when a team official says all avenues are being exhausted, it’s fair to speculate about a deal. The Bruins do have a couple of pieces capable of top-six minutes in Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle, but more is needed for a team no longer stacked with depth scoring on the wings and still having playoff aspirations. Lindholm immediately jumps out as a better fit with Boston than Scheifele, if for no other reason than his lower cap hit. Locked in at just $4.85MM next year, a move centered around someone like defenseman Matt Grzelcyk could be palatable for the B’s if Calgary obliges – the Flames may be looking for someone to replace pending UFA defenseman Noah Hanifin if they trade him as well.
Not only that, he’s a much better direct stylistic replacement for Bergeron than Scheifele. No one will come close to Bergeron’s two-way dominance (and calling him dominating may be an understatement), but Lindholm has garnered significant Selke consideration in the past two seasons and has posted better point production than Bergeron in the past few seasons.
Scheifele may have a slightly higher offensive ceiling with a longer history of point-per-game seasons, but he’d be harder to fit in at a $6.125MM cap hit. Boston doesn’t exactly have the assets to spare to convince a team (or third party) to retain salary in a deal. While incredibly skilled, Scheifele also consistently ranks near the bottom of the league in defensive impacts. He’d be a fine stopgap and a significant upgrade on their current options, but if the Bruins have a choice between the two candidates mentioned, Scheifele will likely be their second pick.
Other than those two, the list of centers available on the trade market that would be significant upgrades over their current options is quite slim, at least among pending 2024 UFAs. There’s also another Flame who could be available on the market in Mikael Backlund, but he’s not quite viewed as a bonafide number-one center despite his elite defensive capabilities.
Time to call Ron Francis again
In all fairness, I wondered about including Alex Wennberg as an HM here, at least for some depth, but I don’t feel SEA would consider moving him right now. He’s quite well-liked there, and team chemistry is obviously one of their bigger assets.
Lemme see. Boston just lost one of the greatest two way centers ever, and might be about to lose a serviceable 2nd line center, and currently have Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha as their #1 and #2 on their depth chart. And they’re looking for center depth?
Didn’t see that coming.
Why would Bam Cam even tell reporters this anyone can see this is a major problem now…
That has to mean someone’s heading out to make cap room if it’s a high caliber center they’re after. Ullmark, DeBrusk or Swayman would be my guess
I’m hoping for Lindholm, I like his fit for replacing Bergy better. Also the Jets have had a lot of culture problems and Scheifele has been a part of that.
3 team trade between BOS, WPG and NJ. Figure out how to even it out exactly, but the main pieces would be…
Boston gets Scheifele and Vanacek.
Devils gets Hellebuyck.
Jets get Ullmark, a D man from Boston and another solid NHL’er or a very good prospect from NJ and some picks from either or both teams.
Huh. That’s an interesting mix. I’m not myself a Scheifele fan, but looking at that combination from all sides, you can’t really claim anyone’s getting screwed there.
I like each teams’ tandems after that deal.
Swayman/Vanacek
Hellebuyck/Schmid
Ullmark/Broissoit
And Scheifele seems like a good fit to replace Krejci, at least. They aren’t trading for a new Bergeron.
Obviously, the key would be which actual players fill in the spots I listed generically, but this framework would give each team what they need.
Couture might be a good fit in Boston. He is a bit long in the tooth, but would probably be cheaper to acquire.
Debrusk, a “B” center prospect and a 3rd for Logan ($2M retained)
That’s not enough to get it done. Sharks don’t want debrusk so I’m guessing that is a cap dump. A b prospect and middle pick for a low end 1c who is a captain? They want better prospects and picks
If bruins still have heavy born again christian influence. scheifele is big on religion. he would fit right in. He has never been same since hit Evans.
Thinking of a team that has got more centermen than needed and could use a goalie in return:
Red Wings probably. Copp and Compher are both 2C, and they could send back Reimer for an upgrade in goal. But they are division rivals so chances are slimmer.
Kings probably not. They do have Danault but won’t gamble too much on Byfield growing into a 3C role this season.
Devils could need an upgrade on Vanecek but don’t have centers that fit. Makes them candidates for a 3 team trade (see comments above)
Kuznetsov reportedly wants out of Washington but Capitals need another C in return (might work as 3 way with the Jets or Flames though). Plus: Bruins can’t fit his cap hit as it is.
Unless they find another deal somewhere or can make a 3 teams trade work, they might need to go with Stastny for now.
Stastny’s still a decent player, but Boston’s about to be out of cap space until/unless they trade salary out.
Could have gotten hometown Kevin Hayes for next to nothing. Maybe still can.
The Bruins could easily regress this season if the center position isn’t addressed. Lindholm or Scheifele both have legit talent, so they are reasonable targets.
It’s not clear if the Bruins have the right assets to trade to land either one of them. A three team trade makes some sense in order for something to fly.
They’re going to regress one way or another: without Bergeron, without Hall, without Foligno, without Orlov, without Bertuzzi, without Hathaway … and there’s nowhere TO go but down after getting the most wins ever. It’s just a matter of how far.
And trading ANYone more out just weakens the team further. Trading the reigning Vezina winner weakens the team, unless anyone figures that Swayman is a 60-games-a-season guy. They just lost over 80 goals to free agency, trades and retirement, so trading DeBrusk weakens the team to the tune of 27 more … who could they possibly get to replace that?
Honestly, I have a radical thought: if I was in Sweeney’s and Neely’s skates, I do nothing, beyond finding a buyer for Forbert, who’s way too expensive for bottom pairing. Get Swayman and Frederic under contract, and just go with it. Making the playoffs this coming season is nice, but not essential. Brad Marchand is the only guy left on the roster who’s (a) older than 30, and (b) signed beyond 2024. They can afford to spend a year retrenching: to see if Zacha and Coyle can play higher up the depth chart, to see if Ullmark/Swayman can keep it up without Patrice out there, to see if Frederic can continue to develop, to see if Zboril, Lohrei or Mitchell can be those bottom pairing D-men.
Surprised no one mentioned JT miller. Seems like he’s been on the block.
Miller would be prime suspect if contract wasn’t an option & Canucks weren’t perennially dreaming of a playoff spot. He’d be a nice fit and has Bruin mentality but Vancouver mgmt are stupid
Lindholm and Hanifan for Debrusk and Carlo or Gryzleck
That wouldn’t work from a couple of angles. First off, the *best* likely outcome from the Swayman and Frederic hearings are that all the cap space Boston has left will be used up, and any trade they make has to be money-in/money-out. Lindholm and Hanifin are on the books for just short of a combined $10 MM next year. That’s $2 MM over DeBrusk/Carlo’s contracts.
The second is that Calgary simply wouldn’t go for it. Carlo’s a good defenseman, but he’s never driven an offense or been used on the power play, and Hanifin’s been a consistently good defense scorer who’s been their #1 on the PP. DeBrusk is a good scorer, but no one’s every thought he’d be a 40-goal man like Lindholm has, and of course he doesn’t compare to Lindholm as a two-way player. The Bruins would have to throw in considerable sweeteners, and Boston doesn’t really have sweeteners to spare any more after a few years worth of deadline deals. Calgary would get a much better deal for either of them at next season’s trade deadline. What could Calgary’s incentive to trade even up for *worse* players than they already have be?
The third is that Boston doesn’t need Hanifin. What they need as their #3 and #4 defensemen is what they already have: defensively responsible guys making not-too-outrageous money for the slots. They don’t need someone driving the power play with McAvoy, Lindholm and Grzelcyk around.
The fourth is this: they don’t need Lindholm next season either. Boston’s not winning a Cup next year. They don’t need to twist themselves into knots trying. If they want Lindholm — and I agree he’d look just fine in a Boston uniform — they can go after him in free agency next summer, and not have to surrender a single asset to do it.