Trade Deadline Primer: Boston Bruins

With the 4 Nations Face-Off break approaching, the trade deadline looms large and is about a month away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We start our look around the league with the Anaheim Ducks.

With tight playoff races in both conferences, there are many teams without a clear agenda heading into deadline day. The Bruins are one of those teams. An early-season coaching change hasn’t done much to jumpstart general manager Don Sweeney’s club, as an 18-13-3 record under interim head coach Joe Sacco still has them one point out of a playoff spot with negative games in hand. With a subpar possession game, unusually below-average goaltending, and a captain on an expiring contract, Boston isn’t in a good position to be the aggressive buyers they’ve routinely been at recent deadlines.

Record

26-22-6, 5th in the Atlantic

Deadline Status

Conservative Seller

Deadline Cap Space

$1.87MM on deadline day, 0/3 retention slots used, 45/50 contracts used, per PuckPedia.

Upcoming Draft Picks

2025: BOS 1st, BOS 3rd, BOS 5th, BOS 6th, BOS 7th
2026: BOS 1st, BOS 2nd, BOS 3rd, BOS 4th, BOS 5th, BOS 7th

Trade Chips

If any Bruins roster players move – which isn’t a given – pending UFA forward Trent Frederic is the likeliest candidate. Whether he’s shipped out as part of a true selling move or a retooling swap remains to be seen, but in any event, the 26-year-old is likely more valuable to Boston as a trade chip than as an extension candidate through what looks to be a few questionable seasons. The versatile middle-six grinder has been drawing interest for weeks now, which should only be growing as Mikael Granlund has already come off a thin list of rental forwards with usability at center.

However, Frederic is amid a major offensive regression, posting seven goals and seven assists in 52 games after a career-best 18-goal, 40-point showing last year. That comes despite Frederic averaging a career-high 14:05 per game, most of which has come at even strength. He’s been deployed on the second power-play unit with quarterback Hampus Lindholm missing extended time but hasn’t seen much use shorthanded despite what his reputation as a checking piece may indicate. Frederic does rank second on the team with 142 hits, though, and his $2.3MM cap hit won’t likely require retention for most interested parties. That, plus his effectiveness as a strong secondary scoring piece in the prior couple of seasons, should net Sweeney a solid return as he looks to restock his draft and prospect cupboard and rework his roster.

Big-bodied wingers Justin Brazeau and Cole Koepke are also pending UFAs and have provided far more value to the Bruins this season than their league-minimum two-way deals would predicate. Brazeau, in particular, has found a niche, checking in as one of the team’s six double-digit goal scorers with 10 and 20 points through 51 games. He’s seen usage higher in the lineup, particularly with Elias Lindholm and Brad Marchand, and has a 6’5″, 220-lb frame while carrying above-average possession impacts. If his play holds, he’d be an upgrade on nearly every contender’s fourth line and could even check in as a top-nine piece on a few. Koepke has cooled off after a hot start to the year but has still been part of one of the league’s best shutdown lines this year with John Beecher and Mark Kastelic. The 26-year-old has 12 points in a career-high 47 games, and the trio’s 1.28 xGA/60 ranks second in the league among qualified trios, per MoneyPuck.

On the back end, left-shot Parker Wotherspoon is likely to draw interest from teams looking to add some injury insurance ahead of the postseason. A pending UFA with an $800K cap hit, he has a goal and an assist in 30 appearances for the Bruins this year while logging fringe shorthanded usage. He plays a low-event game, carrying the worst offensive impacts of any full-time Bruins skater at even strength this season, but his 1.8 GA/60 ranks among the team’s best.

Then there’s Marchand, who enters deadline season without an extension after he denied a report from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet in October that a three-year deal was imminent. The 36-year-old still ranks second on the team in scoring with 42 points in 54 games and would net at least a first-round pick as part of a bigger return package. Trading him would signal a more aggressive sell-off than the Bruins have undertaken in decades, though, and remains an outside possibility at best despite his pending free agency.

Team Needs

1) Defense Prospects: While the Bruins’ pool is lacking in talent overall, they still have a pair of promising U-23 forwards in Fabian Lysell and Matthew Poitras. The same can’t be said for their future on defense, which lacks players with surefire NHL upside behind 24-year-old Mason Lohrei, who’s already established himself as a regular. The few first-round picks the Bruins have kept in recent years have all gone to forwards – understandable, given their increasing lack of secondary scoring – leaving the blue line unattended. More cost-effective youth to phase out overpaid depth like Andrew Peeke works to their present and future advantage.

2) Top-Six Forward: If it’s a retooling approach instead of a sellers’ one that Sweeney takes to the deadline, acquiring a top-six forward – whether a polished one or one with relatively certain upside – is a must. Morgan Geekie has been serviceable but overtaxed in a top-line role with David Pastrňák and Pavel Zacha, and Lindholm’s lack of goal-scoring (nine goals in 54 GP) has put more pressure on their wingers to be productive.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports.