The Boston Bruins may be in control of the President’s Trophy now, but they need to make another move at the deadline if they hope to be standing at the end of the 2020 playoffs.
General manager Don Sweeney has already dropped the hammer on one move, acquiring Anaheim Ducks forward Ondrej Kase in exchange for Axel Andersson, David Backes, and a first-round pick. Kase should be step one of Sweeney’s plan to bolster the front lines to ensure a deep Bruins playoff run.
With the trade of Backes, the Bruins now have more cap room for not only this year but next. They had to give up a first-round pick to dump the Backes contract, so their draft pick assets are diminished, but they still have some prospects.
Boston doesn’t have a ton of top-flight players in the pipeline, but they should be willing to push any of their remaining chips to the middle. Guys like Trent Frederic, Oskar Steen, and Jakub Lauko should not be off the table.
This could be the last run for the Bruins’ big guns. David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara, and Tuukka Rask have been together for about a decade now. They don’t have much time left, Chara in particular. Chara has been the stalwart on the back end for the Bruins since 2005 when he arrived and donned the captain’s “C.” The B’s should try to get anything possible to help their 42-year-old icon go out on top.
In addition to it being perhaps the end of the road for this group of Bruins, the rest of the league hasn’t sat on their heels. Look no further than the three teams that are closest to the Bruins in points.
Tampa Bay is nipping at Boston’s heels, and have already traded a top prospect and a first-rounder for Blake Coleman and signed free agent defenseman Zach Bogosian. The Washington Capitals are stocking up on both the back end and the front lines, trading for both blue-liner Brendan Dillon, and winger Ilya Kovalchuk. The Pittsburgh Penguins kicked off the trade deadline scrambling by adding Jason Zucker from the Minnesota Wild.
The teams behind the Bruins have been steadily improving. While the B’s have shown they are good enough to win as is, they should go after guys like Chris Kreider and Kyle Palmieri to put them over the top. Boston can get back to Cup Final, and finish what they let slip through their fingers last year. It’s time for Sweeney and co. to go all in to ensure they have the best chance to do that and give guys like Bergeron, Chara and Krejci that coveted second cup.
