Examining Bruins’ Biggest Need At NHL Trade Deadline.
The Boston Bruins are the Eastern Conference’s best club, and they are once again regarded Stanley Cup candidates.
With the NHL trade deadline two weeks away on March 8, general manager Don Sweeney will need to decide how aggressively Boston will try to satisfy roster holes.
The Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman has a.920 save percentage and 2.47 goals-against average, indicating strong goaltending this season. Linus Ullmark is right there with him, with a.914 save % and 2.72 goals-against average.
The Bruins are 10th in the league in goals scored (3.34 per game) and sixth in goals against (2.69). Despite these data, Boston could benefit from a stay-at-home defenseman to address the team’s injury issues this season.
Boston’s defensemen have missed 51 games due to injury this season, with Derek Forbort missing the most at 24 games.
Hampus Lindholm is classified as week-to-week with an unidentified ailment, while Matt Grzeclyk, who had previously missed 13 games, is day-to-day after suffering a lower-body injury in the Bruins’ 6-5 overtime win against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday.
If Sweeney decides to target a defenseman, the Calgary Flames’ Noah Hanifin is the most likely candidate to fill a vacancy in Boston.
Given Boston’s current cap situation, the Bruins will have to think outside the box to sign Hanifin by the deadline. CapFriendly.com reports that the Bruins have only $61,558 in expected salary space, insufficient to pay Hanifin’s daily cap charge of $1,417,969.
The Boston native is in the final year of his $4.95 million contract and will become an unrestricted free agent following the season. According to The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa, the Bruins will have a cap clearance of under $20 million in 2024-25.
Hanifin has 30 points in 54 games for the Flames this season, along with 80 blocked shots and 44 hits, and he averages 23:44 minutes of ice time. He is considered a legitimate top-four defenceman.
Sweeney might seek to make a deal similar to the one he made for Lindholm in 2022, when the defenseman was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks for numerous picks and a defensive prospect.
According to PuckPedia.com, the Boston Bruins do not have a first-round draft pick in 2024 since they owe it to the Detroit Red Wings to complete the Tyler Bertuzzi trade from last season, unless it is in the top ten. Boston has three picks in the 2024 draft, but they come in the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds. The team has a first-round pick in both the 2025 and 2026 drafts.
Sweeney may be able to produce extra salary room by putting Lindholm on long-term injured reserve if his week-to-week situation extends throughout the season, as the Bruins did with Taylor Hall last season.
According to CapFriendly.com, LTIR does not give incremental cap space savings. However, if a team operates below the accruable cap space limit, they will begin to accrue cap space.
Acquiring a defenseman like Hanifin would not only help the Bruins for the rest of the regular season, but it could also help keep Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, and the rest of the defensive core fresh for the playoffs by limiting their ice time in the remaining games.
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