Tomorrow’s Globe:
Trade deadline
Will the Bruins be buyers or sellers?
The Bruins returned to work Saturday, their first game post-4 Nations, and have but six games to go before the March 7 trade deadline. They play the night before the deadline in Raleigh, N.C., then March 8 in Tampa (scheduled as 3 p.m. matinee).
Minus their top two defensemen,
Charlie McAvoy and
Hampus Lindholm, they portend at this hour to be sellers and not buyers, particularly if McAvoy is slow to build back from his shoulder injury and related infection. The infection is potentially more worrisome because of the myriad complications that could arise if the infection lingered, but the structural hit to the AC joint — the union of collarbone and shoulder blade — could be enough to leave McAvoy sidelined for six weeks or more. The regular season ends April 15 (Devils at the Garden).
If they are sellers, captain
Brad Marchand, now with a 4 Nations gold medal in his treasure chest, owns one of the few contracts the Bruins are free to wheel and also get a worthwhile return.
Based on the mind-set and operating standards of GM
Don Sweeney, it’s hard to imagine Marchand getting dealt unless he requests it and/or checks off on it. Both Sweeney and team president
Cam Neely carefully have crafted a respectful, professional culture around the work force and know the message could go awry in the room, and throughout the league (think: prospective free-agent signees), if they wheeled out their captain basically without his blessing.
It took the Rangers’ room weeks to recover after GM
Chris Drury made life, shall we say, generally unpleasant for then captain
Jacob Trouba, eventually forcing the prickly defenseman to accept getting dealt to Anaheim. Marchand is a more productive player than Trouba and has meant more to the organization. He won’t be getting a deadline day’s bumrush out of town.
However, at age 36, how much would Marchand bring back in trade? The guess here: maybe a couple of Round 2 picks and a prospect (more AHL filler). Not exciting, but for an organization desperate to draft and develop bonafide NHL talent, a couple of picks even if in, say, the 35-50 range, would be worth grabbing. Keep in mind, Marchand is on target for unrestricted freee agency July 1. At the moment, the Bruins could wheel him, grab the picks, then sign him when he hits the open market.
Sweeney also has a half-dozen names, some with restrictions attached and of varying market appeal, he can consider wheeling: including forwards
Charlie Coyle,
Pavel Zacha,
Morgan Geekie, and
Trent Frederic; defenseman
Brandon Carlo and goalie
Joonas Korpisalo.
If he were to pare more than one or two of those six, then Sweeney would be signaling more of a rebuild than a retool. Those definitions can be vague, but the last aggressive roster rework here was triggered by
Joe Thornton getting wheeled to San Jose Nov. 30, 2005.
By the start of the 2006-07 season, GM
Mike O’Connell was out (replaced by
Peter Chiarelli), coach
Mike Sullivan was out (replaced by
Dave Lewis), and free-agent hirees
Zdeno Chara and
Marc Savard were the anchor tenants in the roster rebuild. Five years later, they won the Cup.
