Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Bruins salary cap arrangements begin; trade defenseman Matt Hunwick to Colorado

Boston Bruins v Ottawa Senators

<> on October 30, 2010 in Ottawa, Canada.

Phillip MacCallum

We’ve been talking for months now about what the Boston Bruins will do when it comes time to clear salary space for when offensive specialists Marc Savard and Marco Sturm return from the long term injured reserve, and tonight the Bruins made their first move towards getting under the cap for their comebacks.

The Bruins traded defenseman Matt Hunwick to Colorado for prospect defenseman Colby Cohen. The move is interesting because one of the problem areas for the Bruins is on defense. Their defense has had problems of late both being able to carry the puck through the zones and help generate offense as well as being able to keep up with opposing forwards. This season, Hunwick has been quiet and steady but nothing mind-blowing. Through 22 games he’s got a goal and two assists with a plus/minus rating of +4 and nine penalty minutes. He’s been averaging just over 16 minutes of ice time per game. He’s been a solid contributor for Boston but has been lacking something this year. Perhaps a change of scenery is what he needs.

Colby Cohen has seen a handful of time with the Avs this season thanks to the numerous injuries on the blue line. He’s young, he’s a former Boston University standout, and he’ll help divide the fan base in Boston thanks to that. I doubt we’ll see Boston College fans getting excited to see Cohen someday suit up in Bruins black and gold. For now, he’ll head to Providence in the AHL.

For Colorado, Hunwick gets into the mix on defense while guys like Kyle Cumiskey and Adam Foote work their way back from injury. This could spell the end of the run for Ryan Wilson on the blue line in Denver in the mean time and a ticket back to Lake Erie in the AHL could be in his immediate future.

James Murphy of ESPN Boston tweets that this move on its own is enough to get Marc Savard into the lineup whenever that will be. It’s not expected that he’ll be in the lineup by Wednesday against Philadelphia but after that it’s possible he’ll see time in their next game on Thursday in Boston against Tampa Bay. That’s not too bad for a welcome back.

That said, this is the first move to be made and when it’s time to get Marco Sturm back in the Boston lineup, you can expect another move to be made. You’d have to expect that a forward will find their way out of Boston either via trade or via waivers to the AHL. How the Bruins will do without a solid skating defenseman will be interesting to watch.

For now, Boston will run with six defensemen and Adam McQuaid will get a chance to show he belongs in the mix for one of those starting spots. If not, youngsters like Andrew Bodnarchuk, Jeff Penner, Matt Bartkowski, and Steven Kampfer could get the call from the AHL to get their chance.