The Boston Bruins have been relatively quiet this summer, but it seems unlikely that will persist for too much longer. The Bruins are in a difficult cap situation and have a defensive logjam. The two problems could be alleviated with a trade and Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli doesn’t seem to disagree with that.
“You don’t wish one of these D men to be traded, but we just have too many D men,” Chiarelli said, per WEEI 93.7 FM. “At some point, I’m going to have to do it, and all the teams in the league, most of the teams in the league would like one of these defensemen.”
“And I know everyone’s waiting, ‘What move will [he] make? What move will [he] make?’ Well, I have to see what’s going to happen, see who fits well with whom, but the uncertainty is something this year that is a byproduct of the cap and a successful team and locking up those guys, and eventually there’s other guys that are just going to get too expensive. I don’t cast any aspersions on them for being at that level, but that’s what it’s at.”
There’s been no shortage of speculation about what Boston might do, but one of the popular theories is that Johnny Boychuk will be traded to free up a roster spot and roughly $3.4 million in cap space. The fact that he’s a right-shooting, top-four defenseman makes him a hot commodity and the Detroit Red Wings in particular could certainly use his services.
For his part, Boychuk doesn’t want to be dealt, but realizes it’s out of his control.
Meanwhile, the Bruins are still trying to sign restricted free agents Reilly Smith and Torey Krug.