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It would make sense to look at the Boston Bruins and say that it’s time to sell high on expiring contracts. In spite of a 7-2-1 record over their last 10 games (or more importantly this time of year, 15 of a possible 20 points), most don’t consider the Bruins to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Their offense seems carried by their top power play unit and four players, while the defense is an ever-shifting mess that’s forced many of Boston’s blue liners to carry workloads above their current ceilings.
And with many of the club’s pro scouts in the Hub for their pre-deadline meetings, the obvious trade to be made for the Black and Gold centers around moving 30-year-old free agent to be, Loui Eriksson.
Eriksson, in the final year of a contract with an affordable $4.25 million cap-hit, has been among Boston’s best in 2015-16, with 16 goals and 40 points in 52 games. Included in those 40 points is an impressive power play stat-line featuring eight goals and 12 points on Boston’s top unit. And if a healthy skater for the final 30 games of the season, the versatile Swede would finish the year with 25 goals and 38 assists (63 points). It would Eriksson’s first 60-plus point year since the 2011-12 season.
A fit next to
David Krejci -- on either the left or right side, too -- on the B’s top line, keeping Eriksson in town should be among general manager
Don Sweeney’s top priorities. It has been, too. The two sides have tried to hammer out an extension, but the roadblocks appear quite real. It seems as if the Bruins would prefer to keep No. 21 in town on a short term deal (think three to four seasons) while Eriksson’s camp would prefer a long-term deal in the five to six year range (which makes sense for a soon-to-be 31-year-old). The anticipated average annual value of any Eriksson extension with the Black and Gold is expected to be anywhere from $5.5 million to north of $6 million.
And this comes back to a perceived philosophical change in the B’s front office. Seemingly gone are the days where the front office overextends themselves -- in dollars and years, but mainly years, I’d say -- to keep veterans in town, no matter how good a ‘fit’ they appear to be. And gone are the days where the Bruins keep a clear goner in town beyond the deadline for a skinny chance at the Cup.
It’s also been
years since the Bruins traded a player of this value in the middle of the season. Especially when they’re still
very much in contention within the Eastern Conference, too.
In essence, this isn’t anything like when the B’s shipped top-liners such as
Joe Thornton (to San Jose) and
Sergei Samsonov (to Edmonton) out of town back in the 2005-06 season when they were very much out of contention. Those trades were centered around the futures and bit parts that came back to town in an effort to accelerate the Bruins’ teardown on the way to the rebuild. You’d have to think that any Eriksson trade made would be far more along the lines of the ‘hockey trades’ the rebuilding Bruins made with an eye for today
and tomorrow back in 2007, like the Brad Boyes for Dennis Wideman swap with St. Louis or the two-for-two swap the Bruins made with Calgary that brought Andrew Ference and Chuck Kobasew to town in exchange for Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart.
The focus for Eriksson’s return package would of course be on the defensive side of things. Although you’ve liked the in-season strides made by a
Colin Miller,
Joe Morrow, and
Zach Trotman, none appear to be the heir apparent to
Zdeno Chara. And although you see the link to Eriksson from Western Conference clubs like Anaheim (tons of promising defenders there), Minnesota (see: what I said about Anaheim), and Nashville (no, they’re not trading Roman Josi), nobody is going send you your next big d-man to build around for two months and a playoff run of Eriksson.
Upon first glance, the Bruins
could live with an Eriksson trade given what their minor league pipeline is looking at this moment. While neither of these players do everything that No. 21 does for you right now -- penalty killing and providing the invaluable net-front presence on Boston’s top, near league-best power play unit being the big two -- it’s clear that
Seth Griffith and
Frank Vatrano belong in the NHL. (In case you’ve missed it, Vatrano has scored seven goals and 13 points along with 27 shots on goal in just six games with the Providence Bruins since his demotion back to the minors while Griffith is third in the AHL in points despite playing in just 37 games this year.)
And moving a veteran like Eriksson and plugging one of the ‘kids’ into his spot would show that you’re committed to the youth movement you’ve tried to put in place for years now. But mainly, it would show the (perhaps realist) point of view that you don’t think this team, as currently constituted, has what it takes to a win a Cup this year. That’s a sane belief to have (I’d argue that it’s impossible to build a Cup-winning caliber team in just one offseason), but would ultimately serve as another waste of a year of Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Brad Marchand, and Tuukka Rask’s prime. Your defensive core of Zdeno Chara (39 in March) and Dennis Seidenberg (35 in July) would be yet another year older.
So while it seems like a foregone conclusion that Eriksson is bound for greener pastures by Feb. 29, is it smart of the Bruins to consider that the only realistic course of action for the club? When you look at the East, you notice one thing: It’s bad. With the exception of the Washington Capitals, the conference is made up of maddening inconsistent hockey teams and teams riding hot streaks.
The East looks a lot like it did in 2012, when the New Jersey Devils of all teams took the East, and one that in my opinion absolutely would have been Boston’s had they made it through the Capitals in the first round. (So, in other words, if the Caps come up short against some crazy hot team in the first or second round, and the Bruins draw favorable matchups -- like dates with the Florida Panthers and Detroit Red Wings, for example -- a team with Tuukka Rask in net could actually become a favorite.)
If the match ups work in your favor, there’s nothing that says you can’t make another Cup run.
But this is a dangerous philosophy to roll with before the deadline. The Bruins had this belief a year ago when they opted not to sell high on
Carl Soderberg -- a player that you were not going to re-sign and one that could have fetched the Bruins a first-round pick and/or a prospect from a legit Cup contender -- and took a flier on Tampa Bay’s
Brett Connolly for two second-round draft picks.
Spoiler: That run never came for the 2014-15 Bruins.
The Bruins slowly crumbled out of the playoff picture, and ultimately moved Soderberg’s negotiation rights to Colorado for a sixth-round draft pick. You know, the one they sent to Colorado a few months earlier in exchange for Max Talbot and minor-leaguer Paul Carey. Or, in other words, they looked stupid.
And Sweeney, who has already made some trades (such as sending a Top-90 pick to Philly for Zac Rinaldo) that some in the Hub have questioned less than a year into the job, is not about to look stupid.
With or without one of his organization’s smartest wingers by his side.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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