B’s facing a bear market for potential deals
The Bruins are mired in a 1-7-1 slump. They’ve fallen out of a playoff position in the East. And they’re coming off their most horrid performance of the season, losing 5-1 Sunday in Carolina against the team with the worst record in the NHL.
It was times like this that not long ago Harry Sinden would be ringing up his fishing buddies and underperforming Bruins would be packing their bags. Peter Chiarelli doesn’t act quite so rash, but surely even his patience must be getting tested by the club’s current slump.
The problem is that there aren’t many options even if Chiarelli did want to make a deal. Beyond the difficulty of getting fair value while negotiating from a position of weakness, Chiarelli doesn’t have many potential trading partners. In the East, only two teams – Carolina and Toronto – aren’t within three points of a playoff position. Out West, only Columbus and Edmonton aren’t within four points of the final postseason spot.
That’s a tough market – 26 potential buyers, just four likely sellers. And of those four, Toronto might be tough to deal with considering the way the Phil Kessel saga played out this summer.
Edmonton had been a frequent trade partner for the Bruins, especially in Sinden’s day. And according to a report from Canada’s Slam Sports, the Oilers are willing to part with a half dozen different players. The picking a somewhat slim though, with forwards Shawn Horcoff, Robert Nilsson and Ethan Moreau and defensemen Sheldon Souray, Steve Staios and Lubomir Vishnovsky reportedly available.
Horcoff has 9-20-29 totals and is a minus-23 in 45 games this year. His career high is 22 goals back in 2005-06 and he’s got a cap hit of $5.5 million a year through 2014-15. Nilsson’s cap hit is just $2.0 million for this year and next, but he’s never scored more than 10 goals in a year and is a minus-18 this season. Moreau, Edmonton’s captain, could add some grit, but he’s also on the books for $2.0 million this year and next and is 34 years old.
The defensemen have some more promise. Souray had 26 goals in Montreal in 2006-07 and 23 last year and he supplies a physical presence at 6-foot-4, 233 pounds. But he’s a bit of a liability in his own zone (minus-14 this year), he’s making $5.4 million through 2011-12 and has a no-trade clause that he likely wouldn’t waive to come back east as his family is in California. One-time Bruin Staios is 36 with a cap hit of $2.7 million this year and next. He’s a character guy, but his production doesn’t warrant that deal. Vishnovsky is the most tempting as he’s the kind of skilled puckmover the B’s need on the blue line, but his price tag ($5.6 million through 2012-13) might be prohibitive with the Bruins’ cap situation.
As for the other teams that could be selling, Carolina’s Ray Whitney could be the most appealing. He’s been solid this year (16-23-39) and the bruins got a first-hand look at his skills on Sunday, and his contract ($3.55 cap hit) is up at the end of the season. Old friend Aaron Ward could restore some leadership to the Bruins locker room, but his on-ice play has fallen off dramatically (minus-16) and the remainder of his $2.5 million hit would leave the bruins with little cap space for other moves. Matt Cullen and Joe Corvo are other expiring contracts that could help despite having subpar seasons so far for the Hurricanes.
Columbus forward Raffi Torres (16-10-26 in 50 games) has long been linked to Bruins trade rumors since his days in Edmonton. He provides a nice blend of skill and toughness and is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. Local boy Keith Tkachuk of the Blues is in a similar position, while the Leafs could open the bidding on pending UFAs Alexei Ponikarovsky and Matt Stajan.
Not quite Ilya Kovalchuk, eh? But that’s the market right now. Which should help explain why this might not be such an active week on the Bruins trade front after all.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Too many buyers … Can’t see much help coming.