Four scenarios Bruins must consider before NHL trade deadline originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins are in free-fall with the March 7 NHL trade deadline just a week away.
The Bruins suffered another disappointing defeat Thursday night, losing 2-1 to the New York Islanders at TD Garden. The B’s, who have lost five games in a row (0-3-2), now find themselves four points out of a wild card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference standings.
MoneyPuck gives Boston just a 12.3 percent chance of reaching the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, based on its analytics model.
Bruins captain Brad Marchand was candid when speaking to reporters following Thursday’s loss.
“You don’t always achieve every goal you’re shooting for, but that’s what builds great bonds and great friendships, when you go through this adversity together,” Marchand told reporters. “We’re doing that. Obviously, it hasn’t been the season that we’ve wanted, and we haven’t had the success that we would have liked this time of the year, but the good thing is that we’re coming together over it.
“At the end of the day, we might not achieve what we hope to this year, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t build for something greater and bring it back next year. We’re going to work every single day to continue to improve and build our game, and we’re going to claw and fight every single day to get in the playoffs here.”
The Bruins should strongly consider being sellers at the trade deadline, even though they are just four points out of a playoff spot. It’s been abundantly clear all season that this group is not a contender. This team has first-round exit written all over it, assuming it makes the playoffs.
Moving a few players and getting some assets (players, draft picks, prospects) in return to re-tool in the offseason is the best path for Boston to take in the coming week.
With that in mind, here are four trade deadline scenarios for the Bruins to consider.
Use salary cap space to help broker deals
The Bruins have around $5.7 million in salary cap space with defenseman Hampus Lindholm on long-term injured reserve (LTIR), per PuckPedia. This allows the Bruins to help broker a trade as a third team by taking on salary and getting a draft pick as compensation.
When the Bruins acquired Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway from the Washington Capitals at the 2023 trade deadline, the Minnesota Wild retained 25 percent of Orlov’s salary to help the B’s and got a…