The Bruins and Rangers aren’t pleased with the way in which their respective NHL seasons have begun. Now, may the 2 Authentic Six rivals assist one another shake issues up?
Boston performed a card out of its deck when it fired head coach Jim Montgomery final week. The early outcomes have been optimistic. The Bruins are 2-0 since dismissing Montgomery in favor of interim head coach Joe Sacco.
New York, in the meantime, is 12-6-1, a quantity that appears fairly good on the floor. It appeared even higher two video games in the past when the Blueshirts have been 12-4-1 earlier than dropping back-to-back video games to Calgary and Edmonton.
Apparently that’s sufficient for normal supervisor Chris Drury to take inventory of his roster and marvel if a change is required. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported the Rangers are open to a shake-up, and veterans Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba may be on the block.
Bruins normal supervisor Don Sweeney stated final week he’ll look to make extra strikes outdoors of adjusting the pinnacle coach. He may as properly give the Rangers a hoop and verify in on each Kreider and Trouba.
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Given the Bruins’ points by the primary two months of the season, Kreider may make extra sense of the 2. The Boxford, Mass., native has a scoring contact the Bruins have desperately lacked (twenty ninth in five-on-five scoring) this season. Kreider’s offensive manufacturing is down. He has 9 objectives and nil assists by 19 video games.
These 9 objectives, although, would lead the Bruins, and simply three gamers in Black and Gold have exceeded Kreider’s nine-point whole up to now on this season. Kreider has additionally proven extra life within the final week or so, registering a minimum of 4 pictures on aim in three of the Rangers’ final 5 video games. His capturing proportion has additionally dipped by greater than half in his final 10 video games after scoring six occasions within the first 9 video games. It’s affordable to anticipate he’ll come alive quickly.
Kreider’s previous definitely means that would be the case, too. The 33-year-old had a minimum of 36 objectives in every of his final three seasons, together with a career-high 52 tallies in 2021-22.
There are apparent questions that should be answered, although. They each are tied to Kreider’s contract. The Boston School product is signed by 2027 with a cap hit of $6.5 million. That’s a very good chunk of change, and it’s definitely greater than the Bruins can afford so as to add proper now; Boston has slightly below $1.4 million in cap room proper now, in accordance with Spotrac. There must be cash going out, however Sweeney’s feedback final week indicated he’d be keen to rearrange the NHL roster if he noticed a possibility to enhance.
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There’s additionally the query of Kreider’s age. He’ll be 34 in April, which implies he’ll be 36 when the contract ends. There’s definitely a case to be made that the Bruins must be trying to get youthful proper now, not older. That’s truthful. Given the Bruins’ roster, although, with gamers like David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm and Jeremy Swayman underneath contract for the foreseeable future and on the heels of including Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, there’s definitely a core in place.
The most important hurdle to clear: Do the Bruins have sufficient to get a Kreider deal accomplished? They’d have to search out some form of mixture of contracts that makes the cash work and nonetheless get Drury to say sure. The Rangers most likely aren’t tearing it down, so that they’ll have to get one thing in return. Possibly the Bruins add a prospect or two to sweeten the pot, however that comes with apparent down-the-road implications.
One factor we all know, if previous reporting is to be believed: The Bruins have proven curiosity in Kreider prior to now. He definitely matches their kind. His regular veteran presence is also a welcomed addition to a group trying to basically restart its season.
It’s a minimum of price a telephone name.
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