The Boston Bruins have a knack for flipping prospects and young, NHL-ready players to bolster their ranks in the present as they approach the playoffs.
The B’s are consistently a postseason team, so the formula makes sense: gamble the potential of your youth and draft picks for talent with an immediate impact. Trade the future for the present. It’s for the Stanley Cup, after all, and if you win it, it’s very difficult to criticize that trade, no matter the cost.
The Bruins’ gambles have sometimes paid off, other times not. With no Cups since 2011 to show for it, some of that analysis is dictated by where the prospect winds up a couple of years down the road. Some of it can be attributed to the new player’s impact, even if that’s just contributing something significant in a deep run. Whether or not you can keep the addition around the following season weighs in as well.
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As rumors swirl and talks heat up as we march toward the trade deadline, here are five young players the Bruins shouldn’t gamble in a trade this season.
Matt Poitras
I think most Bruins fans would agree Matt Poitras is untouchable (unless some sort of superstar is on the table).
He’s a 19-year-old playing in the NHL (and currently the World Junior Championship), and the second-round pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft has impressed. In 27 games, the center has tallied five goals and eight assists on his way to earning a regular starting role in the top nine, averaging over 14 minutes of ice time per game. He’s a 200-foot player, and he seems to have some of the intangibles you’d expect in a player with a few seasons under their belt: confidence, for starters. I guess I’ll take the 44-percent success rate at the dot – get Patrice Bergeron in there as an assistant coach to teach him a thing or two.
At such a young age, his potential is wide, with plenty of uncertainty. At the peak, he’s a center the Bruins can build around in the next generation – after Brad Marchand departs and David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy are considered veterans. You could also get more of what you’re getting now: a good third-line centerman worthy of looks on the second line during injury spells (I argue to get him in the top-six regularly, somehow).
Keep the kid.
Trent Frederic
Trent Frederic is within reach of his first 20-goal season and has shown he’s more than just the scrappy, bottom-six reputation he’s carved out for himself: He’s teetering between being a formidable third-line forward and a decent option on an NHL team’s second line. His chemistry with Charlie Coyle is very clear.
With all of that comes a decent trade value, with more reliable results to work with than sheer potential. Frederic is under contract through next season with a $2.3 million cap hit. Trading him at some point isn’t off the table – I could see him going at next year’s deadline, especially if he plays his way into a contract that is too expensive to re-sign. But right now, he’s a huge asset to this team.
Mason Lohrei
Mason Lohrei’s rookie campaign to date has been bumpy at times but nothing short of promising. In his first few appearances as a Bruin, I thought he might need another year or two of development to be a true NHL defenseman. Rookie mistakes are expected, but at some point, you have to decide if it’s best he learns some more from the press box, the minors, or more NHL ice time.
In 19 games, Lohrei has put up three goals and three assists, and he’s been trusted with 17:24 of ice time per game on average. He’s been in and out of the lineup with a slew of injuries on Boston’s blue line and has adequately played the role of a seventh defenseman with some more flair. He will turn 23 in January.
Defensemen tend to take longer to develop, and he’s in the skates many have filled before in this seventh-defenseman and prospect mashup: Jeremy Lauzon, Jakub Zboril, and Urho Vaakanainen (who was limited by injuries) come to mind. But as I watch the B’s play, I feel like I already trust Lohrei in crunch time more than I ever did any of those players. The Bruins should hold him close due to him as a player, but also their lack of young defensemen who are showing signs of being a top-four blueliner soon, like he is.
John Beecher
John Beecher is another rookie on this list, and he has four goals and two assists in 33 games to show for it. Beecher’s playing style is of a fourth-liner right now and a generally effective one. When put together, Jakub Lauko and Oskar Steen have especially proven to be great linemates – speed, size, and young guys who are all fighting to stay on the starting roster. It gets physical, and even if there’s little to show for it on the scoreboard, Beecher specifically has been part of many momentum-swinging shifts.
While I wouldn’t set his ceiling as high as Poitras’, I do think there’s enough there to not gamble him away quite yet. He’s in the second year of his entry-level contract, so the Bruins have another season to assess what he’s worth paying and if they are willing to. Even if he is kept to the bottom six for the rest of that contract, he’s a decent depth player to have at an affordable price tag.
Unless you’re getting something you absolutely need in return, don’t trade Beecher this season.
Jeremy Swayman
I wasn’t going to put him on this list, but I unfortunately feel I have to. While it seems to have died down a little bit, early this season, there were talks of trading Linus Ullmark or Jeremy Swayman.
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At 25 years old, Swayman is entering his prime as a goaltender and would be the clear starter on most NHL teams. But Boston has a good thing going in, also having a Vezina-winner on the roster in Ullmark. This season, the two have split the crease pretty much evenly, with Ullmark appearing in 18 games and Swayman in 17.
I understand the logic for trading one of them. Swayman is up for renewal at the end of the season, after all. But goaltending is also Boston’s greatest strength right now – and for both goaltenders combined, you’re paying less than $8.7 million this season. As an avid procrastinator, my answer is to figure it out this offseason – and, with Ullmark now in his 30s, I think he’s who you trade down the line rather than the 25-year-old.
Plus, you’d be putting an end to goalie hugs. Sacrilegious. As long as he isn’t stuck in an elevator with Lauko somewhere, keep him for now.