Being perceived as true Stanley Cup contender has its privileges at the trade deadline. The palm trees are a bonus.
The Florida Panthers have earned their status by grinding their opponents to dust for the past couple of months and they reaped the rewards on Wednesday by acquiring Vladimir Tarasenko for essentially a song and dance – a 2025 conditional third round and a 2024 fourth-round pick.
The Ottawa Senators also retained 50% of Tarasenko’s $5 million cap hit, leaving the Panthers with approximately $3 million in cap space to make another move of significance. Tarasenko had a no-trade clause, so it stands to reason he helped engineer the deal to the front-runners.
Life is good when you’re on top of the world.
Tarasenko wasn’t the only big name to move on Wednesday. Defenseman Noah Hanifin, for whom the B’s have had googly eyes seemingly since the 2015 draft, was traded by the Calgary Flames to the struggling Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night, just part of a wild day of transactions.
Tarasenko could have helped the B’s. With the exception of goalie, the B’s could use one of everything. And the acquisition does make the task of getting through the Atlantic Division in the playoffs that much more daunting for the B’s.
But a scoring winger, though tantalizing, is not at the top of the B’s wish list – and their wishes will be hard to fulfill, given their lack of draft capital and cap space.
The B’s are in desperate need of two things – a reliable centerman who can be trusted to win key defensive zone draws and play a stout, two-game, and a rugged left-handed defenseman who is the first guy over the boards on the penalty kill and close-out situations. While more of a puck-moving, offensive defenseman, Hanifin still would have been a nice pick-up for the B’s but that’s not happening now.
The hard-nosed left shot D is something the B’s thought they had when the season began. Derek Forbort may be pegged as just a third-pairing defenseman, but he was relied upon in those key situations.
Unfortunately for the B’s, he has never been able to regain his game as he’s battled a groin injury and spent over a month on LTIR. No having him right has been a huge loss. Veteran AHLer Parker Wotherspoon has been something of a godsend, but the injury to Hampus Lindholm exposed the lack of depth of the left side of the blue line.
Meanwhile, the club knew they’d be challenged at the shut-down center. You don’t lose a six-time Selke Award winner in Patrice Bergeron without feeling it – and it’s been felt most in game-closing situations. Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha have stepped up admirably and are both over 50% in the faceoff circle.
But both have lost key draws in games the B’s lost that they could have and should have won. The most recent example was Tuesday’s painful loss to the Edmonton Oilers (who picked up centerman Adam Henrique; the Rangers also landed third line pivot Alex Wennberg) on a late 6-on-5 and then in overtime.
While the B’s will be getting back Lindholm (lower body) at some point, and he will definitely help, Patrice Bergeron is not walking through that door.
That’s why the report of the Vancouver Canucks, should they land Pittsburgh’s rental Jake Guentzel, could flip Elias Lindholm to the Bruins (as reported by The Athletic’s Chris Johnston on Tuesday) was so tantalizing. NHL Network’s Kevin Weekes floated the idea of Jake DeBrusk heading to Pittsburgh to help facilitate the possiible three-way deal.
As of the moment – and deals were happening furiously on Wednesday (The Avalanche acquired Philly defenseman Sean Walker and Buffalo center Casey Mittelstadt) – Guentzel remains in Pittsburgh.
Logic states that on Tuesday, when the Elias Lindholm chatter first arose, that the B’s were not close on anything, considering their two best presumed trade chips, Linus Ullmark and DeBrusk, were both in the lineup for Tuesday’s game, with Ullmark getting his scheduled start. We’ll see who’s in the lineup on Thursday when the B’s host the Maple Leafs.
But if there’s an acquisition that would move the needle for the B’s, Elias Lindholm would be it. A lot should happen across the league between now and Friday’s trade deadline.
It remains to be seen if B’s GM Don Sweeney chooses to be a part of it.
