BOSTON – With little changed on the contract negotiation front between the Bruins and Loui Eriksson’s camp, the B’s may be switching gears toward seeing what’s out there for the right winger. Several hockey sources indicated to CSNNE.com that the Bruins would be "very active" on Sunday and Monday, and that appears to be the case given the increased chatter.
There are a number of interested suitors for the 30-year-old right winger on pace for 30 goals and 70 points this season, and sources indicate that the Minnesota Wild are standing at the forefront. The Wild have been interested in Eriksson all along, and it makes perfect sense given that Minnesota is a team in the playoff hunt badly in need of offensive scoring.
The Wild also have a surplus of young defensemen, and Jonas Brodin has been the center of trade speculation already this season given that he was offered to Columbus in the Ryan Johansen derby earlier this season. Brodin is a 22-year-old D-man that has a goal and six points in 50 games with greater offensive upside than the numbers would indicate, but is a also minus-6 this season while coming off a foot injury.
Brodin averaged five goals and 18 points in each of the previous two seasons for the Wild, and has been a clear top-4 D-man while averaging well over 20 minutes of ice time per game in his four year career. Brodin is signed through the 2020-21 with a $4.16 million cap hit, so it’s clear the Bruins would need to package other assets – perhaps along the lines of Eriksson, one of their two 2016 first round picks and an NHL-ready prospect (Alex Khokhlachev, Malcolm Subban or Joe Morrow, perhaps) to land a player like Brodin.
One thing is certain: Eriksson is drawing plenty of interest from teams like Minnesota, St. Louis, Anaheim and others as the Bruins decide what to do with a key player in the middle of a playoff run.
Other tidbits from the day before the deadline:
*The Bruins have now placed both Max Talbot and Zac Rinaldo on waivers on successive days, and could be looking at a fourth line upgrade. A player like Jamie McGinn in Buffalo would be a great fit given his good offensive skills and rugged style of play, but would come with a cost in the neighborhood of a second round pick.
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*Have heard some chatter about the Bruins being one of the 15-20 teams in the Jonathan Drouin chase, but I just don’t see them having the necessary assets, or the willingness to give up what’s needed to land him. The Bruins don’t have a viable right-handed defenseman to offer Tampa Bay outside of Colin Miller, and packaging him and Loui Eriksson in a deal would be far too much for an unproven player. Above and beyond that, the sense is that Steve Yzerman would insist on David Pastrnak in any package for Drouin, and that would be a nonstarter for Don Sweeney and the B’s.