"Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli told WEEI.com that "there's a better than 50 percent chance" that the B's will execute a trade prior to the beginning of the NHL season on Oct. 9. The Bruins have a surplus of forwards on their roster and a need for a top-flight, puck-moving defenseman as they enter the final 10 days of training camp, but the Bruins GM preferred a move that will give his hockey club a bit more cap flexibility. The cap is $56.7 million and the B's are currently in the neighborhood of $500,000 under the limit for the 2008-09 season. Forwards Peter Schaeffer and P.J. Axelsson have been mentioned in previous reports as potential trade bait that could provide salary cap relief for the Bruins. "I'd say there's a better than 50 percent. I'd like to get some cap flexibility going into the year and have the ability to add on in another part of the year when I've seen how the team is going. It's just nice to have cap flexibility," said Chiarelli. "The first part of camp is over now and teams have already evaluated the younger guys. Teams are trimming down to 28 or 29 guys, so now they'll be tinkering with their team and truly seeing what they have. The same way that we see that we have a need or two, other teams are [seeing] the same thing. There should be some [roster] juggling." -Joe Haggerty of WEEI
Hopefully, this doesn't mean the end of the Phil Kessel era in Boston. I've had a bad feeling about this the closer and closer training camp creeped. And now that the season is almost here, I've raised my threat level to red. Kessel has struggled and hasn't met expectations thus far, but I see a lot in him still. I just don't want to watch the Bruins trade away a future star in the league for a "quick fix".
Though this could be simply a move to free up some cap space, in which the B's lack. But I don't see the Bruins making a small move, and see them going big or going home. They have been talking about picking up a Top-5 defenseman for almost two years now, to pair with Chara? But I guess time will tell and I will try to keep you guys as up to date on this situation as possible.
