Life After Iginla: What Does Boston Do Now?

[UPDATE] 12:08pm

Funny how these things work out huh? Pierre LeBrun just posted a story about Martin St. Louis not getting traded. 

"Marty St. Louis is not going to be traded," Steve Yzerman told ESPN.com Friday. "He remains one of the best players in the league and an extremely important player to our team, both on and off the ice. We are a team in transition, we just made a coaching change, Marty is one of the leaders of the team, he is not going anywhere."

So take that for it is worth. I know GMs say this a lot and then trade a player, but Yzerman doesn't seem like a bullshitter. 

Jarome Iginla has come and gone. He chose Pittsburgh over Boston and it's a done deal. Yesterday we all collectively woke up and cried abour Ray Shero having wizard powers, picture of Gary Bettman at a glory hole and Donald Fehr drowning in a bag of dicks. Now it's time for the Bruins, and the fans, to move on from having the rug pulled out from underneath them and get ready for a month of NHL hockey games before the playoffs start.

However, Boston still has some issues to address. Obviously they'll get better with health. Johnny Boychuk and Chris Kelly being out of the lineup hurts them if anything for the sheer fact of chemistry. It clear that Boston will have to address some of their holes via trade, namely a veteran winger who can provide scoring and leadership and defense.

Let's start with defense, as I think that's Boston's biggest need. In the summer I wrote why Boston should acquire Keith Yandle from the Coyotes.

KEITH YANDLE

None of these numbers blow you away, especially the hits, but you have to look at them compared to his play style. Yandle's play style is a lot like Joe Corvo in that he's more of an offensive, puck moving defenseman who can help on the power play. Now, we've seen guys like Corvo and Kaberle come to the Bruins system and flame out miserably. I think that Yandle has a better make-up than the two previous players, especially when Carolina's GM called signing Kaberle a mistake and traded him in season.

The good thing about Yandle is that he's durable. Like I mentioned earlier, from 2009-2012 he played in 246 regular season games which equates to 82 games per season. That's not even counting playoff games, which unlike Rick Nash, Yandle has some experience in playing.

So Yandle led Phoenix in ice time for even strength time on ice per game and power play time on ice per game, but only played 9 seconds of short handed time per game. Are you fucking kidding me? To me, that's a big blow when it comes to a defenseman who can't kill penalties. However, he's worth it for the power play time. It's possible that Yandle eats up all of Corvo's minutes (2:24 PP TOI/G) and cuts down on Seidenberg's PP TOI/G (2:36) which would make Seidenberg more available for short handed play.

I still stand by it, by the way.

Yandle can log big minutes and would fit perfectly in the Bruins' scheme. I wouldn't mind seeing someone like Boychuk get traded away for Yandle (or if we're lucky it would be Andrew Ference). But lets say, for shits and giggles, that Boychuk is sent to Phoenix:

Chara-Hamilton

Seidenberg-Yandle

Ference-McQuaid

I immediately see that as an upgrade. Look, I like what Boychuk brings to the table, but Yandle is a better hockey player. The biggest reason I don't see this happening: Salary.

Yandle is schedule to make $5.25M for the next two seasons after this one expires. With a declining salary cap and guys like Tuukka Rask, Nathan Horton and Anton Khudobin ready to become restricted/unrestricted free agents it'll be hard to get and keep a long term and expensive salary.

With that said, Yandle is probably my #1 option.

After the jump, the rest of the potential trade targets…

RYAN WHITNEY

Edmonton wants to trade Ryan Whitney. The Boston native has been scratched enough that it's clear the management in Edmonton doesn't believe in him anymore and that's fine with me. Whitney is making $4M this year and is slated to become an unrestricted free agent. In terms of dollars, you're probably looking at a cap hit around $1.75M (rough estimate) so he won't cost a lot money wise.

In terms of productivity, you're not looking at a superstar on the back end. He's played in 25 games this season, has scored 3 goals and has a total of 10 points.

The reason I think Whitney would be good in Boston is because he's an immediate upgrade over what's there now. The Bruins third pairing is currently the shittiest thing since the release of ET on the Atari. Aaron Johnson and Andrew Ference have been terrible and I mean terrible. If anything, look at the Canadiens game and see how much bad luck Aaron Johnson has brought to this team.

Whitney will come cheap to Boston, probably some low round draft pick. I would say it worth the flier and if he sucks, scratch him.

ROBYN REGEHR

 

This is probably more of a pipe dream than anything but with the Sabres in the toilet, it's possible that Terry Pegula starts cutting some salary early and Regehr would be a good fit for the Bruins. Regehr is slated to be an unrestricted free agent when July 1 rolls around and has a contract similar to Ryan Whitney.

In terms of production, Regehr logs 18:37 minutes of ice time per game and averages 3:21 minutes of short handed ice time per game. That's a lot of time killing penalties and would rank him second on Boston, a mere 8 seconds behind Chara. Imagine Regehr and Chara killing penalties together. Other teams would probably just decline penalties. It would make a #1 PK that much better.

Don't get it twisted though, you're not getting a puck moving defenseman by any means. You're getting a stay at home defenseman – an actual defensive defenseman – not one of these forwards who play defense (like you Kris Letang). He'd definitely bolster the Bruins blue line, but would Pegula actually trade within the division?

FORWARDS

Ah, the bane of my existence – talking about the Bruins trading for a forward. Yes, the Bruins need some scoring and yes a veteran would definitely bring that, but some of the shit I've heard is pretty ridiculous.

So let's go….

JAROMIR JAGR

 

Yes and yes. Since Iggy is off the market, I would love to have Jagr play in Boston along side of Nathan Horton and David Krejci. That's right folks, Milan Lucic gets a permanent bump to the third line because that's where he fucking belongs. Apparently Krejci has been geeking to play with Jagr since he wanted to come back to the NHL last season and tried to recruit him to Boston. His contract expires after this season, which would be a perfect expiring contract.

At 41 years old, Jagr is still able to produce. In 31 games this season, Jagr has 14 goals (tied for 1st on the Bruins), 11 assists and 25 points (2nd on the Bruins). He instantly makes your power play better and becomes a scoring threat the Bruins "first line" hasn't had in a long time (fuck you Lucic).

When the Canadiens traded for Michael Ryder they sent Erik Cole to Dallas, which makes me believe that Jagr wouldn't be an expensive get. I could see Boston putting together something considerable to the Iginla package (Koko, Bartkowski) and removing the 1st round pick. I also don't think that the Stars would get both players, but it wouldn't hurt the team to give them up.

Martin St. Louis

So I'll get this right out of the way: I don't think St. Louis is getting traded. In fact, I haven't heard from a credible source that St. Louis is even on the trade block, but it's fun to think about. St. Louis is a tough player – he's akin to an older Brad Marchand, but his contract is rough. 2 more years at $5.625 is a tough pill to swallow for a 37 year old winger.

But his stats are impressive. 33 games played, 8 goals, 34 assists and 42 points…but how much of that is smoke and mirrors because he plays with Steven Stamkos? I remember people saying that Matt Moulson is Robin to Tavares Batman, so how is this any different?

It's not, but the guy has a Stanley Cup ring on his finger and has been a Bruins killer for awhile. He always seems to be around the net and would fit well with this team.

RYANE CLOWE

0 goals, 11 assists.

NOPE. NEXT.

So there are a few trade possibilities for Boston. I know they've also inquired about Ales Hemskey and Magnus Paajarvi from Edmonton. Who do you want? Likes? Dislikes?

#NotoClowe