Something’s gotta give when it comes to the Bruins.
Mired in a skid that has seen the club drop five out of their last six games, the B’s are in need of some desperate help up front — a fault in this roster that they have tried to correct since striking out on John Tavares in July.
Given Boston’s current framework up front, the B’s are at the point where they can only trust their top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak to generate offense on a consistent basis, while David Krejci is still on pace for a 60-point campaign despite not having a consistent set of linemates all season long.
This secondary scoring drought has started to bleed into other facets of Boston’s game, with the Bruins’ D corps starting to catch flak for a couple of miscues — blemishes that can’t happen for a team so starved for 5v5 production.
Don Sweeney and his Co. are going to have to make a move — and thankfully, there are plenty of potential top-six wingers and talented pivots to parse through on the open market.
But given the severity of Boston’s scoring woes — as well as the depth and talent of other Stanley Cup favorites such as Tampa Bay and Calgary — why not swing for the fences this month?
A number of young assets on this B’s roster have seen their stock plummet, but Boston still boasts a large number of potential trade chips — enough at least to pry the top trade-market piece out away from his club.
Artemi Panarin, the dynamic, scoring winger of the Columbus Blue Jackets, is set to get paid this summer. And the writing seems to be on the wall for the Russian sniper to join a new team for the stretch run of the 2018-19 season.
Set to become an unrestricted free agent, Panarin seems unlikely to re-up with the Blue Jackets — with his agent announcing on Monday the 27-year-old forward will not be discussing a potential contract extension for the remainder of the season.
It’s a tough spot for the Blue Jackets — who sit in the second Wild Card spot in the East with a 28-19-3 record — but it seems inevitable when it comes to Panarin. The winger has his eyes set for a bigger market and a nice new deal, and it’d be in Columbus’ best interest to get something back for the skilled scorer.
Are the Bruins a potential fit for Panarin? Let’s take a look.
What can Boston offer to Columbus?
Even if Panarin is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer — and increasingly likely to test the open market in pursuit of a megadeal — you’d have to think that Columbus will still be able to snag a hefty return for the winger in a potential trade.
Now, had this been last summer or near the start of the season, Sweeney and his staff would have many more chips to bring to the table. Unfortunately, injuries and stunted production have tanked the value of many of Boston’s young players.
After tallying 47 points on the third line last season, Danton Heinen is on pace for just 21 points this year — and will be scratched for Sunday’s matinee against the Capitals. Ryan Donato is currently working on his game back down in Providence, while Anders Bjork will miss the remainder of the year due to shoulder surgery.
Of course, Columbus could still value a player with considerable offensive upside like Donato in a potential deal, but you’d have to think that the Jackets would focus their attention on the next crop of top-flight B’s prospects, such as Urho Vaakanainen and Jack Studnicka. Given that Panarin would be rental, you’d think that Boston would keep a guy like Jake DeBrusk out of talks, although it seems likely that the Blue Jackets will gauge whether or not the winger is available.
Along with a player like Donato and a high-value prospect, Columbus will be looking for draft capital — namely a first-round selection. Makes sense for the Blue Jackets, but given how desperate Sweeney was to recoup a lost first rounder at last year’s NHL Draft, you’d have to wonder how hesitant Boston would be to part ways with a first-round pick for the second year in a row.
Boston does have the assets to reel in someone like Panarin, but it won’t be cheap.
Is he a fit?
Hmm, let’s take a look.
Scans notebook. Crunches numbers.
Um, yep. Artemi Panarin would look pretty damn good on the Bruins.
The winger has been just about as consistent as they come since entering the NHL ranks with the Blackhawks back in 2015, tallying 290 points over 291 career games with Chicago and Columbus.
The only players who have tallied more points during that same stretch? Patrick Kane, Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Blake Wheeler, and Johnny Gaudreau. Pretty elite company.
If you cut that down to even-strength points, an area Boston has struggled with this season, only McDavid and Kane have scored more since 2015.
Even after leaving Chicago and a set-up that had him on a line with Kane, Panarin hasn’t missed a step, setting a Blue Jackets franchise record with 82 points in 2017-18. This year, he’s on pace for 95 points, even amid all of the drama that has come with his impending free agency.
Boston already fields one of the top forward lines in all of hockey, but adding a player like Panarin would give the Bruins a dynamic top-six who could content with similar units such as Tampa Bay.
A speedster that brings the puck out of the defensive zone and into a scoring chance 200 feet down the ice in a hurry, Panarin could be a great fit with either Bergeron or Krejci — and very well could put himself on a pace for a 100-point campaign while logging reps on either line, especially if given space to let loose that lethal wrister of his.
There’s no doubt Panarin would rip it up if Boston pulled off a move to bring the winger on board. As for keeping him beyond 2018-19? That’s where things get dicey.
Will he stay?
If Boston managed to trade for Panarin, it’d be unrealistic for the winger to not test the open market, regardless of the level of success he’d reach during his two-plus months with the Bruins.
Panarin’s current two-year deal has an annual cap hit of $6 million, but it’d be a shock if he doesn’t command at least $10 million a year in his new contract. Those six players with a higher point total than Panarin since 2015 have an average annual value $8.8 million off of their contracts, with two skaters averaging over $10 million a year.
While Boston could have close to $20 million in cap space available this summer if the ceiling continues to rise up, the Bruins still need to account for pay raises with restricted free agents like Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Danton Heinen and Peter Cehlarik, while Zdeno Chara will also be a free agent.
Having players like Bergeron, Pastrnak and Marchand under team-friendly deals does give Boston some breathing room, but setting aside close to $10 million annually on one player might cause some headaches down the line for Boston as more and more young players rise up through the pipeline.
Also, you’d have to wonder where Panarin might value as his next destination. The winger has reportedly made it clear that he wants to play in a major market such as New York or Los Angeles — along with other valued spots such as Miami or Tampa Bay. You can’t knock Boston as a sports town, and the Bruins are a valuable Original Six franchise, but is that enough to keep Panarin away from the bright lights of a spot like NYC, or the sunny beaches of Florida?
The Florida Panthers already seem poised to take a run at Panarin and fellow Blue Jacket Sergei Bobrovsky this summer, especially after clearing plenty of cap space in their trade with the Penguins for a pair of expiring contracts in Derick Brassard and Riley Sheehan.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay seems to be in play as well — given how chummy Panarin is with a pair of Russians on that squad in Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Boston has the means to add a winger like Panarin at the trade deadline, no doubt. But the amount of risk involved, especially in the long-term, has to terrify Boston’s upper management — a group that has remained resolute in taking a look at the big picture over the last couple of seasons.
Another setback for Heinen
The bye week might have allowed the Bruins to rest and recuperate from the grind of the NHL campaign, but it couldn't have come at a worse time for Heinen, who tallied just his sixth goal of the season on Jan. 19, Boston’s final matchup before the break.
Since then, Heinen has averaged right around 12 minutes per game in Boston’s next two tilts — landing just a single shot on goal on a third line that has only received close to nine or 10 minutes of 5v5 TOI since put together.
While Bruce Cassidy has harped on Heinen’s two-way play as the key reasoning for his continued reps in the lineup, something had to give after Thursday’s OT loss to the Flyers — with the winger missing a potential go-ahead goal in the third period with Carter Hart exposing most of Philly’s net.
oh - oh no. pic.twitter.com/d3PvNaOVJO
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 1, 2019
Good lord — Cale Makar is absurd. pic.twitter.com/QODcnW93sI
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 2, 2019