Could Jeremy Lauzon be the answer the Bruins are looking for on the blue line?

The NHL trade deadline is now just three weeks away — and Don Sweeney and Co. are likely going to be pretty busy.

Even though the Bruins have impressed since returning from the league-mandated bye week, it is to be expected that Sweeney and his staff are going to explore just about every avenue in an effort to put this roster over the top before the calendar turns to spring. 

"(We) have continued conversations around the league like everyone else is doing at this time to see what’s available — how we can improve our hockey club, if we can improve our hockey club,” Sweeney said last week. “We have prospects and such that we’re very unlikely to move unless a deal was just absolutely appropriate and that’s part of the business. 

“We’d like to improve and add, but we may not. Just might be the situation. We have a good hockey club and we feel good about our players, so we have to use it internally, us and several other teams are tight against the cap, so it’s not an easy time to be making deals.”

The priority for Boston in terms of outside help hasn’t changed all that much in the past year, with the club still looking to find a reliable top-six winger to slot in next to David Krejci.

But, as we discussed earlier this week, the lower depths of Boston’s blue line could also be in line for an upgrade for the right price.

While the usual suspects like Zdeno Chara, Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Torey Krug and Matt Grzelcyk should be locked in for the postseason, Grzelcyk’s partner on the third D pairing has been in a state of flux all year — with Boston in desperate need of a dependable skater that can log heavy minutes and add some snarl to the blue line. 

Kevan Miller checks off plenty of those boxes, but the veteran is still a ways away from getting the green light for game action — and even if and when he gets cleared to return, there's no guarantee he can hold up over a grueling two-month stretch of playoff action.

Connor Clifton, who should return in mid-February from an upper-body injury, was a revelation last season, but has struggled with consistency this season. Whereas opposing 5v5 scoring chances dried up last season when Clifton was on the ice (0.95 goals against per 60 minutes), that number has jumped up to 2.08 for the young defenseman this year.

John Moore, still shaking off the rust from major offseason shoulder surgery, has struggled at times since returning to the lineup, especially when it comes to winning puck battles in Grade-A areas of the ice. Currently, Moore's GA/60 rate is 2.57 — tops among B's defensemen.

Given the current vacancy next to Grzelcyk, perhaps Boston could swing a trade to acquire a big body on the blue line like San Jose's Brenden Dillon or another NHL regular?

But as of late, a 22-year-old skater with just 20 games of NHL experience is making a solid case for himself when it comes to shoring up the back end of Boston's D corps.



In the three games since the Bruins have called up Jeremy Lauzon, Boston has posted a record of 3-0 and has outscored the competition, 11-4, during that stretch.

Okay, there are a lot more factors tied into Boston's fortunes than just the arrival of a third-pairing D like Lauzon. But so far, the Bruins defenseman has excelled in just about every role Bruce Cassidy has handed him — leapfrogging Moore on the depth chart for the time being and establishing himself as a key cog on the penalty kill.

"I think these are his type of games," Cassidy said of Lauzon's play following Boston's fight night on Friday against Winnipeg. "A little harder. Below the goal lines, he's going to play hard. Finish. He's just got to learn to keep the puck off his backhand. Make those soft plays. It's just too hard in this league, guys sniff them out. So for him, it's staying on his forehand, using his feet to get out of trouble. Limiting against trouble in terms of shift length sometimes, which is human nature. ... But I kind of like his game. He's going to help on the penalty kill, give us some bite back there, so we'll see how he does."

Lauzon's has already made his mark on the PK, where the Quebec native is averaging 2:39 of shorthanded TOI per game this year. Since Lauzon was recalled ahead of Boston's 3-2 win over the Golden Knights on Jan. 21, Boston has killed off 11 of the 12 penalties levied against it.

But Lauzon has been far from just a special-teams ace on an already stout PK crew. Even if it's only been a small sample size, opposing 5v5 scoring chances and shot rates have dried up since Lauzon has returned to the NHL ranks, as seen below:



(For reference on Micah Blake McCurdy’s individual impact charts via Hockey Viz — On the offensive side of things, you’d want to see a player providing positive numbers — with the red blobs signifying where the team is generating a majority of their shots from whenever said player is on the ice. Defensively, negative numbers are a sign that a team is snuffing out opposing scoring chances whenever said player is on the ice. As such, the blue blobs represent where the opposition’s shots aren’t regularly coming from.)

As you can see above, when Lauzon is on the ice, opposing teams aren't generating excess shots anywhere around the Bruins' net, limiting the number of quality scoring chances generated against either Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak.

Lauzon and Grzelcyk put together arguably their best performance as a third pairing during Boston's blowout win over the Wild on Saturday night. Along with limiting scoring chances down one end of the ice, the Bruins dominated the puck-possession game when both Lauzon and Grzelcyk were deployed together — with Boston holding a 16-5 edge and a 6-0 advantage in scoring chances during that pair's 13:27 of 5v5 ice time.



(This clip from Saturday's game has been a regular sight during Lauzon's recent call-up — winning puck battles along the boards, active stick and using his size to his advantage. He even is able to get a shot through against Devan Dubnyk to cap off the sequence).

While it has been a small sample size, it's been tough to ignore the positive impact that Lauzon has provided since his recent arrival. It's done wonders for Boston's D corps, and it could save Sweeney for having to part ways with even more assets in the coming weeks.