NHL Trade Deadline Needs: Boston Bruins And Florida Panthers
The paths of the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers have crossed in the Stanley Cup playoffs in the last two seasons.
In 2023, the Panthers barely squeaked into the playoffs but upset the Presidents' Trophy-winning Bruins in a first-round, seventh-game overtime thriller. Last season, the Panthers won the Atlantic Division and faced Boston in the second round, but Florida outlasted the B's in six games.
This season, the defending Cup-champion Panthers have a roster depleted by key players leaving in free agency, while Boston has struggled to fill the leadership and scoring void created by the departures of Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Zdeno Chara.
Here are the main and secondary areas of need that each club is likely to address before the March 7 NHL trade deadline:
Due to cap restrictions, the Panthers lost power-play quarterback Brandon Montour and veteran Oliver Ekman-Larsson in July. They replaced them with bargain-basement additions Nate Schmidt and Latvian Uvis Balinskis, who split the previous season between Florida and AHL Charlotte.
Making a defensive upgrade will be challenging for Florida GM Bill Zito because the club has just over $1 million in cap space and no picks in the first three rounds of the 2025 NHL draft, according to PuckPedia.
Zito has accomplished the difficult task of keeping his core forward group of Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Anton Lundell and Carter Verhaeghe intact. The Panthers also have a useful secondary group of Sam Bennett, Evan Rodrigues and Eetu Luostarinen.
The free-agent replacements for useful energy forwards, such as Nick Cousins, Ryan Lomberg and Steven Lorentz, have fallen short. The Panthers' advantage is that fourth-liners are relatively inexpensive and can be acquired with their low-round selections.The Bruins went from being second in the NHL in goals-for in 2023 to 13th last season to 26th this season with 2.71 goals-for per game. The traditionally stingy Boston defense has also declined. Currently, both Bruins goalies have a sub .900 save percentage, but it is expected the club will improve in the second half and that Jeremy Swayman will begin to resemble the goalie who earned an eight-year extension right before the season.
Part of the club's offensive issues are the pedestrian numbers put up by center Elias Lindholm and the lack of a replacement for Jake DeBrusk. GM Don Sweeney must add a scorer who can take some of the heat off David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand.The Bruins are expected to have both of their top blueliners, Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy, back before the 4 Nations Face-Off begins on Feb. 12. With the addition of Nikita Zadorov to go along with Andrew Peeke, Brandon Carlo and Mason Lohrei, Boston should be solid enough defensively.
The departure of veteran forwards James van Riemsdyk and Danton Heinen hurt the Bruins' forward depth. Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic have also produced at a lower rate than last year. The Bruins will need to add another forward to provide some secondary scoring in the bottom six as well.
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The line will be better, the skill players have been upgraded. Josh McDaniels never worked as an NFL head coach but he's a smart rehire at offensive coordinator. And Maye is resourceful and athletic enough to supplement his passing value with occasional running. Maye currently sits as the QB17 in early Yahoo ADP — that shows some market confidence, but still reasonable room for profit." Stat to remember The Patriots haven't had a 1,000-yard receiver this decade. The last one was Julian Edelman in 2019. In fact, no Patriots receiver has gone over 866 yards since then. Last season, tight end Hunter Henry led the team with just 674 receiving yards. Will the newly signed Stefon Diggs become the Patriots' first 1,000-yard receiver in more than a decade? New England is hoping so. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) This is what happens when you whiff on just about every draft pick and free agent addition at receiver over many years. Even last year's picks of Ja'Lynn Polk in the second round and Javon Baker in the fourth seem like wastes after the two combined for 99 yards last season. Even worse, the Patriots traded down with the Chargers in the second round last year, and they took Polk while the Chargers picked instant star Ladd McConkey with New England's pick. Stefon Diggs was signed, but he's 31 years old coming off a torn ACL and had shown signs of decline before the injury. Maybe rookie Kyle Williams will be a hit. Many draft analysts liked Williams, a third-round pick who has high-end speed and made many plays at Washington State. Overall, the Patriots didn't succeed in finding a true No. 1 receiver, unless you buy that Diggs will find a fountain of youth. Maye won't fully blossom until the Patriots get him some blue-chip receivers, and we'll see if that's still an issue going into next offseason. Burning question How much better will the defense be? The Patriots weren't very good on defense last season. Mike Vrabel made sure there were some reinforcements. The Patriots signed defensive tackle Milton Williams, cornerback Carlton Davis, edge rusher Harold Landry and linebacker Robert Spillane to contracts that total $234.5 million. There was some talent already on the defense, like cornerback Christian Gonzalez, linebacker Christian Elliss and safeties Jabrill Peppers and Kyle Dugger. Suddenly the talent level doesn't seem like an issue anymore. Advertisement Vrabel is a good defensive mind and he should have a positive impact. The Patriots weren't good on defense last season (they were 30th in DVOA) so expecting a leap into the top 10 might be asking a lot. It also doesn't seem like a defense with so much talent and Vrabel helping run it will finish in the bottom 10. Best-case scenario The Patriots get a break with their schedule this season. Using opponents' projected win totals to project schedule strength, New England has the second easiest schedule in the NFL via Sharp Football Analysis. Maybe that helps New England get in playoff contention. Plenty of things have to go right. The defense has to mesh. The offensive line has to be much better. The running back tandem of TreVeyon Henderson and Rhamondre Stevenson could be very productive, and maybe Drake Maye elevates a passing game that has some interesting pieces at receiver but plenty of concerns, too. Mike Vrabel usually got the most out of his teams when he was the Titans head coach, which should transfer to the Patriots. Between Vrabel, Maye, some good running backs, major improvements on defense and a weak schedule, you can see a path for the Patriots to be a playoff contender. Given how bad New England was the last two seasons, that would be a great start to Vrabel's tenure. Nightmare scenario Plenty of teams have great offseasons and it doesn't result in a great record. Patriots coach Mike Vrabel understands that. Advertisement "We won March. Amazing. Which is something that's comical," Vrabel said. "We're never trying to just win March, we're trying to be ready when the season goes, and it's a long process." The Patriots added 10 players this offseason who are projected starters, according to depth charts. That doesn't count running back TreVeyon Henderson, who will have a big role. An overhaul was needed and it looks good on paper, but that's a lot of change in one offseason. It's normal to look at a team that added many new players and envision everyone fitting together perfectly. How often does that happen? For example, Milton Williams had great stretches of play with the Eagles, but now he'll need to play more snaps and he won't be alongside a dominant player like Jalen Carter anymore. And while Drake Maye looks like the real deal, he has just 12 NFL starts. It's hard to imagine the Patriots will be as bad as last season, but if the improvement is only a win or two it would be a disappointment. The crystal ball says The Patriots might be way too low in these rankings. Maybe the oddsmakers are right and New England has a huge improvement. There's just a lot of change to account for, and the Patriots have been miserable for two straight seasons. Mike Vrabel is a very good coach and most of the players the Patriots brought in are big upgrades. Still, it's hard to predict any team to more than double its win total from the season before. No matter how many wins the Patriots get, this will be a growth season. Vrabel will start establishing a culture. Drake Maye will continue to emerge as a franchise quarterback. The product on the field will look completely different after adding many impact players. The rebuild is practically over already; New England can move on to figuring out how to get back to AFC East dominance.
