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BHN Puck Links: Why Shouldn’t Boston Bruins Take A Run At Pacioretty?

Published

3 years ago

December 9, 2020

If you’re the Boston Bruins, why not take a run at Max Pacioretty?

The Vegas Golden Knights are in some serious salary cap jeopardy (almost $1 million over the salary cap, per our friends at Puck Pedia) and the word is out that they may have to deal Pacioretty, Jonathan Marchessault or Marc-Andre Fleury in order to achieve salary cap nirvana. Certainly it would be a massive acquisition with the lefty-shooting Pacioretty signed up for three more years at a $7 million cap hit, but we’re also talking about a player coming off 32 goals and 66 points in 71 games for the Golden Knights last season.

We’re also talking about a former captain for the Montreal Canadiens, who would immediately up the nasty factor in a Bruins/Habs rivalry (if and when it does actually return to a rivalry in this COVID-19 world) that’s needed a jolt of electricity for quite some time.

Clearly the Bruins would probably need to send Jake DeBrusk the other way to make the salary cap dollars work, and would probably need to include a top defenseman prospect (Urho Vaakanainen has already been mentioned in other trade talks, as Boston Hockey Now reported last month) and a valued draft pick. But that’s a fair price to pay for a player in Pacioretty that’s got size (6-foot-2, 213-pounds), skill and a body of work that would make him a bone fide scorer on Boston’s second line.

The 31-year-old Pacioretty has topped 30 goals and 60 points six times in his NHL career, and would give the Bruins a top-6 impact player that could help them extend their Stanley Cup window for the next couple of seasons. So why wouldn’t Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney at least give the Golden Knights a call and potentially beat some of his Eastern Conference adversaries to the punch if there’s indeed a salary cap fire sale going on in Vegas.

Now on to the links:

*If the NHL does agree to an extended taxi squad roster, that is something that the Pittsburgh Penguins could absolutely benefit from for this season. (Pittsburgh Hockey Now)

*FOH (Friend of Haggs) Adrian Dater takes a long, hard look at the Gabriel Landeskog contract among other things in his mailbag over at CHN. (Colorado Hockey Now)

*While the Canadian Division sounds like a cool idea, it’s going to provide some really unique challenges for the NHL from a number of perspectives. (Toronto Sun)

*The Department of Goaltending Excellence that they are building with the Florida Panthers reuniting Francois Allaire and Roberto Luongo sounds like something right out of a comic book. (Florida Hockey Now)

*Super-interesting chat between Anson Carter and St. Louis Blues center Ryan O’Reilly about inclusion within the NHL on the Hockey Culture podcast.

*For something completely different: Season Three of Cobra Kai is coming and I am super-pumped about it