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Source: Bruins In On Kraken Blue Line Shuffle On NHL Trade Market

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NHL Trade

The expected blue line shuffle for the Seattle Kraken on the NHL trade market kicked off Tuesday afternoon. ESPN NHL Insider and Analyst Kevin Weekes tweeted first that the Kraken traded defenseman Kurtis MacDermid to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a fourth round pick at the 2023 NHL Draft.

 

The Kraken then confirmed the trade with a funny tweet of their own.

A source has confirmed to Boston Hockey Now that the Boston Bruins have, as general manager Don Sweeney promised, been in constant NHL trade talks with the Kraken and GM Ron Francis.

“The B’s are in and so are a tone of teams,” the NHL source told BHN Tuesday. “Ronny knew exactly what he was doing and now he’s taking advantage of the market for defensemen.”

Should the Kraken unload a good portion of their defensemen via trades, their odds to win the Stanley Cup in their first NHL season could change drastically considering what they get.

As reported here numerous times, the Bruins have continually shown interest in Dunn over the last year and a separate source told BHN Tuesday that the B’s like the 6-foot-5, 211-pound Soucy a ton. They also have an interest in 6-foot-7, 255-pound rearguard Jamie Oleksiak but the Kraken appear to have big (pun intended) for Oleksiak in Seattle.

At 6-foot, 203-pounds, Dunn isn’t going that minutes eater with a rugged edge that Bruins are openly searching for but he’s definitely a puck-mover that would play in the Bruins top 4, run the powerplay, and enable Gryzlecyk to slot into the third pairing where he may be able to handle the minutes and nightly physical toll a top 4 pairing requires. With the Mike Reilly signing, it’s more likely the Bruins are focused on a big, physical rearguard.

That would explain why the Bruins signed Derek Forbort to a three-year, $9 million contract on Wednesday. Forbort is a 6-foot-4, 219-pound defenseman that can rack up minutes too. He could be this year’s version of the rugged defenseman he replaced for the Winnipeg Jets, Ben Chiarot. So with regards to the Kraken, Soucy, and Oleksiak make more sense for the Bruins unless a premiere puck-mover or powerplay quarterback can be had. They could’ve had that in Keith Yandle for $900,000 but surprisingly passed on the Milton, MA native.

Soucy has two seasons with a $2.7 million cap hit remaining; Oleksiak has five years of a $4.6 million cap hit left and a no-trade clause, and Dunn is a restricted free agent.

 

 

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