Haggs: Do Boston Bruins Even Need Patrick Kane For Christmas? |BHN+

Here’s a Christmas thought about the Boston Bruins as hockey fans out there sit snug in their new hockey pajamas waiting to watch the Winter Classic at Fenway Park next week: Do the Bruins even need Patrick Kane after some fans spent the first half hoping that kind of rental player could fall in their laps given how Cup-worthy the team looks this season?

The Chicago Blackhawks sniper still looks and feels like a player that’s going to be moved ahead of the NHL trade deadline, but the 34-year-old also has just five goals in 32 games with a minus-19 for the season. The paltry 13 goals he’s on pace for would be the worst mark of his NHL career, and the 64 projected points for this season would among the worst point totals he’s ever produced while putting up over 1,200 points in his NHL career.

But the Blackhawks are dead last in the Central Division this season while in a clear rebuild, and there has been plenty of chatter about both Kane and Jonathan Toews being moved after they played their combined 1,000^th NHL game together a couple of weeks ago.

Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane hear it from the United Center crowd during the acknowledgement for their 1,000th regular season game together. pic.twitter.com/Q3LUhQcMjZ

— Phillip Thompson (@_phil_thompson) December 19, 2022

The Boston Bruins have been linked to Kane on more than one occasion and on its face, it makes some sense with guys like AJ Greer, Trent Frederic, Craig Smith and Pavel Zacha getting looks as the third line right winger this season.

Frederic has been the best of the bunch while playing his off-wing and it’s been competitive enough that Craig Smith was having difficulty cracking the Bruins game lineup before being placed on waivers ahead of Christmas.

Even if Kane doesn’t look like a player that would unseat Jake DeBrusk (on pace to clear 30 goals and 60 points for the first time in his NHL career) or David Pastrnak (third in the NHL with 24 goals) as a top-6 right winger, Kane would add more of an elite offensive element to the bottom-6 while being a really intriguing option to play with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand for a coach in Jim Montgomery that likes to shuffle his forwards around.

This is not as crazy as it sounds. Get rid of Reilly get rid of Smith and Chicago retains half salary and boom kane is a Bruin. He has a NMC and will decide where he wants to go. Why not go to the best team in the league. Blackhawks will have no say. https://t.co/OCrtIpVrFM

— Ryan Whitney (@ryanwhitney6) November 28, 2022