Haggerty: Bruins Can Explore Trading Zdeno Chara To Fix Salary-Cap Mess
BOSTON (CBS) - Joe Haggerty of Comcast Sports joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich to talk about the Boston Bruins and their roster options heading into the trade deadline and postseason.
After posting an impressive 8-1-3 record in the month of January, the Bruins have dropped three of their first four games in February, including their last two home games. On Tuesday night the B's lost 5-3 to the Dallas Stars, who scored two shorthanded goals in a game full of miscues for Boston.
"Last night was sloppy, disorganized, and there wasn't a lot of interest in winning the game. There were a lot of bad looks from a lot of places ... just not a good game at all," said Haggerty.
Haggerty spoke about how the Bruins were reluctant to make a trade after they seemed to be improving as the season went on, but a recent slump should pressure them to explore making roster changes before the March 1 trade deadline. Due to the tight salary cap situation the Bruins are in, they would need to trade a roster player making a considerable amount of money. Haggerty said Loui Eriksson or Reilly Smith are possibilities ... but so is captain Zdeno Chara.
"If they really want to make a move to get out of the salary cap mess that they're in, I don't see how you can't trade Zdeno Chara. I think that is the one way to get out of the problems that they're in right now. You have to seriously look at it, if not this season, then over the summertime," said Haggerty. "You can get value in return for him, and I think at this point, with a couple more years left [on his contract] and the way that his play is declining, I think that's a move that you have to seriously look at."
Haggerty noted that poor defensive teams struggling to make the playoffs would benefit immensely from a veteran player like Chara. Even with Chara now, though, the Bruins are lacking on the blue line.
"Zdeno Chara is 37 years old, he's a minus-5 in the last two games, and he's looked really slow against really faster teams. ... I think [the Bruins] could use a top-four defenseman that can play 20 minutes a night and play strong, offensive hockey," said Haggerty.
The Bruins are fourth in the Atlantic Division and hold a four-point lead over the Florida Panthers for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with 28 games to go in the regular season. Boston returns to the ice Friday at Vancouver for a 10 p.m. ET game.
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