What Could the Bruins Get for Their Trade Chips?

The Bruins are looking to buy at the trade deadline, but they also have pieces that could draw some interest around the league.

They have two NHL players on expiring contracts and have reportedly already offered up a younger defenseman earlier this season.

After going 11-2-1 in January, the Bruins are in a playoff spot at the Olympic break. They sit four points ahead of the Blue Jackets for the second wild card spot in the East. A lot had to go right for the Bruins to be in this position, and much of it has. 

Don Sweeney and Co. sold some assets at the last deadline. Notably, Brad Marchand was dealt to Florida, and Brandon Carlo was shipped to Toronto. The Bruins stocked up on draft picks and bolstered their prospect pool. 

They have done it well; there are prospects who are knocking on the door of the NHL, and more are firing on all cylinders. 

With that, the Bruins are in a position to add. They have the pieces to make trades work.

The Bruins acquired Peeke at the 2024 trade deadline, during the first year of his current contract. He is now in the last year of that deal, and he carries a $2.75 million cap hit. 

Before the Bruins traded for Peeke, he was in and out of Pascal Vincent’s lineup in Columbus. The Bruins traded a third-round pick and Jakub Zboril, who played 76 games in a black and gold sweater.  

Also at the 2024 trade deadline, then 29-year-old Ilya Lyubushkin was traded from the Ducks to the Maple Leafs in a three-team trade. He was in the last year of a contract worth $2.75 million annually – much like Peeke. The Ducks received a third-round pick, and the Hurricanes, for helping the salary cap work, received a sixth-round pick. 

The Bruins could at least net a third-round pick for Peeke, but as right-handed defensemen are a need across the league, that value could increase. 

Don Sweeney is actively searching for one as well.

Peeke, 28, leads the team in blocked shots with 101. He has 67 hits, which rank second among Bruins defensemen. He also has four goals this season, his career high is six (2022-23), when he was playing with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Florida-native averages 19:37 of ice time per night. He averaged over 20 minutes per night during both the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons while with the Blue Jackets. 

The Bruins flipped a fifth-round pick to Edmonton over the summer to bring in Viktor Arvidsson. He came to Boston in the last year of a two-year deal worth $4 million annually.

Arvidsson played in 15 games of the Oilers’ Stanley Cup run last year. He was also a part of the Predators’ Cup run in 2017. He comes with years of playoff experience, with 87 career playoff games under his belt. 

In 45 games, Arvidsson has scored 14 times this season, with four of them coming on the power play. He also has 14 assists, bringing his point total to 28. His 124 shots taken are third on the team, only behind Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak. 

Arvidsson has also passed his point total from last season (27). 

At last year’s deadline, 33-year-old Brandon Tanev netted the Seattle Kraken a second-round pick. He had nine goals and 17 points before the trade, and had a $3.5 million cap hit. However, two seasons ago, the Nashville Predators traded for 32-year-old Jason Zucker, who had 25 points (9-16–25) before the trade. It only cost the Predators a sixth-round pick, but they absorbed all of Zucker’s $5.3 million cap hit. 

That said, as Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic ($) reports, the Bruins are not going to simply sell off Arvidsson for a mid-round pick. The second line has gelled this season, and splitting them up ahead of a playoff run would go against one of the keys to the Bruins’ success this season. 

That said, the Bruins have James Hagens playing at Boston College. He recently shifted over to the right wing in the past few weeks. He will likely make the jump to the NHL after the Eagles’ season. 

His playoff experience could have teams calling for him, but it would likely take more than a mid-round pick for Sweeney to move the Swedish winger.

Lohrei has reportedly been discussed already this season. Now that his name is out there, it would not be surprising if teams call Sweeney about him. 

When the Bruins were in Rasmus Andersson trade talks, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Bruins offered Calgary a 2027 first-round pick and Lohrei, so long as Andersson signed an extension. He did not. He was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Golden Knights received a first-round pick, a second-rounder that could turn into a first, Zach Whitecloud, and a prospect. 

It is Lohrei’s third NHL season, so he is still young with room to grow as a professional player. He has shown signs of that growth this season. Lohrei, who had a league-low minus-43 last season, is now a plus-8, a sign that he has grown in his defensive game as well.

He also has a career-high six goals this season. 

Over the summer, he signed a two-year extension with the Bruins. The deal came in with an average cap hit of $3.2 million. 

A move including Lohrei would likely only be to bring in a more-established defenseman. The Bruins should not simply sell off Lohrei; he is young, he has shown positive signs of growth, and they are in a playoff spot.