Trade Speculation

The ship has already sailed for two teams this year: Edmonton and Carolina - interesting that they were the Stanley Cup finalists coming out of the lockout and are now at the bottom of the barrel. This means that these teams might be willing to talk trade at this juncture and will definitely be sellers at the deadline. Here are some players that may be available based on their current contract situation:

Ray Whitney (CAR) - UFA at end of year with $3.55M cap hit - intriguing for the B's, but cap manipulation would be required depending on when the trade was made - would help PP and provide good scoring depth - Savvy with Sturm on the right and Whitney on the left? I like that idea.

Matt Cullen (CAR) - UFA at end of year with $2.88M cap hit - Bruins don't need a centerman

Scott Effing Walker (CAR) - UFA at end of year with $2.5M cap hit - Not coming to Boston

Aaron Ward (CAR) - UFA at end of year with $2.5M cap hit - Could provide some cheap depth for the stretch run in case of injury - I think he's a big upgrade over McQuaid or Wozniewski who we've had to insert and if Wideman doesn't get his game back there are huge holes on D

Fernando Pisani (EDM) - UFA at end of year with $2.5M cap hit - this guy has largely disappeared since Edmonton's run to the finals 4 years ago and has only seen the ice 12 times this year due to various ailments - cross him off the list.

The rest of Edmonton's roster is young guys who will be RFA's after the season or guys that are locked up for a few years making them nearly untradeable because of the cap. Cogliano and Gagner showed a lot of promise two seasons ago, but have been nothing but disappointments since. Maybe they could be pried away, but both are natural centermen and the B's aren't looking for that.