Bruins may have a trade target in mind, but it's not the big name fans are hoping for.

It's no secret that the Boston Bruins and by extension Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney are looking for a player that will provide an immediate boost to their offense prior to the trade deadline for the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season.

As a result of the Bruins need for a forward they have been linked to every big name out there currently on the trade bait list including players like star forward Artemi Panarin of the Columbus Blue Jackets and big bruising power forward Wayne Simmonds of the Philadelphia Flyers. Those are of course the type of names that have Bruins fans salivating at the prospect of what those players could do for their playoff hopes, but they may not be the type of names that Don Sweeney eventually pulls the trigger on before the deadline. 

Interestingly enough the Bruins had also been linked to a few other forwards with term remaining on their contracts, notably Tyler Toffoli of the Los Angeles Kings, but on Monday TSN insider Darren Dreger shot down those rumors. Instead Dreger honed in on an Ottawa Senators player that hasn't been mentioned as often due to some of the other players currently linked to trade rumors on his team. Dreger made it clear that if Ottawa Senators forward Ryan Dzingel became available that Sweeney and the Bruins would leap at the chance to get him.

“Let’s say Boston adds a piece,” began Dreger as per Nichols on Hockey. “I feel like we wanted to link Tyler Toffoli of the L.A. Kings to Boston relatively early in the search. So we’re probably talking six weeks, eight weeks ago. I don’t think that Toffoli is their main target anymore.”

“I think like so many other teams are watching the Ottawa Senators. If someone like Ryan Dzingel popped into the market, depending on what’s going to happen this week with Stone and Duchene, I think Boston would be all over that. So you add another piece like that - this young man is trending toward a 30-goal scorer this year.”

Dzingel may not be the big name that the Bruins were hoping for but it would be foolish to think he wouldn't bring a significant boost to the Bruins roster. Through just 56 games this season Dzingel is just 1 goal shy of tying his career best of 23 goals, and he has already surpassed his career high of 18 assists with 21 thus far on the season for a total of 43 points, also a career high. The former 7th round pick put up 23 goals the season before so this is no fluke either and at 26 years old he could prove to be a valuable asset moving forward for the Bruins as well. The issue of course is that Dzingel will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, but the Bruins would have at minimum a head start on negotiations.

The Bruins, in the view of many, got burned last year on their big deadline deal for then Rangers star forward Rick Nash. For that reason there's a belief that Don Sweeney may stray away from the big names at the deadline this time around.