Rumblings indicate that Bruins star may be on the trading block.

The Boston Bruins may be headed towards a major face lift, one that could significantly change the look of the franchise moving forward. 

The Bruins have been in the midst of a rather serious goaltending controversy to kick off the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season, largely due to the fact that veteran goaltender Tuukka Rask has once again had a rather poor start in the month of October, something that is becoming somewhat of a yearly tradition for the Boston Bruins' organization. The difference this time around however is that the Boston Bruins have a legitimate option behind Rask that could steal the starting job from him in Jaroslav Halak.

Halak has done everything he can to do just that, through his first 7 games of the season he has recorded a an outstanding 1.51 goals against average and an equally impressive .947 save percentage and it is starting to look like head coach Bruce Cassidy is starting to lean towards him as his number one goaltender. When you compare that to Tuukka Rask's numbers this season, a 3.15 goals against avewrage and a .902 goals against average through his first 6 games, it becomes very difficult to argue that Halak should not be the starte at least for the time being.

This has led to increased speculation that Rask could soon find himself on his way out of Boston, and this week Bruins insider Joe Haggerty fielded questions regarding the possibility of a trade involving Rask sooner rather than later. From Haggerty:

I don’t see Tuukka waiving his no-trade clause to go anywhere, but you’d need to get some kind of a return for an All-Star, former Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender that’s still in his prime. The cap flexibility really becomes important once guys such as Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo, Danton Heinen and Jake DeBrusk get out of their entry-level contracts in the next few years.

Haggerty is referring to the 8 team trade list that Rask can submit to the Bruins that limit their trade options to those 8 teams. That being said though this is the final season in which Rask has that clause, next year the list of teams nearly doubles to 15, and it sounds like Haggerty does believe that a change of scenery could be the best case for the Bruins, all the while not being ideal for Rask himself. From Haggerty:

In an ideal world, the Bruins could trade either Rask or David Krejci at some point down the road to free up cap space, and they might just be able to do it once the no-trade language is lessened a bit in either one of their contracts. This just isn’t the time for that to happen since both players like it here in Boston and have young kids that I can’t imagine they’d be wild about uprooting right now. People don’t want to hear this kind of stuff, but these are the kind of real-world things that factor into these kinds of scenarios

So it sounds like Haggerty believes this trade may be a good idea, but that it's more likely to come at the end of the season and not during the current season unless they can find a deal involving one of the 8 teams' on Rask's list. That being said though the continued excellence of Halak may push the timetable forward.