Rumor: Lack of scoring has the Bruins looking to a big trade.

If you were to take a quick look at the overall statistics for the Boston Bruins this season everything would probably look reasonably fine to you. The Bruins are currently sitting on a record of 4 wins and 2 losses to start the season and with a +5 goal differential they have been outscoring their opponents while doing so, but not all is well on the Boston Bruins offense. 

The Bruins have been almost exclusively propelled by the absolutely incredible player of their top line. The combination of Brad Marchand, Patrice Berheron and David Pastrnak have combined for a ridiculous 34 points through the first 6 games of the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season but, while those are amazing numbers, their performance has also served to cover up some of the warts on this team. The Bruins secondary scoring has been almost non-existent through the first 6 games of the season with the organizations other 3 lines combining for a total of just 9 goals and that has led many to believe that Bruins general manager Don Sweeney is going to make some changes to his roster sooner rather than later.

The first sign of a potential trade deal in the making came from TSN insider Darren Dreger who during this week's segment of Insider Trading hinted at the fact that the Bruins could be looking to make a move. Dreger specifically cited the fact that the name of Bruins forward Anders Bjork had been out there on the rumor mill and added that 23 year old center Danton Heinen could also be in play for the Bruins. The belief is that the Bruins would be looking for a more experienced forward to bolster their line up in the immediate future, and hopefully to add some scoring depth to the roster, while trading away a younger player on a more team friendly type of deal.

The suspicion has been that the Bruins would be comfortable trading for either a winger or a center in this deal but comments made by Bruins insider Joe Haggerty appear to suggest that is not the case. Based on what Haggerty is saying it sounds like the Bruins focus is entirely on a winger at this time due to the fact that they want to bolster their center position with young talent from within their ranks.. From NBC Sports:

The Bruins don’t want to get into a situation where they deal for a veteran center who's going to block both Trent Frederic or Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson from winning the job eventually, which the Bruins hope will be this season.

A name that has come up several times in connection to the Bruins already over the past several months has been that of Columbus Blue Jackets forward Artemi Panarin. The belief however is that the Blue Jackets would want promising young forward Jake DeBrusk in that deal and with Panarin only being a one year rental I just don't see a world in which Sweeney makes that move. Haggerty however has mentioned Chris Kreider as a possibility and that name makes a lot more sense. 

The New York Rangers forward has the experience you would want on the Bruins side of the equation and with the Rangers in the middle of a rebuild swapping Kreider for a younger forward would make a ton of sense on their end as well. Add to that the fact that the Bruins and Rangers have connected on multiple trades already in recent memory and I believe you have a legitimate fit for both sides on this one.