Teams wary of trading for Bruins’ Jake DeBrusk as they smell problems ahead

At the end of November, it had been reported that Boston Bruins forward Jake DeBrusk had requested a trade. His agent believes he needs a fresh start with another team.

The 25-year-old has played all five of his NHL seasons in Boston, tallying 71 goals and 70 assists in 264 games. The Bruins selected the left winger 14th overall in the 2015 NHL draft, but now he wants out.

While there is lots of interest for the forward on the market, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reveals that teams are wary about pulling the tigger to acquire his services. Here’s the issue, per Kaplan, which is the same thing that is currently happening in Chicago with Blackhawks’ Dylan Strome, who is also on the trade market:

“[H]is eligibility for arbitration a serious holdup for teams. There seems to be plenty of interest in the winger; teams I’ve heard connected to him this year (and in the past) are the Blues, Flames and Rangers. The Bruins, like the Blackhawks, want to make sure they don’t lose a promising young player in an underwhelming trade.”

DeBrusk is in the final year of a two-year contract ($3.675 million average annual value) that he signed back in November 2020 and is set to become a restricted free agent after the season. We can understand how interested clubs don’t want to pay too much for a guy that could test the market.

That’s probably why DeBrusk’s agent mentioned that there’s no timeline from the Bruins for facilitating that request. Teams are tentative about the move and it could take longer than expected…