They did it. We may have thought certain hosts on this station were crazy for suggesting it, but the Bruins have actually done it. They've traded away one of their goalies. The one with the best save percentage on the team, in fact.
OK, I'm not going to string you along any further: It's Keith Kinkaid. They've traded Kinkaid to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for forward Shane Bowers.
Kinkaid played one game for Boston this season, stopping 30 of 31 shots (hence the team-best .968 save percentage) in a 3-1 win over the Sabres back on Nov. 12.
The 33-year-old Kinkaid has an 8-7-4 record and .909 save percentage in 20 appearances for AHL Providence this season, but he has been out-performed by prospects Brandon Bussi (16-2-4, .929) and Kyle Keyser (7-1-2, .925).
Bowers, 23, was a first-round pick (28th overall) of the Ottawa Senators in 2017. He was traded to Colorado in the 2017 deal that sent Matt Duchene to Ottawa.
Bowers, who played two seasons at Boston University from 2017-19, hasn't scored enough to progress beyond the AHL, averaging under half a point per game across four AHL seasons. He has four goals and 10 assists in 37 games for the AHL Colorado Eagles this season. He did make his NHL debut on Nov. 10 earlier this season, but played just 1:46 in that game and was immediately sent back down.
For the Bruins, the most significant aspect to this trade is that it means at least one of Bussi or Keyser -- possibly both -- had passed Kinkaid on the organizational depth chart and would be ahead of the veteran for a call-up should something happen to either Linus Ullmark or Jeremy Swayman down the stretch.
Kinkaid would have been moving on as an unrestricted free agent after the season anyways, so there's no harm in flipping him now to get a young player who might still develop a little more offense than he's shown.
The Bruins also made another roster move Saturday, activating center Tomas Nosek off long-term injured reserve and waiving forward Vinni Lettieri.
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