It's easy to take in some sticker shock when it comes to the Rick Nash trade, finalized with five pieces leaving the Bruins for New York on Sunday, as it relates to the Bruins.
But the Bruins essentially added Nash in exchange for Ryan Spooner and a first-round draft pick, and gained ever-important slivers of future cap space in the process. That's how breaking down the Nash-to-Boston trade should go if you're being honest and assessing this deal beyond the total number of pieces moved to the Rangers, anyway.
This is an especially true approach considering that this is a move 100 percent based on the 2018 goals of this upstart club.
Spooner, while doing his part to round his game into a more complete picture, was never going to be what the Bruins wanted out of a top-six winger. That became clear with the recent ice-time Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy doled out to the mercurial forward, and was hammered home by last night's meager 11:17 of time on ice in a 4-3 loss, which was his second-lowest total since returning to the Boston lineup in December. (Spooner's status as a future arbitration-eligible restricted free agent for the second year in a row, leaving the Bruins in a tough spot in either a trade or a re-signing, probably didn't help his cause.)
If his future in Boston was anything, it was on borrowed time.
And the cap space gained by moving beleaguered bust Matt Beleskey, even with the Bruins retaining 50 percent of his salary, is just plain gigantic. Buried in the minors, where he's scored just four goals and totaled six points in 21 games for the P-Bruins -- and accounting for nearly $3 million in dead money on the B's books -- the Bruins just needed to find a solution to what was an increasingly uncomfortable situation.
One that was not a buyout, anyways.
The Bruins already have over $2 million in dead money on their books for next season between the Jimmy Hayes and Dennis Seidenberg buyouts, and adding Beleskey to that would have bumped that number up to an even $3 million. It would have been nearly $2 million the season after next (when Charlie McAvoy is due a hefty raise), and over $1.1 million in the two seasons to come after that. It would have been extending the misery of an undeniably bad signing, which is a mistake the Bruins already made (and paid for) with the aforementioned Hayes and Seidenberg cuts.
Sweeney, in what's become a theme of his tenure, learned from those past mistakes and flipped an asset into something his team undoubtedly needed.
In this case, and in a hard cap league where there's never enough, it was future money.
Hey, speaking of futures…
Ryan Lindgren, the top (and only) prospect the Bruins moved in the deal, could be a terrific player down the road. But in just his second college season, the defense-first defender is still more than a few years away from making the jump to the NHL game, and the Bruins already appear to have a future logjam on their backend. Moving on from Lindgren was going to be easier to stomach than moving on from Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson or Trent Frederic, especially given their positions (center) versus his. His loss does nothing to prevent this largely win-now core from accomplishing their goals, and it's not even close to the worst case scenario doomsday of losing a true top-tier prospect such as Ryan Donato or Jack Studnicka.
As for the 2018 first-rounder included? Well, it sounds like a cop-out, but that's the price.
It was clear that the Oilers were not coming down on their ask for a first-round pick for Patrick Maroon. (Nor should they, given the limited number of sellers and plethora of teams still searching for forward help.) The price on the Canucks' Thomas Vanek would have been a tad better, sure, but then you're talking about a step down in quality.
So when searching for forward help, it wasn't all that hard to identify the 33-year-old Nash, a veteran of over 70 career playoff games, as Boston's best available option.
There's something to be said for the Bruins doing this while sticking to their guns and refusing to abandon their current path or deviate from their long-term plans of building a contender through affordable entry-level contracts and high-ceiling prospects. And fear not, as their pipeline remains stacked, even after the departure of Lindgren and another two future draft picks.
Above all else, there has to be confidence in Nash's ability to perform in his role with the B's.
If the Bruins are to go anywhere this season, they absolutely need to have a reliable second line scoring threat, especially against the likes of the high-powered Maple Leafs and Lightning in rounds one and/or two (and the beyond terrifying Penguins in round three).
This means that Nash should be a total lock for the right side of David Krejci's line, especially if we look at this as a simple Nash-for-Spooner swap. Jake DeBrusk has given Krejci a legitimate option most nights, and has routinely generated high-quality scoring chances to Krejci's left for the first time in what felt like three years of failed experiments. But it was simply too tough to consistently flip both he and Spooner on nights where they were not clicking (like Tuesday in Edmonton and Saturday in Toronto).
When doing that, you're essentially messing with the rhythm of two lines in an attempt to fix one.
In Nash, the Bruins are getting a boost they believe can be delivered at five-on-five. 14 of his 18 goals this season have come at even-strength, and his 35 five-on-five goals over the last three seasons are more than names such as Daniel Sedin, Jonathan Toews, and Andrew Ladd. And all three of those players have around a 400-minute plus leg up on Nash, at the very least. Extend that sample to four years (a season headlined by his 32 even-strength goals) and Nash is No. 25 in five-on-five goals for.
There's no telling if this move is going to be the surefire way to get Krejci back to producing at the unmatched levels he did in postseason runs with the likes of Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton on his wings, of course. But if there's a blueprint for such a throwback, it certainly appears to begin with the willing-to-get-dirty combo of DeBrusk and Nash on his wings for the stretch run.
Hardly a bad play if one is intent on capitalizing on moving a forward not long for Boston and a first-round pick, and gaining future cap relief.
