from Joe Haggerty of CSNNE,

The Bruins have the salary cap space and they still have the interest in nabbing a puck-moving defenseman they can install into their top-four group on the back end.

Both of these things have been true for the past 15 months after trading Dougie Hamilton to the Calgary Flames, and for the past two years since shipping Johnny Boychuk off to the New York Islanders.

Whether it’s David Krejci or Ryan Spooner, the Bruins also have a surplus of centers now that would seem to indicate potential trade chips in place if Don Sweeney wanted to act quickly on a good, old-fashioned hockey swap.

Clearly, there is disappointment that the Black and Gold haven’t been able to execute a deal for Kevin Shattenkirk or force the Winnipeg Jets into trading away big, right shot D-man Jacob Trouba amid strained negotiations for a contract extension.

“I know basically from April to now everybody is talking about our back end, and not being able to land a top-four defenseman. We still have an opportunity as far as cap space goes if something shakes free, and I know Don [Sweeney] has been working hard trying to do something,” Bruins President Cam Neely said on CSN’s Great American Hockey Show podcast last week. “But I feel like as a group we can do better than we did last year.

continued