from Joe Haggerty of CSNNE,

Nobody wants to see Boychuk traded from this current group of Bruins, and dealing away the hard-nosed, hard-hitting D-man with the booming shot will weaken their team in the short term. His inclusive personality would be missed. His intensity in the playoffs would be missed. His willingness to endure a puck to the face to win a game would be severely missed.

Winning it all this season would be aided by having No. 55 in uniform for the Black and Gold.

But Boychuk would net the biggest savings if his $3.36 million cap hit was dealt to a team in need of his services, and he’d also yield the best player in return to a Bruins team that could use a right wing. Could he be packaged with other items to rescue a gem like Nail Yakupov from the Edmonton Oilers, or Jakob Silfverberg, or Tomas Tatar?

Perhaps.

There’s also the cold, hard fact that the Bruins won’t be able to afford Boychuk after this season when he hits unrestricted free agency. He will easily command $5-6 million per season based on the ludicrous contract given to Brooks Orpik by the Washington Capitals, and the Bruins would be hard-pressed to go that high with a second-pairing defenseman on the wrong side of 30.

It comes down to signing players like Soderberg, Hamilton, Krug, Smith and others to deals while absorbing the $7.25 million Krejci cap hit after this season, and Boychuk seems like an ill-fitting jigsaw puzzle piece from a cap perspective.

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