from Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe,

... Still, nine is too many. Seidenberg is healthy, and so is the injury-prone McQuaid. Miller will be fighting to retain his spot, as will Bartkowski and McQuaid. And Warsofsky, whose skills and size are a duplicate of Krug’s, is likely No. 9 in the field, but will be trying to prove himself.

“I think David’s ready to play in the NHL,” said Providence coach Bruce Cassidy. “Could he beat out eight guys in Boston? I don’t know. That’s a pretty good lineup, right? So a good problem for Boston to have, tough for David. But I’ve always felt if you’re good enough and you’re ready and you go up and prove it, they’ll make room for you.”

That could provide some good competition in camp — if Chiarelli lets it get that far.

Despite the GM emphasizing that he wants to keep his core together, Boychuk ($3.366 cap hit) is a free agent after this upcoming season and could command a deal approaching that of new Washington Capital Brooks Orpik (five years, $27.5 million) on the open market. Boychuk would bring more return and more cap relief than other options. Chiarelli also has already shown a willingness to deal Bartkowski ($1.25 million), who was headed to Calgary at the 2013 trade deadline before the deal was nixed by Jarome Iginla.

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