Are the Kings interested in Marc Savard? – ProHockeyTalk – Hockey – NBC Sports
The Kings would love to add another scorer up front and Savard would make for a tantalizing pickup as he’d slot in nicely as a 1B option at center to join Anze Kopitar already slotted in as 1A. After adding Alexei Ponikarovsky to help soften the blow of losing out on Ilya Kovalchuk, the Kings could use just a bit more in their top six forwards. Right now, Jarret Stoll is set up to be the second line center and while he’s a nice player, for a team that’s on the precipice of doing great things, he isn’t an ideal solution to be your second line centerman.[…] Could the Kings provide the Bruins with what they’d look for in return?
The article also mentions that the Bruins need a scoring winger and a puck-moving defenseman. They need cap relief and they don’t need another center, since they have about fifty of them. That would seem to rule out Jarret Stoll and Michal Hanzus, leaving
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and nobody else as options fitting the description “scoring winger.” Unless we’re talking prospects, which I guess we are, since the Bruins need cap relief. So, the list is in the neighborhood of Moller, Loktionov, Lewis, Parse, Kozun, Holloway. Moller would be the obvious front-runner there, and this alone makes me un-like this whole Savard idea. You would essentially be trading for an old, short but feisty concussed playmaker with a contract that runs 7 years until he’s 40 for a young, short but feisty sniper on an ELC. The Kings would be getting an additional 60-some assists for a few years (nothing to sneeze at), then a cap albatross. They would be giving up the only sniper in their system, a leader, a probable future A or C. If Lombardi could get Boston to take one of those other prospects (Lewis, et al), does that make the deal better? I don’t know. Might.
What about puck-moving defensemen? The ones who have a salary low enough to give the Bruins cap relief are: Jack Johnson, Alec Martinez, Johan Fransson, Thomas Hickey, Viatcheslav Voynov and Nicolas Deslauriers. I wouldn’t be willing to deal any of those guys except Martinez. The Bruins would of course ask for Johnson. Johnson and Moller. Johnson and Simmonds. No, and no.
The Bruins have to think they deserve better than Lewis and Martinez (I would), so my guess is, unless Lombardi has any more of that Smyth-for-Priessing/Quincey magic, Savard isn’t coming here. (Also, can we have Quincey back now, please?)