NHL Rumors: Bruins ready to trade Jake DeBrusk; Blues scratch Mike Hoffman; Taylor Hall to St. Louis?
Anthony Scultore
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The Bruins were shutout by the New Jersey Devils as their scoring woes continue. GM Don Sweeney needs more offense than from just his top line with Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak. As Boston struggles to hold on to fourth place, rumors that Jake DeBrusk is on the move grow each day.
NHL Rumors: Jake DeBrusk for a scoring forward?
Names like Kyle Palmieri, Taylor Hall, and possibly Mike Hoffman should the Blues opt to move him are on Boston’s short list for scoring wingers. One piece they have talked about moving but pulled back on is Jake DeBrusk. The 24 year-old is struggling badly this season with just 7 points in 21 games. However, this is only his 4th season in the NHL and his previous three showed great promise with a 27 goal season in 2018-19.
While the asking price for a player like Taylor Hall is a first round pick to start, maybe the Bruins can work with Buffalo on a much larger deal involving DeBrusk, and maybe Brandon Montour on defense the other way. Their would need to be some cap magic as well, but that could be done with a third party like Chicago or Detroit.
It’s tough to see how this shakes out, I just don’t expect the Bruins to be idle. Something is going to happen in Boston.
All the names above are on the NHL Trade Bait Tracker.
NHL Rumors: Mike Hoffman a healthy scratch?
Blues head coach scratched Mike Hoffman for not producing. “I need more effort and competitiveness from him. He hasn’t scored in 10 games,” Craig Berube said. So far this season Hoffman has 20 points in 33 games for St. Louis. Not terrible, but they were hoping for more production. It just really hasn’t materialized.
So what next for GM Doug Armstrong? Is he possibly trade bait. Hoffman makes $4 million and is a UFA this summer. The Blues like many team’s are up against the cap and will need space for players coming off LTIR like Colton Parayko.
The question still begs to be asked, if Hoffman’s potential scoring is removed who do they bring in to replace him?
NHL Rumors: Taylor Hall on the move; St. Louis a destination?
On Saturday Headlines, Elliotte Friedman noted that the Buffalo Sabres are fielding plenty of calls on Taylor Hall. The eyebrow raiser was when he mentioned the St. Louis Blues just a moment later.
“There’s a lot of teams checking in [on Taylor Hall],” he said. “One of them I’m wondering, if it can work for salary cap reasons is St. Louis. The Blues all of a sudden are having trouble scoring.”
This is an interesting development. The Blues are not shy about making trades, especially when it comes to Cup winning moves. They brought in Mike Hoffman in free agency but are very cap strapped right now with basically no wiggle room per CapFriendly.
Taylor Hall is the type of player many teams are looking for as the piece that gets them over the top. In order for the Blues to do this, they will need help in the form of cap space. Could they leverage the Blackhawks or Red Wings in order to do it? That’s the big question.