In case you missed it, the Buffalo Sabres traded for Carolina Hurricanes winger Jeff Skinner after a summer of speculation that Skinner would be dealt. So that’s another Atlantic Division team that got significantly better this summer while the Bruins made more modest improvements over the same time period. The fact that Skinner was a player who could have filled a need in Boston adds to the disappointment of watching him go to a divisional foe, and it leaves Artemi Panarin as the only big top-6 sniper type still potentially available with the start of training camp little more than a month away.
Three draft picks and a top prospect is a high price to be sure, but the Sabres didn't give up a first-rounder or a player from their NHL roster. So presumably it’s a cost the B’s could have paid if Skinner was invested in coming to Boston, as it appeared that he was in going to Buffaki, and one is left to assume the Bruins weren’t on his list of preferred destinations. If it turns out, though, that the B's simply weren’t interested in Skinner or had him pegged strictly as a left winger on a team that already has Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk, well, that would be a little less forgivable.
Either way, it looks like the Bruins could go into training camp with their current roster, which would be a disappointment after losing out on Ilya Kovalchuk and John Tavares earlier this summer. That goes double for a team that wasn’t good enough last season, and has watched Tampa Bay, Toronto and others in the East improve themselves over the last few months.