BRIGHTON, Mass. – Certainly there is concern with the news Bruins top scorer David Pastrnak will be out at least a few weeks with a tendon injury in his left thumb that required surgery, and that his recovery will likely be even longer than that. The two weeks, of course, coincides with the February 25 NHL trade deadline and it’s awfully convenient that the 22-year-old’s timetable for a return will be known right around the time that the deadline passes.
But Bruins GM Don Sweeney was firm in the notion that Pastrnak will indeed return before the end of the regular season in about two months, and also that the injury isn’t going to change the Black and Gold’s approach to the deadline. They still need either a top-6 winger who can score goals or a third line center who can finally solidify that group, and preferably have it be a right wing given that David Backes is now Boston’s top natural right-side winger with lefties like Peter Cehlarik and Danton Heinen playing on the right side.
So it would seem that players like Wayne Simmonds, Artemi Panarin, Tyler Toffoli and others like Micheal Ferland would be the desired targets for the Bruins when it comes time to make a deal. It’s not exactly a secret that the B’s general manager has been working for the phone for weeks, but it takes two to tango as the old saying goes.
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“It doesn’t change my approach at all. I’ve been making for a month at least, maybe longer. They’ve been throughout the year, but specifically in the last month trying to identify teams [as trade partners],” said Sweeney. “As you can imagine there’s been a lot of jockeying going on everywhere with all the teams that are in [the playoff picture], so some teams don’t know. They’ll take it right to the deadline. That may happen.
"We’ve been looking to do something, but if it doesn’t happen, then it doesn’t happen.”
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Boy, “if it doesn’t happen then it doesn’t happen” doesn’t exactly inspire excitement that the Bruins are on the cusp of a big move, does it?
The one question that still nags is not whether Pastrnak is going to return, but whether or not he’s going to be the same player that was on a 45-goal, 97-point pace when he fell down and injured his left thumb this weekend. That’s where securing another established top-6 winger who can score goals really becomes the big target for the B’s over the next few weeks, and takes on even more importance than it did prior to last weekend’s injury to Pastrnak.
The Bruins were among the worst 5-on-5 teams offensively even before they lost Pastrnak for the next few weeks, and securing more offense needs to be the biggest priority for the front office while the hockey club battles to maintain its current playoff position without its biggest weapon present in the lineup.
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