Bruins looking at goalies, kicked tires on Halak

Share

Bruins GM Don Sweeney made no secret that he’s made inquiries into shoring up his goaltending depth, and that could be the one move that Boston definitely makes ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s NHL trade deadline.

The Bruins have kicked the tires on New York Islanders goalie Jaroslav Halak, who is currently dominating in the AHL for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers after getting shipped to the American Hockey League earlier this season. The 31-year-old Slovakian is 14-2-1 with a .933 save percentage and a 1.91 goals against average for Bridgeport after posting a .904 save percentage and 3.23 goals against average in 21 games for the Islanders this season, and the B’s talent evaluators have had a long look at Halak in plenty of head-to-head matchups with Providence over the last couple of months.

Sweeney didn’t confirm the interest in Halak while speaking with reporters on Tuesday night ahead of the deadline, but one can connect the dots knowing there aren’t many goalies on the trade market at this point in time.  

“Anton [Khudobin] has played well for us in the last couple of starts,” said Sweeney. “I think it’s an area…it was certainly an area of concern for us. I’ve had some discussions [about trades for backup goalies], yes.”

According to NHL Network analyst Kevin Weekes, the Oilers and Flames are also interested suitors for Halak’s services while similarly looking to upgrade their NHL goaltending situation. So why won’t Halak ultimately move to Boston if it doesn’t happen? Well, for one Khudobin has won back-to-back games and started straightening out his game after struggling this season while getting bounced between the NHL and AHL earlier this season.

There’s also the odd fact that the Islanders and Bruins are pitted in competition for a potential wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, and Garth Snow may not easily give out a helping hand to Sweeney and the Bruins in this case. So the Bruins would probably have to overpay in terms of assets for a goalie in Halak that would only be useful for the final 19 regular season games of this season, and then Boston would also be on  the hook for him all of next year as well.

That’s a potentially high price to pay if the Bruins believe that Khudobin has turned a corner, and they may be able to get through the rest of this season without being forced into calling up Zane McIntyre or Malcolm Subban again this season before they’re ready. 
 

Contact Us