Bruins Should Take Advantage of Active Trade Market and Sell

The lead-up to free agency has kicked into high gear, as we’ve seen great options for the Boston Bruins taken off the board early.

Ex-captain of the Ottawa Senators, Brady Tkachuk, was traded to the Bruins’ rivals, the Florida Panthers, and we saw the New Jersey Devils send defenseman Simon Nemec to the Calgary Flames out west. The moves signify the fact that teams are getting bold early.

While risk is an inherent nature in the business of the NHL, as teams take risks on drafting and developing players, trades have an underlying risk: what if a player doesn’t work out?

For the Panthers, they had back-to-back Stanley Cup victories, and trades were seamless; players moved in and out with little to no friction in the lineup. Case in point, Brad Marchand, who was traded by general manager Don Sweeney. He’d acquire his second Stanley Cup in Sunrise. The Bruins? They received a 1st-round pick in 2028 for trading away one of the longest-tenured Bruins players.

The move signaled a trend where the captain got a send-off of his own making, and while we don’t begrudge players their own agency, it’s helped create concerning conditions for NHL GMs. Player empowerment is a great thing; however, with the 2026 USA Olympic team generating players who want to be traded, it’s grown into its own beast entirely.

We’ve seen with Tkachuk in a market that is clamoring for talent that GMs will overpay for it. We haven’t seen Dylan Larkin move yet, but when it does happen, as a center, we should expect a hefty payday for the Detroit Red Wings.

Bruins Are Eager to Participate in the Trade Market

“It’s been busy, obviously around the league and chatter and I don’t think the transactions are going to stop between now and the timeframe in July, so we’re eager to be participating,” said Sweeney. “Haven’t yet. I guess we did with Gasseau, but there’s been a lot of chatter so I expect things to continue [with] our player movement and stuff heading into the draft to be busy.”

Bruins fans remain unconvinced of Sweeney’s conviction to move the needle this offseason, considering the weight of talent we’ve seen taken off the board in recent days, including Alex Tuch, Jordan Kyrou, and Mackie Samoskevich.

He can continue to prostrate to us all that things will be different, but we’ve seen inaction and a deference to Pavel Zacha, Viktor Arvidsson, and Andrew Peeke that could hurt things in the long term if they continue to put off a rebuild.

Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers

The Senators sent their captain, Brady Tkachuk, to the Panthers in a blockbuster trade. The Panthers arguably overpaid for Tkachuk, who helped lead the Senators to the postseason. He quickly became a ghost this year.

In four games this postseason, Tkachuk was a no-show, producing zero points. But GM Bill Zito and the Panthers were in a rush to pay a haul to bring Matthew Tkachuk’s brother to Florida.

The team sent three first-round picks: two 2026 first-round picks were the Panthers, while another originally owned by the Tampa Bay Lightning, attached was a 2029 first-round pick, and a 2027 second-round pick.

While Zito helped restock the Senators’ draft assets, the team paid handsomely for a player who had played 572 games in the NHL and recorded 463 points (213 goals, 250 assists).

Simon Nemec and Maxim Tsyplakov to the Calgary Flames

Nemec was another player that Bruins fans and pundits named as a trade candidate. A right-handed defenseman who netted the Devils Etienne Morin, a conditional 2027 first-round pick (Vegas Golden Knights), a conditional 2028 first-round pick (Colorado Avalanche), and a 2026 second-round pick (New York Rangers).

Quite the haul for a defenseman who’s played 155 games in the NHL, and recorded 49 points (16 goals, 33 assists).

Bruins Should Sell This Offseason

The recent trades that have taken place have given us a template of how the Bruins could take advantage of a tight market this offseason.

Zacha has turned into an unintended trade chip, as he’s played 320 games in a Bruins uniform, recording 228 points (86 goals, 142 assists) with a plus-34 rating. His value has never been so high. In 2025-26, we saw him post a career-high 30 goals and 65 points.

Considering the return the Panthers saw from a trade of Samoskevich to the Seattle Kraken, it would be bad business if the Bruins decide to run it back.

Per Nick Goss of NBC Sports Boston:

The Florida Panthers traded forward Mackie Samoskevich to the Seattle Kraken last week in exchange for a 2026 first-round pick (No. 25 overall) and a conditional second-round pick. Samoskevich had a career-high 32 points last season — less than half of Zacha’s output. He’s also six years younger than Zacha, but the B’s forward is easily a better player right now.

Sweeney Needs to Be Active Now

This offseason seems like the Bruins are destined to be ground through the gears of attrition as teams that act with boldness take center stage.

With GM Sweeney’s conservative nature, he should at least consider a sell-off to position themselves for a bright future. If not, they’re destined for a middling first-round exit we’ve seen elsewhere in the Atlantic. That includes selling off veteran players and prospects that don’t fit the team’s long-term goals in order to remain competitive.

Zacha will net the Bruins significant assets, should Sweeney be bold enough to take advantage of a seller’s market.