Bruins expect trade winds to slow during Draft weekend

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It could be a pretty quiet week for Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli and his front office cohorts. Theyll be jumping on a plane and heading to Pittsburgh with five draft picks in hand, and that might be the limit of their activity.

Trade talks typically whip up while the brain trust of all 30 teams are gathered in one city for the NHL draft, and Chiarelli admitted that the trade chatter has been flowing freely in recent days. But the Bruins dont currently have many openings on a roster packed with 17 players remaining from the Stanley Cup-winning team, and the Boston GM said he wasnt likely to make any deals this weekend.

That means the Bruins wont be involved if something goes down with Columbus sniper Rick Nash over the five days.

The reality is that the trade market right now is the most active. Whatll happen is, come July, that will take a bit of a backseat to free agency. Then once we go through that first tranche of free agents, then the trade market will re-emerge, said Chiarelli. With the trade market the way it is, Ill make some calls . . . but, frankly, Im probably more apt to wait till the free agent market and then the secondary trade market.

I call it the secondary trade market, but its fairly significant. So my objective will probably be to wait unless something falls in my lap.

That willingness to wait until the secondary trade market gives with what Chiarelli told CSNNE.com in an interview last week: the Bs general manager is looking for a Mark Recchi-type winger that can bring a veteran presence and some interior toughness to his current forward group.

If were going to add somebody I would rather add a piece like a Mark Recchi. Those guys are hard to come by, said Chiarelli. They wouldnt be exactly like Rex, but those kinds of guys are out there via trade or free agency.

We have guys that are growing into that kind of leader, but hes a Hall of Fame player. We talked about the quality of chances and getting into those scoring areas that was lacking during the playoffs and hes a guy that epitomized that. He gets to those areas and other guys will follow that. Our guys will do it and theyll have learned from that Washington series that its required. But thats something you miss when Rex isnt around.

The big names potentially available via trade or free agency and interesting the Bs would be in the Shane Doan, Ray Whitney, Ryan Smyth, Jarome Iginla and Steve Sullivan range.

But there are other names like Mike Knuble and Dustin Penner that could always be big-bodied possibilities. Free agent price tag and potential chemistry with the rest of the Bruins will be considerable factors for whatever forward ends up joining the Bruins group.

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