um. backes kind of has to give the go ahead to end his career. that's not nothing.

wouldnt a demotion to providence essentially end his career? whats the difference? he goes on LTIR and retires gets his remaining cash to go on vacation and whatnot, or goes to providence for 2 years... what is he in 2 years after he comes out of providence?

Why don’t you just put everyone who you can’t fit on LTIR. Easy way out, right?

Bs are in a bad spot for the next few years.

Not really, they can move any number of contracts and get cheaper at a few positions. they might not want to but its entirely doable. ill create another scenario that keeps backes.

it's not as crazy as it sounds. he has serious concussion issues.

Just did another one where they keep backes. its all about moving money around which i believe sweeney will do ALOT better than chiarelli did i.e. trading boychuk for practically nothing.

well there's a really big difference, in one he's playing hockey, in the other, he isn't. I entirely agree that the bruins should tell him that he isn't going to be on their team next year, meaning that he'll either be in providence, on another NHL team, or retired. First off, he says no to providence so they start working on a trade. Then one of four things happens. First option, a team comes forward, they're willing to swap backes for another bad contract that the bruins prefer. Victor Rask comes to mind. Option two, another team is willing to take the cap hit, with the possible intention to buy out next off season for a fee that Sweeney deems reasonable. Option three, Sweeney comes back and says that no other team is willing to take him, ending his NHL dreams. I'm guessing he LTIRetires after that. Option four, and I think this is kind of interesting, and a little out there. He goes on LTIR for a year. He's had the concussion issues. Season before last ended with him knocked out cold on the ice ffs. Then, the bruins pay Seattle to take him. He gets to continue his career in a nice city, and is part of their first season. Heck, he might be their captain. It would be a cool way for him to go out.

boychuk was the most overrated player in bruins history. That trade was awesome. Two seconds for that bum who turned around and signed that god awful contract? All day.

The problem with the boychuk deal was that he was your 4th dman and you had NOBODY at the time ready to go to take his spot. They got lucky carlo hit. otherwise you would still be searching for that top 4 rd. He did sign a terrible contract after but they could have gotten more at the time if it wasnt because they were in cap jail.

Right but playing hockey in providence is not the same as playing in the NHL. I agree with all these scenarios noted above though. I wouldnt mind the victor rask deal because he can be your 3rd line center allowing coyle to flex up with krejci. Thats why i brought it up. I think theres no way he sees the nhl as a bruin again though.

They have to trade their 8/9th D (Miller) for a pick and they're fine, not all that bad

i mean we also say they're fine but we will be back to hoping a prospect can fill a spot again.

nah. boychuk was a product of playing with chara. he was nothing special. The problem was that the entire blue line got hurt. I don't think the drop off between Boychuk and Miller or McQuaid was steep at all. At least those guys are good at something. Boychuk wasn't good at anything, he was just kind of "meh," at everything and played with Chara. He was a poor mans Phaneuf at the time. Problem was, Miller got hurt and missed half the season. McQuaid missed 20 games. Hamilton missed 10. Chara missed 20.

it's more likely that rask is your third line center in providence, but with the savings on that deal if you stick him in the minors basically gets the Backes cap hit from 6 to 3. Works for me.

For sure, they're in trouble this year if none of their winger prospects pan out, they have more winger prospects but definitely feels similar to last year with no 3C

after last year sure. but his first 3 years in the league were pretty decent. With decent linemates he could probably replicate that production.