Haggs On Toucher & Rich: No Iginla, So Now What For The Bruins?
BOSTON (CBS) - Late Wednesday night, it appeared that Jarome Iginla was heading to the Boston Bruins.
But unfortunately, he chose the Pittsburgh Penguins over Boston, leaving the B's looking for that acquisition to give their team a spark.
CSNNE's Joe Haggerty joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Thursday to try to sort out the whole Iginla mess, and break down the other options for the B's.
"At the end of the day, I think Jarome Iginla wanted to go to Pittsburgh," Haggerty said, adding the Calgary ownership wanted to make sure Iginla went where he wanted after spending 16 years with the Flames. "He wanted to go play with Sid and Malkin, and thought the Penguins have the best chance to win the Cup. He didn't want to come to Boston, I think that's clear by the decision he made and the trade that ended up happening between the Penguins and the Flames."
Gallery: Potential Trade Targets
So why the reports that said he was heading to Boston on Wednesday night?
"Pittsburgh was very quiet about the whole thing and were on the down-low with what they did. I don't think anyone in the media knew what they were doing, and assumed they were in it to drive the price up for the Bruins," said Haggs. "That turned out to be wrong in the end."
So what's left for the Bruins?
"There is still time left, and still some potential names and possibilities. You keep seeing Martin St. Louis is out there, and I think that's someone the Bruins will take a hard look at and try to get the lightning to talk trade with," said Haggs. "It's a little different because it involves the Bruins taking on money and term – he has a couple more years left at $5.5 million after this season. But the idea of St Louis setting up Tyler Seguin like he has Steve Stamkos the last few years on the power play is something the Bruins would love and be a good fit."
Other players out there include forwards Jaromir Jagr in Dallas, Ryan Clowe in San Jose, and Edmonton defenseman Ryan Whitney.
While the Bruins have been targeting a scoring forward ahead of the April 3 deadline, their main concern may be on the blue line.
"They would love to have a Mark Streit, that's for sure. They'd love to get him from the Islanders and have him quarterback the power play and be an offensive-defenseman that is experienced enough that they could maybe put Dougie (Hamilton) in a third paring and not make him play 20 minutes a night in the playoffs."
"I think the defense part of it is a really important get for them," he said. "They not only have to improve the power play, but the defense period. Giving up five goals last night, the way they did and some of the mistakes they've made defensively over the last month screams out for them needing help on the defensive core."
