See right there is why I don;t trade Rask What good is cap space, when the best thing you can go with it is give TJ Oshie 7 years 45 million, or Kevin Shattenkirk 7 years 53 million? Neither guy are bad players, but at the same time neither guy puts the Bruins at the top tier, and both guys are likely to decline pretty substantially by the middle of their next contract
Very important point.
I think that what the Bruins need to do is have a few of their young forwards develop into top 6 caliber players. In the meantime, they need to rely on Tuukka and their revamped defense (which is actually looking pretty damned good with the emergence of McAvoy).
McAvoy, Carlo, Krug, Chara, and one of the Millers has the makings of a pretty solid core, and there is some decent youth coming in behond that group (O'Gara, Grzelcyk, Johansson, Lauzon, Zboril, Lindgren).
They also have a strong first line and some decent depth in grinder types.
What's missing is filling out the top 6, and that is something they need to get from within. And they do have a number of candidates: Vatrano, Czarnik, Cehlarik, Heinen, Gabrielle, JFK, Senyshyn, DeBrusk, even Spooner. A number of them are already at the pro level - hopefully there is enough depth there for a good internal competition with a couple of guys emerging.