Bruins shopping former first-round pick Urho Vaakaninen

Even with the addition of winger Craig Smith in free agency this offseason, many have expected the Bruins to make another addition of note.  With the free agent market slowing to a crawl, it seems as if GM Don Sweeney is looking at trying to trade for that piece now.  To that end, Boston Hockey Now’s Joe Haggerty reports (subscription link) that the team is trying to move defenseman Urho Vaakanainen.

The 21-year-old was the 17th overall pick back in 2017 but hasn’t seen much action in the NHL since then, getting into just two games with Boston in 2018-19 and five last season where he averaged nearly 17 minutes a night.  Vaakanainen has spent the majority of his time in North America at the AHL level with Providence where he posted five goals and nine assists in 54 games last year.  The point total isn’t particularly high but as more of a stay-at-home defender, he’s not expected to put up flashy numbers.

The Bruins certainly have a hole on the left side of their back end following the departure of Torey Krug to St. Louis in free agency while long-time veteran Zdeno Chara is still on the open market.  At this point, no additions have been made on the blueline and as a result, Vaakanainen is someone that could be a candidate to break camp with Boston.

But for a team with win-now aspirations, having a relatively unproven youngster in the lineup (whether it’s Vaakanainen, Jakub Zboril, or someone else entirely) carries some risk.  As a result, Vaakanainen may be more valuable to the Bruins as a piece in a trade for an impact defenseman than as a prospect that they hope could one day become a regular in their lineup.

One thing that Sweeney has going for him that most teams don’t is cap space.  While winger Jake DeBrusk remains unsigned, they currently have a little over $6.6M in cap room, per CapFriendly, which is more than enough to get him signed and still have room to add on the back end.  It appears that Vaakanainen could be used to try to help land that piece.