Bruins STILL Looking to Trade Savvy

I was hoping that maybe this whole contract investigation thing with the NHL was going to make the Bruins rethink the plan to trade Marc Savard.  Then came this tweet, from Murph:

Was just told that Bruins are still actively shopping Marc Savard but no takers due to contract issue w/NHL.

Well, so much for that.

At this point, it's safe to assume that nothing's going to happen with the contract.  Read ousted union chief Paul Kelly's thoughts in this article, which are essentially identical to some the points I made in my FanPost a couple weeks ago.  Indeed, ESPN Rumor Central postulates that the NHL is just dragging this out to piss off the Bruins, who have apparently been shopping Savard since 5 minutes after the season ended, and now have to put things on hold while the league pretends to make a big deal about his contract.

No GM is going to trade for Savard until this is resolved.  Sure, there's pretty much no chance that he's going to have his contract voided, but if there's even a 1% chance, and you trade for the guy, and then his deal gets voided...well, that's the sort of thing that gets a GM fired, isn't it? 

What has me surprised is that no one has worked out a contingent deal.  If the Bruins are shopping him as aggressively as Murph and ESPN and whoever else say they are, why hasn't there been a deal where another team says "look, we'll give you X for Savard, but we can't make it official until the contract business is sorted out"?  We can assume there's no such deal because we surely would have heard about it by now...or at the very least, we would have heard an end to the "Savvy's on the trade block" rumors.

Savard is a point per game center with a very reasonable contract (so reasonable, in fact, that the league believes it circumvented the salary cap), and yet, despite reports that they are shopping him aggressively, the Bruins can't seem to make a deal.  This suggests a few possible conclusions:

1. The Bruins are asking for the moon - possible, but if they've been trying all summer, and haven't found a taker, why wouldn't they recognize that the market value is not what they suspected, and either lower their price tag or take the "for sale" sign off him? That's what happened with Tim Thomas, it seems.  They tried to trade him, found no takers, and said "screw it, there's worse fates than having our backup goaltender being the guy who won a Vezina Trophy 2 years ago."

2. Teams are worried about Savard's injury problems and rep as a d-bag - Disclaimer: I'm uninterested in whether that rep is fair or not, nor how significant it may be.  There have been enough rumblings that Savard is a locker room cancer that there is obviously at least some feeling that he may be a douche.  I don't know, I don't care, and I'm not interested in discussing it.  What is relevant is whether it's affecting his trade value, and when combined with his head injury, it's fair to wonder if teams are shying away because of that.  Remember that he only played 7 games in the postseason, and though he played pretty well, head injuries can have a cumulative effect.  Hockey ain't ballet (not unless you'rhttp://www.sbnation.com/admin/entries/new?community_id=188&entry_type=FanPoste Phil Kessel), so another shot to the head is certainly possible, and what then?  Shopping him aggressively isn't likely to be helpful to the perception that he's first-rate, mentally, socially and physically, either. 

3. The rumors are overblown - this seems like the least likely possibility to me.  Savard said he was hurt by the trade rumors, so obviously he's heard something.  We've heard too much from too many sources to suggest otherwise.  I do not get the perception that Peter Chiarelli is orchestrating some grand smokescreen here.  First, he doesn't seem like the type who enjoys mind games, and second (and more importantly) what possible good would come of it? 

If indeed there are concerns about his health that are driving the seeming lack of interest in Savard, then the best thing Boston could do (if they're set on trading him) is pull him off the block, start him on the top line with (probably) Lucic and Horton, get things going, and then see if teams are satisfied enough to come back to the bargaining table. 

For my part, I've said this before, but David Krejci is coming off an injury that cost him the end of the playoffs, Patrice Bergeron missed 9 games last year, Tyler Seguin has played as many NHL minutes as I have and last year's Bruins couldn't score if they were locked in a hotel room with Lindsay Lohan and a garbage bag full of coke...I wouldn't be in a big hurry to trade a guy who's scored 295 points in the 279 games he's been sporting the spoked B on his chest.