Morning Skate: Wheeling and dealing

Happy Monday, folks. Hope it was a good one. Here in Massachusetts, we continued our run of record-setting July rainfall. Perfect summer weather.

Hey, it’s good for the plants.

Over the weekend, there was plenty of action league-wide: trades, negotiations, and, ultimately, the release of the protected/available lists for each of the league’s teams (except for Vegas).

For the Bruins, there really wasn’t a ton of drama: the only real question was which one of Jake DeBrusk, Nick Ritchie, or Trent Frederic would be exposed.

Ritchie ended up being the answer, but for my money, the B’s are still likely to lose a defenseman. We’ll see!

Elsewhere in the league, however, there were all kinds of expansion-related shenanigans, most notably the Montreal Canadiens electing to leave Carey Price unprotected.

The logic, if you can call it that, is that Price’s big contract makes him unpalatable to Seattle, and exposing him allows Montreal to protect Jake Allen.

Still, that’s gotta be a tempting target for Seattle. No, Price isn’t what he once was, but Seattle could, for example, take Price, platoon him for the season, then flip him at the deadline for some valuable assets.

Even if it means eating some of his salary, you have to think a “we’re a goalie away from being a contender!” team would overpay for a guy like Price at the deadline (hello, Toronto).

I guess we’ll see! There already seems to be plenty of intrigue surrounding the expansion draft this year, moreso than in the Vegas year.

Kind of makes what the Bruins are thinking about look boring, but that’s not a bad thing.

What’s on tap for the week?

Today’s discussion topic

Seattle is reportedly having internal discussions about taking Price. What’s your gut — do they take him or no?