Mailbag: Bruins' playoff chances, Stars' trade targets

Will this be the first year in a long time that Boston doesn't make the playoffs? -- @Tomato_guy1717

No. The Boston Bruins will make the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a ninth consecutive season.

Why? A few reasons.

1. The Bruins have been a defensive nightmare at times, but they should improve on the back end when defensemen Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy return to the lineup. Lindholm is on long-term injured reserve, out with a lower-body injury since Nov. 12. He has missed 31 games, but returned to practice in a noncontact jersey last week, a positive step toward his return. McAvoy is on injured reserve and has missed three games with an undisclosed injury. The Bruins aren't going to fall out of the race before McAvoy and Lindholm are back in the lineup. Both defend in your face. Both can push the pace offensively too, particularly through the neutral zone. Both will help the Bruins' woeful penalty kill (75.9 percent). Their returns will be huge for a team allowing 3.17 goals against per game.

2. Jeremy Swayman is starting to find stability in his game, minus the five goals he allowed in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Swayman allowed three or fewer goals in 11 of 12 starts previous to the Ottawa game. The Bruins have a whole host of other issues to deal with, but if they can get Grade A goaltending that solves a lot. Swayman has to deliver that. He is capable. He is starting to do it, minus the Senators game.

3. The Bruins might not be looking to trade future assets just to get into the playoffs, but the roster as currently constructed is playoff ready when healthy. If the Bruins can land a top-six center who has term remaining on his contract, it would be a worthwhile endeavor. They're not, however, in position to trade future assets, i.e. high draft picks and prospects, for a rental. They would be if they were locked in and pushing the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers for first in the Atlantic Division with high-end special teams and a few holes to plug. They're not going to land a No. 1 center, top-six winger and top-four defenseman this season. Those are their biggest holes. But they're not going to punt on the season either. They'll retool in the offseason, not at the expense of trying to make the playoffs this season.

4. It's hard to trust the teams around them in the playoff race to turn it up when the games get harder in March and April. The Bruins have experience and know what that is about. So do the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers. The Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers could learn some hard lessons. One could survive through it, but the Bruins will figure out how to get in.

Which team, if any, are you liking to make a hard run to qualify for the playoffs? -- @MrEd315

The Senators are in a playoff spot. They'll stay there. They'll be the team that survives through the hard hockey in March and April. It's not a hard run to get in if they're already in a spot, but it'll be a strong finish for the Senators to stay in that spot.

The key for the Senators is their ability to keep the puck out of the net. That should improve with the pending return of goalie Linus Ullmark, who was the hottest goalie in the League before tweaking his back in the first period of a 3-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 22. He was 8-0-1 with a .954 save percentage and 1.43 goals-against average in nine starts heading into that game.

Ullmark knows what it takes to win games in March and April, having helped the Bruins do that so often the past few seasons. He was 6-4-1 with a .923 save percentage and 2.18 GAA in 11 games from March 1 through the end of the regular season last season, and 9-2-0 with a .935 save percentage and 1.93 GAA in the same span to close the 2022-23 season.

The Senators need to score more at 5-on-5. Their 77 goals at 5-on-5 entering Tuesday were 28th in the League. They should be looking for goals at the deadline. They should be buyers looking to help this team get into the playoffs to keep building and moving forward. That should be the goal now for the Senators considering what they've done so far.

Is it just fan anxiety from 15 years of collapse or are there real problems in New Jersey? -- @DerivingLife

It's a rut, a scoring slump, and it'll change. The anxiety is understandable, because it's gone on for three and a half weeks, but the Devils have too much firepower to stay this quiet offensively for too much longer.

New Jersey has scored 20 goals in 11 games since Dec. 28. That's 1.82 per game. The Devils have allowed 2.82 in that stretch. You'd think a team like the Devils, with their speed and skill, with Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier and Dougie Hamilton, would win a lot of games giving up just 2.82 goals per game. But they're 2-6-3 in that stretch.

It comes down to execution, to generating more chances, which typically has a lot to do with confidence. The Devils don't seem to have it right now. It ebbs and flows in a season. It would be worse if it was reversed, if they were scoring but allowing too much, too loose defensively, with questionable goaltending. But that's not the case.

It's about offense, execution, and the Devils are too talented to stay this quiet for much longer. They scored 3.37 goals per game in their first 38 games. Trust that sample size ahead of the 1.82 in the past 11 games.

What player(s) should Jim Nill and the Dallas Stars be targeting to trade for, and is it better to make moves early or wait on the market to heat up? -- @DaStars1999

Brock Nelson and Rasmus Ristolainen should be targets for the Stars.

Nelson, the New York Islanders center, is in the final year of his contract and a pending unrestricted free agent. How the Islanders trend leading into the 4 Nations Face-Off could determine if they're going to sell. If they do, Nelson should be one of the top forwards potentially available on the rental market unless he re-signs.

Nelson is going to the 4 Nations Face-Off to play for the United States. The real risk of an injury in that tournament might be a reason to trade him before it starts. It at least has to be a thought.

Nelson is big, rangy, experienced and he can score. He can play No. 2 center in Dallas behind Roope Hintz, or he could play on the wing. If the Stars still had Tyler Seguin healthy, they might still look for a player like Nelson, but since Seguin is out following hip surgery on Dec. 5, the need is significant.

Adding Nelson would give the Stars options. He could fill out a top six that features Hintz, Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston, Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene, leaving Mason Marchment, Mavrik Bourque, Logan Stankoven, Evgenii Dadonov, Sam Steel and Colin Blackwell to fill out the forward depth. The Stars would have arguably the deepest group of forwards in the Western Conference.

Ristolainen was mentioned in the mailbag last week as a player who should be a target for the Stars. The Philadelphia Flyers defenseman has two years remaining on his contract ($5.1 million average annual value) after this season. Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said Tuesday he's not shopping the 30-year-old defenseman, but there is an appetite to listen to offers for what they could get for him. That Ristolainen is not a rental makes him even more valuable to the Flyers and any team looking to acquiring him. He gives the acquiring team contract security and the Flyers could ask for more in a trade than they would a traditional rental. There could be salary retention on the Flyers side too, leading to sweeteners put into the deal from the Stars. But Ristolainen is a physical, reliable defender who is strong on the penalty kill and can quarterback a power-play unit.

The Stars are short on right shot defenseman like Ristolainen. They have Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell and Thomas Harley on the left side, but the right is thinner. They're a Stanley Cup contender, so they want to fill out their defensive depth. Ristolainen does that now and in the future.