Bruins abort monster trade before they turned to Dmitry Orlov

The Boston Bruins acquired defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway from the Washington Capitals in return for forwards Craig Smith and Andrei Svetlakov, along with a trio of picks: a first-round pick in 2023, a second-round pick in 2025 and a third-round pick in 2024.

The Minnesota Wild got involved again, absorbing part of Orlov’s salary as a third-party “broker” to help Boston stay under the NHL ’s salary cap.

But according to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, the Bruins had a deal in place with the Columbus Blue Jackets that fell through just before they turn to Washington.

Per Portzline:

“Multiple team and league sources confirmed to The Athletic that the Blue Jackets firmly felt they had a deal in place with Boston for more than a week that would have sent defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov to the Bruins for multiple picks and/or players.

The Blue Jackets believed the deal was done, sources said, but Boston repeatedly asked for more time. A deal isn’t official until it’s submitted to the NHL for approval.”

While Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen did not comment on the report, he is back to square one and might turn to the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs or Los Angeles Kings.

There are rumours that the Blue Jackets were possibly looking at flipping Gavrikov in order to get some first round pick to land Jakob Chychrun from the Arizona Coyotes. Elliotte Friedman recently suggested the move in his 32 Thoughts column.

There is only a week left ahead of the trade deadline, and that might be how long we have to wait to see where Gavrikov ends up playing for the rest of the season. 

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