3 players the Boston Bruins should trade after humiliating postseason exit

1. Nick Ritchie

Surprisingly, the trade for Kase wasn’t the worst trade the Boston Bruins made at the trade deadline. That distinctive honor belongs to the Nick Ritchie trade. The Bruins sent Danton Heinen, a perfectly useful forward, to the Anaheim Ducks for Ritchie. They thought it would give them that “snarl” they sort of lacked last year. Instead, the trade blew up in their face.

In 15 games split between the regular season and postseason, Ritchie only had three points for the Bruins. His underlying stats were very unimpressive as well. Also, Ritchie was a liability to the team with 35 penalty minutes in those 15 games. Frankly, he should have gotten more penalty minutes too.

The thing about Ritchie is he’s tradeable. Teams are always looking for more size. Maybe there’s a team out there that thinks Ritchie is a skilled power forward. He has a pretty cheap contract for next season, as his cap hit is a shade under $1.5 million.

Ritchie cost his team dearly in Game 4. Just when the Boston Bruins were starting to pick up some momentum, he did a lot of dumb stuff that handed the momentum right back to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Though he wasn’t suspended for his actions in Game 4, he was a healthy scratch in Game 5. That says everything.