Bruins and Wild reportedly engaged in trade discussions for Jonas Brodin

With the offseason potentially days away and the NHL expansion draft around the corner, NHL teams are already working on roster changes.

Per reports from CSNNE reporter Joe Haggerty, the Boston Bruins and Minnesota Wild are already in “ongoing trade discussions,” likely for Wild defenseman Jonas Brodin. Haggerty’s source told him those talks had begun well before the March 1 trade deadline:

The 23-year-old Brodin Is a left-shot D-man with cost certainty signed for four more years at $4.166 million and has been a top-four defenseman for the Wild since breaking into the league as a teenager. The 6’1, 194-pound Brodin is coming off a career-high 25 points, while also averaging a career-low 19:34 of ice time, and has settled in as a solid, two-way D-man who’s never going to dazzle anybody with his workmanlike skill set.

Brodin will almost certainly be taken in the expansion draft if the Wild choose not to protect him. And it’s unlikely they will; Minnesota probably prioritizes Jared Spurgeon (who had a terrific season) and Matt Dumba over Brodin. Ryan Suter’s no-movement clause gives him automatic protection.

So it makes sense for Minnesota to try and get something for Brodin, who is still young and has contract terms teams covet. And Boston has something Minnesota would want: a first-round pick. The Wild gave theirs up to Arizona in the Martin Hanzal trade.

Is Brodin worth a first-rounder, though? Probably not. But the looming expansion draft seems to be inflating values a bit this year.

The other question is this: Is giving up a first-round pick to win now worth it for the Bruins? Brodin isn’t a top-pairing guy. And as good as defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo might become, will it happen before Boston’s core hits its past-prime decline?

David Krejci (31), Patrice Bergeron (31), David Backes (33), Zdeno Chara (40), Tuukka Rask (30), and Brad Marchand (29) are all either in their prime, slowing down, or rapidly approaching the end of their careers. That first-round pick might be put to better use with the Bruins than in a trade for a top-four defenseman.

That’s speculation, though; it’s just as likely Minnesota’s desperation to get something for Brodin drives the price down for Boston and makes this move worthwhile for both clubs. At any rate, the trade smoke is swirling. We’ll see how long before this trade happens and if it kicks off a flurry of pre-expansion-draft moves.