Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli entered this season with the plan to make his big, bad Bruins a little smaller, a little quicker and a lot more skilled.
That plan hasn't exactly translated to wins thus far this season though and Chiarelli may now be reversing course a bit and attempting to return his B's to the strong, imposingly gritty team they've built a reputation for being in the recent past.
Chiarelli recently told Joe Haggerty of CSN New England that the team would like to, in season, add some "heaviness" to the lineup to help augment the roster in terms of "size, strength on the puck and puck battles."
Not surprising, considering that during their last run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2013, they sported players like Shawn Thornton, Jaromir Jagr, Nathan Horton and Johnny Boychuk - a group of guys known as much for their size, power and ability to get and keep possession of the puck as for their overall hockey skill.
Currently, the team only has four forwards who weigh more than 200 lbs.: Milan Lucic (235), Carl Soderberg (216), Matt Fraser (204), and Daniel Paille (200), according to NBCSports' ProHockeyTalk.com.
Haggerty for his part, suggested yesterday that Columbus Blue Jackets forward Nick Foligno could be of interest. He's a bigger guy - clocking in at a less-than-svelte 210 pounds - who fights to the front of the net and could be hitting his career peak at 27 years old.
He's scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. He has 10 goals and 11 assists in 20 games this season according to Hockey-Reference.com.
The Blues appear to be falling quickly out of the playoff hunt and may be willing to part with Foligno and/or other assets aimed at improving their group for the future.
If he becomes available, the Bruins have a plethora of young defensemen they could potentially swap in exchange for his services.
