Bruins Trade Hall, Foligno to Hawks; Acquire Regula and Mitchell

You knew there was going to be some cap clearing trades involving the Boston Bruins and today the team has announced that they’ve traded Taylor Hall and pending unrestricted free agent Nick Foligno to the Chicago Blackhawks. In return, the Bruins receive the signing rights to Alec Regula and Ian Mitchell, both restricted free agents.

By moving Hall, the Bruins cleared $6 million in cap space and the general consensus is that the Bruins will put their best foot forward in an attempt to re-sign Tyler Bertuzzi. There have already been discussions between the two sides and the whispers say that term is more of an issue than the dollars at this point.

In Regula, the Bruins are getting a 22-year- old, right shot defenceman coming off his entry level contract. He was selected in the third round – 67^th overall – at the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. He was traded a year later to the Hawks for Brendan Perlini. It’s no surprise the Hawks had interest in Regula as their head Canadian Scout – Jim McKellar – was once GM on Regula’s Junior team, the London Knights.

At 6’4” and 208 pounds, the Bruins continue to move up in size with this acquisition, something they are trying to make a conscious effort in doing. He moves extremely well for his size and is very good defensively. He showed some offensive upside in juniors, but with only 22 games of NHL experience, it’s hard to say how that translates. But he’s done very well in the AHL to date. This was my pre-draft report from the OHL.

In Mitchell, they get another right shot defenceman albeit smaller at 5’11” ad 175 pounds. He has a history with head coach Jim Montgomery at the University of Denver. He brings with him 84 games of NHL experience and has 4 goals and 12 assists in those games.

Mitchell has some excellent wheels with very good 4-way mobility. He moves the puck very well with his feet but can also make a very good first pass and can elude pressure with both. He’s quarterbacked the powerplay at various levels, but the lack of power behind his shot may make it non existent at the NHL level.

One of these two acquisitions will likely fill the void left by Connor Clifton who is expected to sign elsewhere when free agency begins.

The move leaves the Bruins with just over $10 million in cap space. It’s a good start, but there is probably more on the horizon.

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