Stock Watch for Top 6 Forwards for the Boston Bruins

The trade talk surrounding the Boston Bruins has all but accelerated from a flurry to a blizzard. Virtually all of it consists of rumored or proposed deals to reel in a top-six forward.

As part of his evaluation of every Eastern Conference team’s needs, Stephen Burtch of sportsnet.ca wrote Tuesday, “The Bruins should be interested in adding a scoring winger like Chris Stewart, Drew Stafford, Joffrey Lupul, Tomas Fleischmann or Brad Boyes.”

Meanwhile, Joe Haggerty of csnne.com penned a lengthy column, detailing what the Bruins would need to offer Edmonton in exchange for Taylor Hall or Jordan Eberle. He later made a guest appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub Thursday morning, bringing up Hall, Stewart and T.J. Oshie as three logical targets.

Those are just two examples of the Bruins buzz that has permeated the media in recent days. The density of reporters and pundits chiming in makes it impossible to believe Boston’s brass is not interested in upgrading its strike force.

In turn, there is no time like the present to assess the team’s incumbent top six. Here is a breakdown of each first- and second-line forward’s stock based on their overall performance so far in 2014-15.

Milan Lucic

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Stock Trending: Downward

Despite a productive past, including a 30-goal campaign in 2010-11, Milan Lucic’s makeup as a first-line winger has always been suspect. Having played nearly two-thirds of this season without his longtime pivot, David Krejci, he has done nothing to dissipate those doubts.

The discrepancy in Lucic’s output when Krejci plays versus when Krejci is out is too stark to overlook. He has tallied three goals and six assists for nine points through Krejci’s first 12 appearances.

Conversely, under alternate arrangements in the other 20 games, the hulking striker has amassed three goals and three helpers for six points.

Being one of the few remaining Bruins players from eighth-year head coach Claude Julien’s debut in 2007-08, the 26-year-old Lucic should be better able to handle challenges like this. This is, of course, unless a sheer shortcoming in his skill set precludes even a brimful pot of resolve.

Either way, the results are the same. Either way, they do not reflect favorably on Lucic’s worth as a first-liner.

David Krejci

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Stock Trending: Even

Due to inconsistent health, there is no other way to label Krejci’s stock at this time. With all of the action he has missed this autumn, his 2014-15 sample size will not suffice for any evaluation.

For what it’s worth, he did manage a seven-game production streak amid his first and longest comeback attempt in October. His overall stat line of 3-7-10 in 12 games played puts him on the same essential production pace he has followed for the last four years.

For the better part of his eight-year career, Krejci has earned the benefit of the doubt that he will perform when healthy. Naturally, though, no one should expect him or his game to be within spitting distance of 100 percent right away.

Seth Griffith

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Stock Trending: Downward

No one has really cemented the role of Boston’s new first-line right wing yet. For a time, the 21-year-old Seth Griffith was filling that void, but he receded to the bottom six until Krejci’s return to game action Wednesday.

Griffith, Krejci and Lucic skated the majority of their shifts together in Boston’s 3-2 overtime win at Minnesota. Before that, though, another raw rookie in Craig Cunningham had been working with Lucic and Chris Kelly.

Save for one week in October, when Griffith tallied five points in four games, this has not had the look of a sustainable arrangement. Remember, this is someone who was a Providence rookie last season and did not make his Boston debut until the fourth game of this season.

Even if Griffith has long-term top-six potential, the Bruins are asking him to take too big a step too soon.

Pundit DJ Bean of weei.com made an excellent point in a Monday blog post, opining that it makes more sense for AHL call-ups to start with modest minutes. In Bean’s words, “Guys like Brad Marchand in 2010-11 had to hone their craft in such roles before graduating to higher lines.”

Sure, the Bruins subsequently reunited Griffith with Krejci and Lucic when the opportunity presented itself. But the aforementioned trade buzz comes as no surprise when one considers the scope of the Griffith saga so far.

Brad Marchand

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Stock Trending: Even

An injury kept Brad Marchand out of action for three games over the second-to-last week of November. Since then, though, he has had little trouble pitching in his share.

The fifth-year NHL veteran twice came tantalizingly close to tuning the twine in his first game back, a 3-2 overtime loss to Pittsburgh. Both of those near misses came amid a 2-2 deadlock in the third period, a sign of sustained clutch aptitude.

Marchand has since produced in seven of Boston’s last nine ventures, totaling three goals and five assists in that span. That amounts to an 8-11-19 log through 29 total appearances, with relative consistency since a slow start for the player and team in the first half of October.

As long as the hunger is there, and as long as his fellow second-line winger is confident and committed, Marchand should keep reaping rewards at his usual rate. A career year is a bit of a stretch, but he should cross the 20-goal and 50-point borderline once more by season’s end.

Patrice Bergeron

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Stock Trending: Even (Almost Upward)

For every time Boston’s two-way connoisseur has been on the ice for multiple goals against, he and his line have blanked the opposition twice.

Patrice Bergeron has had an unenviable task amid the lengthy absences of Krejci, his fellow top-six center, and Zdeno Chara, his fellow defensive pillar. But save for a few shabby outings, particularly both meetings with San Jose and the wretched Toronto-Montreal road trip, he has handled it with grace.

Through the first 32 games, Bergeron has been in action for two or more opposing tallies on seven occasions. But in another 14 games, his unit has successfully stifled the adversary. Highlights in the latter category include bouts with Minnesota (twice), St. Louis, Anaheim and Chicago.

Oh, and he leads the Bruins with 16 assists, 22 points and 88 shots on net. His accuracy, which is at its lowest since 2008-09 with only 6.8 percent of those shots going in, could stand to turn around, though.

On the whole, Bergeron is just continuing to brush his balanced ceiling. Assuming the anomalies stay away, he should stay on pace for an improved shooting percentage and plus-minus rating, which is currently a paltry plus-two.

Reilly Smith

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Stock Trending: Downward

If we were basing this on the first half of December alone, the trend ruling might be a little different. But Reilly Smith needs to prove that he can shake the habitual cold spells that have littered his game log.

His (3-3-6) transcript over the past six games has kicked ice chips over a preceding 10-game pointless hex. Perhaps his momentary demotion during David Pastrnak’s call-up in late November will prove to be the motivational spark he needed.

But will those ice chips crystallize or melt in the second half of his second full-length NHL season?

Smith is the reigning recipient of the Bruins’ Seventh Player Award, having unexpectedly supplanted a struggling and ailing Loui Eriksson on Bergeron’s wing in 2013-14. But winning a trophy for exceeding one’s expectations can only come with elevated expectations for the years that follow.

Translation: Smith’s slew of slumps last season were more understandable than those he has brought on this year. In addition to the 10 straight games with no points, he had a separate nine-game goal-less skid from Oct. 16 to Nov. 4.

More consistency, particularly on the finishing front, is in order. It is as simple as that.

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics for this report were found via nhl.com.