NHL Trade Grades: Bruins Send Trent Frederic to Edmonton in Three-Way Deal

The Boston Bruins are mathematically still in the playoff race. As the Trent Frederic trade indicates, the existential vibe doesn’t match those numbers.

The Bruins aren’t blowing up the whole project but this is the first of multiple expected moves that will remove a long-standing “win-now” branding attached to the Bruins.

Meanwhile, the Oilers add a player with a distinct playing style. Is he a fit for their needs and was the heavy price worth it? 

A third team is also involved, with the New Jersey Devils eating some of Frederic’s cap hit in return for a prospect.

Keep reading for trade analysis and grades for all three teams.

Edmonton Oilers

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Trent Frederic is your prototypical meat-and-potatoes third-line forward. The 6’3” 221-pounder is heavy on the forecheck, emphasizing lots of contact to wear down defensemen. He bullies his way to the net and connects on his share of deflection and a lot of rebounds. Those tendencies are good enough to push him to 17 or 18 goals the last two seasons, though he’s undershooting that in 24-25.

He won’t look sleek with the puck and is better at making an impact without it. 

He’s also typically a reliable defensive player and will pay the physical price to block a lot of shots. When it comes to the post-whistle circus that occurs from time to time, he’s not a bad presence to have on your side, either. Head Coach Kris Knoblauch will love the flexibility of being able to utilize Frederic as a center or left wing.

Max Jones, currently in the AHL, has previously shown he can be a decent plug on the fourth-line wing. 

The story in Edmonton is the same as it ever was. The high-end talent is papering over problems down the depth chart. Some of the offseason moves they hoped would address this — re-signing Adam Henrique and adding Jeff Skinner, for instance — haven’t panned out

Frederic has a strong sense of identity and it should lend well in Edmonton. He’s going to look around the locker room and know exactly what his job is; eat defensive minutes, play a physical game away from the puck by forechecking and getting to the net, and chip in a goal once every four or five games.

In a vacuum, the Oilers probably paid too much here. A second and fourth-round pick plus one of their better prospects is a disproportionate expenditure for a third-line forward rental.

The Oilers don’t control the rental market. That’s up to other teams, and the pickings are slim for what they need. If the Oilers fail this spring, nobody is going to applaud them for their disciplined draft pick retention. This organization doesn’t have the luxury of taking a principled stand like that.

They were two goals away from a Stanley Cup in 2024 and have a good chance at vindication this year. They won’t have those opportunities with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl forever. Sometimes something is objectively overpriced but need and mandate supersede.

Grade: B

Boston Bruins

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It probably wasn’t an easy call for the Bruins to wave the white flag on this season but there wasn’t much of an alternative. The Bruins painstakingly invested assets in playoff runs for more than a decade virtually uninterrupted. That comes at an organizational cost.

The team looked flat all year under two coaches and now key players are injured. Clinging to every hope of a Wild Card spot and likely early playoff exit is not a strategy for the future. Rent has come due and the Bruins are wise to take a breath as an organization and try to reset for next season.

The path of least resistance, therefore, is trading non-essential players, particularly those like Frederic, who are unrestricted free agents in the summer. The second-round pick belongs to the St. Louis Blues, meaning will end up towards the middle of the round. That, plus a fourth-round pick, is the type of return usually reserved for an impact top-six forward. It’s tough to see how Bruins fans could have expected any better from this move.

Grade: A

New Jersey Devils

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The Devils had three retention spots open and, as presumed deadline buyers, they will probably be asking teams to retain rather than doing so themselves going forward. To eat just $575K cap space for the rest of this season, they get a solid prospect.

Shane Lachance, 21, is a sophomore and captain at Boston University. The 6’5” left winger has 25 points in 32 games for BU, though it should be mentioned that he’s capitalized on a lot of power play time that he won’t get at the pro level. Per SportContract, Lachance ranks third among all BU forwards in average time on ice (17:27). The former sixth-round pick is a late bloomer who plays a hard-nosed game and, at least at the college level, complements skill guys as a power forward. 

Lachance is a project but he has the tools to become a character, bottom-six winger in the NHL. Even with that limited upside, he’s worth taking a chance on for the cost of unneeded cap space and a few dollars out of the owner’s bank account.

Grade: B