If (or should that be when) the Boston Bruins eventually re-sign restricted free-agent defensemen, Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy, they’ll have a group of nine blue-liners on their roster. It’s ten if you include Alex Petrovic’s professional try-out contract.
Now, granted that two of those guys, John Moore and Kevan Miller will be starting the year on injured reserve but that’s still seven guys fighting for six spots, not to mention that there’s at least a couple of Providence Bruins blue-liners ready to make the step up.
The obvious way out of this is to trade someone, but realistically you’re not trading away McAvoy or Carlo, nor Zdeno Chara or Torey Krug, even if they only have the one year on their deals.