5 players to watch when Bruins play final pre-deadline tilt vs. Hurricanes

If the Bruins begin and end trade deadline season with just one move — the Tuesday afternoon trade to send an injured Trent Frederic to Edmonton — was it really a deadline sell-off by Bruins general manager Don Sweeney? In theory, sure. But in the grand scheme of things, and with a CVS receipt-long list to-do between now and next season to get the Bruins closer to true contender status, it would not.

Which is what makes Thursday's pre-deadline last stand against the Hurricanes down in Raleigh a downright fascinating one for interim head coach Joe Sacco and the Black and Gold.

While it's ultimately anybody's guess as to what may or may not happen between Friday's 3 p.m. deadline, one can't help but feel like the Bruins have at least one or two more moves in them. And some may even involve players that we'll see in tonight's contest with Carolina.

Here's a look at five players to keep a close eye on in tonight's contest...

Bruins forward Morgan Geekie is not as worried about the trade deadline as you'd think. Part of that may be his own control what you control kind of mindset and mentality, but it's also entirely possible that Geekie, who is a pending restricted free agent and not unrestricted (perhaps a key factor for the Bruins). knows that he's not going anywhere between now and Friday's deadline.

Officially a 20-goal scorer thanks to a goal in the third period of Tuesday's loss to the Predators, Geekie enters this contest as Boston's third-highest goal scorer on the season behind Brad Marchand (21) and David Pastrnak (32), and has scored a goal in eight of his last 16 outings.

Geekie could feel some definite added motivation going against the franchise that drafted him with a third-round pick in 2017, too, especially considering that he comes into this contest with just one assist in five career head-to-heads with Carolina. The Hurricanes are one of just nine teams that Geekie has yet to score against in his NHL career (his two other teams, the Bruins and Kraken, are also on that list).

Another player facing a potentially uncertain future between now and Friday: Bruins second-line forward Charlie Coyle. A natural center but currently playing right wing (which he's done for the majority of the season), the 33-year-old Coyle comes into Thursday's contest with 15 goals and 22 points through 63 games this season. He's also in the second to last year of a contract that comes with a $5.25 million cap hit. If you're a contending team looking for some middle-six help, Coyle could be a strong option on a market short on 'em, and as more than just a quick, short-term fix for your postseason run.

As we've seen in Boston, Coyle has played his best hockey when slotted into a third-line role where he can feast on matchups or thrive as a puck-possession center that wears down the opposition. Coyle's also evolved as a leader, and is a player who is more than willing to embrace that role and take accountability when things aren't going the way they would prefer. I think that's been especially true this season, with Coyle often being the first one at his stall postgame after a horrendous loss.

Coyle is a player that I don't think the Bruins would love to move per se, but they may also understand that last year's 25-goal and 60-point campaign was as good as it's going to get for Coyle in Boston. And that a moving him into a change of scenery that slots him back into the 'comfort' of a matchup devouring third liner may benefit the Bruins more from an asset management standpoint than anything he can give them on the ice for the remainder of this season and next season.

As for his current play, Coyle does enter this contest with goals in two of his last three outings, and with three goals in his last 10 outings after scoring just two goals in 14 games in January.

By now, I feel like you've probably caught on to the theme here.

There's been some rumblings that the Bruins could move Brandon Carlo, and though they've been walked back within the last 24 hours, it's still a possibility between now and Friday.

Now, for what it's worth, I've always gotten the sense that the Bruins' preference would be to move Carlo (and this is assuming they're overly interested in moving him at all) in a hockey trade vs. a deadline dump for picks. I think that comes back to the Bruins' own valuing of Carlo, as well as the fact that the club doesn't have a lot of desirable role players to dangle out there in an attempt at a big time 'hockey trade' to bring a higher-ceiling talent into Boston, often defined by trying to trade two shiny dimes for a quarter.

But, again, could someone get desperate and bowl the Bruins over between now and tomorrow's deadline? Sure. I just wonder how great their appetite is to truly trade him when he's still under contract at a reasonable $4.1 million, their blue line is currently battered beyond belief, and with the cap explosion set to make pretty much all of his peers become overpaid compared to his own cap hit.

There's tons of players who downright terrify me when they have the puck and they're skating towards the Bruins end. Some of them go without saying... Sam Reinhart and Aleksander Barkov, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, Bryaden Point. Hell, even 2025 Steven Stamkos still finds ways to haunt the Bruins. You get the point. But one guy whose terror-inducing strides may fly under the radar compared to the rest is the Hurricanes' Sebastian Aho. This guy is a menace.

And Aho has certainly been feeling it of late, with a team-leading eight points and 10 points in his last 12 outings, including goals in three of his last four appearances.

Aho, who had just an assist when these teams met up back on Halloween (an 8-2 loss for the Bruins, in case you somehow forgot or were busy drowning your woes in bite-sized candies), comes into this contest with two goals and six points in seven career games against Boston.

When the Hurricanes took that Jan. 25 home run swing for then-Avalanche superstar Mikko Rantanen, the thought was that he would immediately become Carolina's go-to winger.

But it's been Seth Jarvis who has continued to thrive, even with Rantanen in town, with five goals and eight points in 13 games for Carolina since the Hurricanes finalized that trade. (Rantanen, for what it's worth, has just two goals and six points in 12 games for the Hurricanes over that same stretch.)

And though the 5-foot-10 Jarvis has cooled off since returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off — he has just one goal and zero assists in six games since coming back — he does have some excellent numbers to date against Boston, with two goals and six points in seven career showdowns.