The Flyers Eastern Conference rivals are loading up today and they’re doing it on the blue line. As we reported earlier, the Boston Bruins traded from defenseman Tomas Kaberle from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Now, the Tampa Bay Lightning have acquired defenseman Eric Brewer from the St. Louis Blues.
Tampa sent prospect Brock Beukeboom, who is the son of former NHLer Jeff, and a 3rd round pick. Brewer has been the Blues captain for the past 4 seasons and will provide some much needed defensive depth for Tampa.
Clearly both the Bruins and Lightning, who sit at #2 and #3 behind the Flyers in the Eastern conference, see defense as the way to compete with Philly. All three teams are in the top 4 in the conference in scoring, while both Boston and the Flyers are at the top in fewest goals against. The Lightning on the other hand, had give up the 4th most goals in the conference, so adding Brewer to that team could have an even bigger impact that Boston adding Kaberle to an already defensively solid team.