For Bruins, nine’s a crowd at defense

ANTIOCH, Tenn. — The trade talks might have cooled — by design, according to general manager Peter Chiarelli — but that doesn’t mean they’re over.

The Bruins have nine NHL-caliber defensemen, and they’re going to need to shed themselves of at least one of those players.

On Sunday, Chiarelli said he will use training camp to watch his defensemen, to see how they pair together, to see who might fit best, before deciding who to ship out of town. (Part of it, too, is that Torey Krug remains unsigned.)

“I think they understand that we always want to ice a Cup-winning team, and with that comes some casualties,” Chiarelli said at the Ford Ice Center. “This year, I’m looking forward to it, to a certain degree; there’s a lot of competition, there’s a lot of spots, including — you don’t wish one of these D men to be traded, but we just have too many D men.”

So Chiarelli said at least one is going to go.

“At some point I’m going to have to do it, and all the teams in the league, most of the teams in the league would like one of these defensemen,” he said. “And I know everyone’s waiting, ‘What move will [he] make? What move will [he] make?’

“Well, I have to see what’s going to happen, see who fits well with whom, but the uncertainty is something this year that is a byproduct of the cap and a successful team and locking up those guys, and eventually there’s other guys that are just going to get too expensive. I don’t cast any aspersions on them for being at that level, but that’s what it’s at.”

It’s the reason that Chiarelli isn’t going to be able to bring back all of his players, too. While he was able to sign center David Krejci to an extension, that won’t be the case for everyone, despite all the talk about keeping the core together.

The Bruins simply don’t have the money.

“We’re at a point where we have to make tough decisions, so we don’t have that luxury to just sign everybody,” Chiarelli said. “There’s a balance that I have to reach — the balance of locking up core guys, still having the ability to have a competition and players having to earn their money.

“I can’t sign everybody and I’d love to sign everybody, but we can’t for the numbers that they want. When I said we’d like to lock up guys, we still would and we can with our cap. We make a decision on Krech and that’s a big number. Some things you have to let play out, and we have to be a little versatile ourselves when it comes to team-building and we’re forced to do that this year.”

The Bruins have three open forward spots — assuming that Smith is eventually signed — and many candidates to fill the positions. Without him there, that means those candidates will get additional reps and additional reps higher up in the lineup, including David Pastrnak — who could possibly start camp as Krejci’s right wing.

“Listen, if he’s going to make our team, he’s going to have to play higher up in the lineup,” Chiarelli said. “He’s a skill guy with speed and he needs to play with skill players. He’s not going to start down in the lineup in preseason, in camp.

“Who knows, he might start with Krejci, I don’t know.”

Pastrnak didn’t have quite as good a game on Sunday as he had on Saturday, making the error that cost the Bruins the game in overtime (3-2). Pastrnak played the puck rather than the player, and it led to a Lightning score. But he took responsibility after the game, saying, “I was trying to stickhandle him and take the puck. He made a good job and it was my fault. I am sorry for the guys.”