Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney has a clear summer assignment, and it landed on trade boards this week: find a right-shot defenseman who can actually move the needle.

The scouting combine opened Sunday, and the chatter coming out of Buffalo lines up with what Boston has needed for two seasons. A real righty on the back end.

Look at the depth chart. Charlie McAvoy is the only true top-pair right-shot in the system. The Bruins finished 45-27-10 with a +22 goal differential. Pretend that's good enough on the blue line and you're lying to yourself.

Henri Jokiharju logged just 41 games at $3 million. Andrew Peeke filled minutes. Neither shifts the ceiling of a group that gave up 250 goals.

Boston ranked 8th overall in the league at 100 points. Then Buffalo bounced them in six in the first round. The cap math now sits on Sweeney's desk with very little wiggle room.

Why does this matter today? Because the right-handed defenseman market is the tightest premium in hockey, and RFA targets get pried loose only in June.

The cap squeeze pushing Boston toward an offer sheet swing

The deeper read here: an RFA pursuit gives Sweeney a path that doesn't require gutting the forward group. Pavel Zacha at $4.75 million and Casey Mittelstadt at $5.75 million stay put.

Mason Lohrei is a 25-year-old lefty with a +17 rating and 26 points. He's the keeper. Pair him with a real right-shot and the second pair stops being a question.

This is where the bad-fit talk starts. Slotting a seventh defenseman into a top-six job is the hockey version of promoting a guy who's been answering emails into running the meeting. The minutes don't lie.

Hampus Lindholm at $6.5 million and Nikita Zadorov at $5 million eat the left side. McAvoy at $9.5 million eats the right. Below that, a vacuum.

Marco Sturm coached his first NHL season behind a group that went 29-11-1 at TD Garden and 16-16-9 on the road. The away record is the alarm bell. You don't fix that with a forward.

The Stanley Cup Final starts tonight, which means the offseason clock just got loud. Trade talks bleed into the draft, the draft bleeds into July 1, and the right-shot pool shrinks every week.

Sweeney has done quiet work before. The question now is whether he's willing to lead with a check the rest of the league wasn't expecting.