The Boston Bruins finished with 100 points this season and still got bounced in the first round by Buffalo. GM Don Sweeney has a real problem on the blue line.

The final score in Game 6 was 4-1. The series ended in six games. That kind of exit, after a 45-27-10 regular season, doesn't leave much room for spin.

Charlie McAvoy posted 61 points during the year. In the playoffs, he had zero goals and 2 assists across six games, going minus-6. That's not a McAvoy problem. That's a depth problem.

The right side of the Boston blue line has no second option. Sweeney has known this for a while. This offseason, he can't put it off any longer.

The name that makes the most sense is Adam Fox. The Rangers finished 34-39-9, ranked 29th in the league, and look headed toward a full teardown. Fox put up 53 points in 55 games this season at a $9.5 million cap hit.

That's the same cap number as McAvoy. Pairing them together on Boston's right side would give Marco Sturm one of the most dangerous defensive duos in the Eastern Conference.

Fox to Boston would reshape the entire Bruins power play

Right now, McAvoy quarterbacks the first unit. Fox would absorb that role, and McAvoy could operate from the flank. That's two elite puck-movers on one power play, which is not something most teams can say.

The asking price will be steep. Mason Lohrei had 26 points in 73 games on a $3.2 million deal. He's the kind of piece New York needs to rebuild around, and he's almost certainly part of any Fox package.

Add a first-round pick and probably more. The Rangers know what they have. Fox is 28, healthy, and under contract. They're not giving him away.

But the Bruins also have a Vancouver option worth a phone call. Filip Hronek posted 49 points in 82 games for a Canucks team that went 25-49-8 and finished dead last in the league. He's locked in at $7.25 million through the end of this contract.

Here's the issue with Hronek. His plus/minus was minus-23. That's not entirely on him, given how bad Vancouver was. But it's a number that should land differently when you're evaluating him as a top-four option in Boston.

Then there's Thomas Harley in Dallas. The Stars went 50-20-12 and ranked third in the league. They have their own cap crunch to manage. Harley posted 36 points at 24 years old, but he's a left-shot, and a left-shot defenseman doesn't actually solve the right-side problem.

Of the three names, Fox is the only one who fixes the real issue. The other two are upgrades, sure, but asking Harley to move to his off-side or leaning on Hronek after a minus-23 season in a rebuilding market isn't the same thing.

Sweeney knows the window. Pastrnak put up 100 points this regular season. Swayman is locked in. McAvoy is a franchise defenseman who just went scoreless in the first round. This team is good enough to make a run, and it has been stopped at the first door two years in a row.

The question isn't whether the blue line needs help. It's whether Sweeney is willing to pay the price to actually fix it.