WILMINGTON, Mass. — Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli, who’s scheduled to meet with concussed center Marc Savard and the player’s agent this weekend, sounds like a man that expects he won’t have Savard for the long haul and will gain flexibility by placing the player on LTIR.

Today when asked about what he’d like to add to his team between now and the Feb. 28 trade deadline, Chiarelli included a center on his shopping list that has defenseman written on it in permanent ink.

“I’d like to try and get a defenseman that could help our group. I think our defense has played very well. But to try to ease some of the minutes off of our players,” said the GM after his team practiced at Ristuccia Arena. “And, of course, without Marc – again I’m not going to replace him exactly; that player is not available – but you can replace bits and pieces of it and hope that some of that stuff falls into place and some of that stuff falls on the shoulders of the other players.”

As always, the asking prices are high in early February.

“Right now, everything is very, very tight,” said Chiarelli. “You hear that from me every year a month before the deadline and it’s even more true now. The standings are tight. Usually your trading partners are in the West. It’s very, very tight.”