In case you missed, the Bruins opened as the co-favorites with the Colorado Avalanche to win the Stanley Cup in the 2023-24 NHL season, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
That’s peachy. Now if DraftKings Sportsbook could just tell fans who is actually going to be, you know, playing for the Bruins.
The B’s currently have a grand total of seven NHL forwards and one big league goalie under contract, and less than $5 million in cap space to fill out the roster.
Changes are coming, and some of them could be franchise-altering, for better or worse. But after B’s fans endured a brutally long playoff run with their main rooting interest watching from the sidelines, we are nearing the point in the hockey calendar when something of team-building substance has to happen.
The buyout window began on Friday and runs through June 30. Mike Reilly, who has one more year left on a deal worth a $3 million AAV (the real salary is $4 million), remains a candidate for a buyout after spending most of last season down in Providence as a cap casualty. The B’s would certainly prefer to move him in a trade but, despite the fact that he’s a serviceable NHL defenseman, there have been no takers so far.
The B’s, of course, will need to offload some salary to fill out their roster, and a Reilly buyout would be just the start of what they would need to do. And to fulfill the current mandate of remaining legitimately competitive, GM Don Sweeney is going to have to be creative.
Here’s an idea. Actually, it’s a variation of something we floated here a couple of weeks ago.
We proposed that the B’s send RFA Jeremy Swayman to Seattle for centerman Shane Wright, the No. 4 overall pick in last year’s draft. Not enough for the Kraken? How about adding Taylor Hall to the mix?
On the surface, the B’s would be the obvious loser in that swap, but it would send Hall’s $6 million cap hit for this year and next to Seattle, opening up space to take a legitimate run at signing Tyler Bertuzzi long-term as a replacement for Hall.
It could be a win-win trade. After knocking off the reigning champion Colorado Avalanche in the first round, the Kraken should be championship-driven in their offseason thinking. Obtaining Hall and Swayman would be the type of deal that addresses both the urgency that the Kraken should feel right now but also their long-term needs in net. Philipp Grubauer has four more years left at $5.9 million per season, but he was barely average last year, posting an .895 save percentage. His backup, Martin Jones, is a UFA. It could be a very good 1A-1B situation for the Kraken if they got Swayman.
For the B’s, it would make the best out of bad cap situation. They would get a player who could very well be the No. 1 center for whom they’ve been searching for years — not to mention his entry-level cap hit for a couple more years — and lock down a veteran impact player in Bertuzzi.
In a perfect world, we’d take Hall over Bertuzzi. Both are very good but flawed players. Hall can be inconsistent. Bertuzzi is a little too loose with the puck in his own end. To these eyes, Hall’s speed through the neutral zone and ability to create offense on his own give his game the edge over Bertuzzi.
But this is not a perfect world, and Bertuzzi’s ability at the net front on the power play is elite. He’s developed some chemistry with David Pastrnak.
Parting with Swayman would be difficult for the B’s. He’s a mid-round draft pick hit (a 2017 fourth-rounder), something the B’s have had few of in recent years. He’s a good team player with the chance to be a great goalie for years to come.
Sometimes, however, unexpected forks in the road present themselves. This is one of them.
While some Ranger fans may be bemoaning the fact that their team hired another “retread” as their next coach, the gut feeling here is that Peter Laviolette is the perfect man for the job. The Blueshirts are ready to win and the Franklin native is a guy who knows how to get a team deep in the playoffs. His last stop in Washington didn’t go well because the Capitals had already won their Cup, they were aging and injuries mounted. There was no stopping that slide. But he’s taken three different teams – Carolina, Philadelphia and Nashville – to the Finals, winning it with the Hurricanes in 2006. He’s an excellent coach for a team that’s on the cusp of being a true contender. With Laviolette in place, the Rangers will be a formidable obstacle in the Eastern Conference next season, as long as the players follow his lead.
New Penguins’ president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas hired loyal up-and-comer Jason Spezza to be an assistant general manager and he will report directly to Dubas. That seemed in the cards ever since Spezza immediately quit the Toronto front office after Dubas was canned.
What’s odd is that the Pens now have an assistant GM, but no GM. Dubas said he’ll handle those duties through July before he hires a GM. With Dubas having all the power in the organization, definite ideas on how to build a team and an AGM who has his ear already in place, how enticing will that GM job be? It’s a little different, to say the least. … If you’ve got an hour, check out the Raw Knuckles podcast interview with Jim Montgomery. The B’s coach delves into the playoff failures – though he doesn’t believe he’d do a lot differently — but he also discusses his journey to sobriety with both humor and candor. It helps that his interviewer, Chris Nilan, has walked in his shoes. Some interesting stuff.