The offseason is in full flight with the draft and free agency fast approaching. We continue our series which examines what each team needs to accomplish over the coming weeks and months. Next up is a look at Boston.
The Bruins underwent a few notable changes over the last year but the end result was the same as they were eliminated in the second round, this time by the eventual Cup winner in Tampa Bay. GM Don Sweeney has more salary cap flexibility this summer than he’s accustomed to although he also has some other holes to fill this time around as well. Here is an overview of what they should be looking to accomplish.
Goaltending Decisions
Tuukka Rask has been a fixture in Boston’s goaltending tandem for the past dozen years. However, he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer and hip surgery will cost him the first half of next season. He has made it clear that he wants to return to the Bruins and that he’s not looking to go elsewhere but is the feeling mutual? More specifically, can they afford to wait for him?
With Jaroslav Halak also set to become an unrestricted free agent, Jeremy Swayman currently stands as the only goalie in the mix for one of the two spots. Swayman was quite impressive in his first taste of NHL action this season – a 1.50 GAA with a .945 SV% in 10 games (all starts) – but can they afford to enter 2021-22 with him as the starter and a placeholder as the backup while waiting for Rask to return? If they believe Swayman is ready for a full-time NHL role, they could certainly go that route and adding Rask midseason or soon after would give them a nice boost for the stretch run.
But if the answer to that is no, that complicates things a little bit. Daniel Vladar is the other goalie in the mix and has impressed in the minors but has just five career NHL games under his belt. He’s eligible for waivers and could be a candidate to be claimed. If they don’t want to run the risk of losing him, the Bruins could be faced with running two rookie goalies out to start the season.
If they opt to bring in a veteran goalie (which could simply be re-signing Halak) and re-sign Rask, that could create a situation where Swayman is the odd one out midseason by default once Rask returns. Unlike Vladar, he’s waiver-exempt so there are no issues there but if he has a strong first half making it difficult to send him down, it could be a three-goalie situation down the stretch for the second year in a row. It can work but it’s typically not an ideal spot for teams to be in.
With Rask’s injury, his specific fate doesn’t necessarily have to be decided at the beginning of free agency. But if they want to go outside the organization for a goalie, whoever they want to work with Swayman will need to sign sooner than later knowing how fast the goalie market typically is in free agency.
Re-Sign Or Replace Hall
The Bruins weren’t able to get a deal done with Taylor Hall last fall but when Buffalo opted to move him at the trade deadline, the veteran was able to leverage his trade protection to force a deal to Boston. At that time, both sides expressed an interest in a longer-term arrangement and reiterated the same following the playoffs.
It’s one thing to have mutual interest in getting something done and another to actually agreeing on a contract. Hall opted for a pillow contract last fall with his one-year, $8MM agreement with the Sabres with the hopes that a rebound season would better position himself for a long-term deal this summer. That didn’t happen; at least, it didn’t happen with Buffalo. His time with them was nothing short of a disaster as he scored just twice in 37 games. But things went much better following his trade as he tallied eight goals in just 16 contests and came up just shy of a point per game average. That’s still not $8MM value but it was a whole lot better. He was a bit quieter in the playoffs, however, with just five points in 11 games.
It’s safe to say he’s looking at a cut in pay but by how much? The free agent market wasn’t particularly kind to wingers last fall and his marketability is probably a little lower now than it was in October. Accordingly, landing something at his prior contract – a $6MM AAV – may even be difficult as his recent production would justify something a little lower than that.
At this point, Boston would appear to be the odds-on favorite to bring back the 29-year-old but if they don’t, Sweeney will need to move quickly to try to replace him. A capable secondary scoring threat has been something they’ve been coveting for a while now and their offense was certainly boosted when Hall came in so bringing in someone else to fill that role if Hall leaves would certainly be helpful.
Add Defensive Upgrades
When Torey Krug (and to a lesser extent, Zdeno Chara) left as unrestricted free agents, there was an expectation that reinforcements were on the way. That didn’t happen. Then the season started and the hope became an early-season addition. That didn’t happen either. It took until the trade deadline for Sweeney to try to make a meaningful pickup and that came in the form of Mike Reilly, a player who had bounced around a bit but really found his footing with Ottawa before continuing that with the Bruins. Even so, Reilly is no more than a second-pairing defender but made a huge impact on Boston’s back end.
Between Reilly’s impact and the injuries they dealt with in the playoffs, that should have sent a strong message to Sweeney about the need to supplement their back end. Cap space certainly won’t be an issue as with the big-ticket deals coming off the books (Rask, Hall, and David Krejci), they have over $26MM at their disposal. Yes, a good chunk of that will be spent on goalies and re-signing or replacing Hall but there is more than ample cap room for the Bruins to try to add an impact defender as well as upgrade their depth.
Find A Second Line Center
Speaking of Krejci’s expiring contract, this creates another void up front that needs to be addressed. The 15-year Bruin has indicated he wants to return to Boston but is undecided on whether or not he’s going to play again in the NHL. If he does come back, this is a pretty easy spot to fill – re-sign Krejci for less than the $7.25MM cap hit he had on his most recent contract and call it a day.
If that doesn’t happen, Sweeney will need to go shopping. Charlie Coyle had a tough year in the third spot and recently underwent a pair of knee surgeries. While he’s expected to be ready for training camp, counting on him to boost the second line when he struggled as much as he did would be risky. Having said that, it’s once again not a great free agent class down the middle (Phillip Danault, Alexander Wennberg, Mikael Granlund, and Paul Stastny are the top options available) so if they can’t land one of those, the addition would need to come from outside the organization. The short supply of free agents means that this market should develop fairly quickly so Sweeney would certainly prefer a firm commitment sooner than later from Krejci in the hopes of filling that spot before it really opens up.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
As a regular Bruins-watcher, I’ve no problem with the analysis.
The observation I’ve got is on the goalie situation. Vladar looked mighty good as well. His stats for those games are distorted by a 8-1 loss where their backline was whipsawed by COVID scratches and injuries – McAvoy AND Carlo AND Grzelcyk AND Moore were out, and one paper posted the tagline of “Washington 8, Providence 1”). Rask came off of the DL right after that. With an eye on the cap situation, I think they can give Jaro a grateful sayonara and go with a Swayman-Vladar tandem until Rask is healthy.
As far as that backline goes, it’s a young bunch, and with Miller’s retirement … I agree with another poster that going after Ryan Suter would be a good fit. If they can get him for $2 million or thereabouts — and this is a guy they could sell on wanting to retire with a Cup ring — that kind of veteran leadership with a young defense corps would look good.
Agree on the swayman/vlader combo being good enough til tuukka is ready. Suter would fit right in lauzons spot after Seattle takes him
If they start the season with Swayman and Vlader then the B’s will not be a contender next season they both look good against the AHL teams and the bottom of the barrel NHL teams (-a few against the caps) next yr the games go back to normal playing every team and if if Sweeney doesn’t add to this D they could be in even more trouble
You do realize that the Bruins were in the toughest div this year by far.
nYR were 5th, and would have been in the playoffs in any other div. Philly was 6th and were close to all other bottom 4’s or better.
And that was with only playing in their own div.
If either of these two teams were in the other divisions they more then likely make the playoffs.
So your saying that both Swayman and Vladar only played Buffalo and New Jersey last year??
Swayman is legit and I believe Vladar is too. The Goaltending future looks bright in Bean-town
Nice try, Case7187. Vladar beat Pittsburgh and the Flyers. Swayman beat Philadelphia, Washington twice, shut out the Islanders and the Rangers, and his only two losses in ten starts were each by a goal.
That is false @Bruin4Ever
The Rangers had 60 points. The only division that would have got them any better in is the North. By 1 point. They would have finished 5th in any other division.
And the toughest division part is debatable too. Buffalo and NJ were 2 of the worst teams imaginable last year. The North was the only division to not have any teams with less than 50 points. Every other one had at least 2. Easy to pad your stats when you play Buffalo, NJ, Ana, LAK, Sjs, Detroit, or CBJ 8 times.
(raises a brow) Huh. Think the Rangers couldn’t have gotten more than 60 points in any other division?
What are you basing this on? Everyone and their brother is very high on Swayman except you.
@NHA how many more games would they have lost not walking over Buffalo and Jersey 8 times each?
To put more into it @Nha Trang, 24 of NYR’s 60 points came against Buffalo and New Jersey. Meaning they weren’t even .500 against the rest of the division.
2 wins vs Pitts
2 wins vs NYI
3 wins vs BOS.
Pretty telling.
(shrugs) As if the other divisions didn’t have patsies as well? Detroit and Columbus? Ottawa and Vancouver? Half of the West?
Ottawa and Vancouver were still better than Buff, Jersey, Detroit, CBJ, LA, ANA, Or SJS.
Agreed about toughest division … but even still, the B’s once again could not get out of their Division in the play offs AND that’s not counting next year’s reunion with Tampa … we need reinforcements. Bringing out the same team as last year WILL NOT bring us the Cup Bergie so deserves!@!
I had a hard time reading this because of how it was written. Please take greater care using English.
As for the Bruins, this is Sweeney’s biggest Summer coming up as the Cup window is closing (and may already be closed but we’ll see). I don’t hate him like most Bruins fans but this is a make or break off season if there ever was one. My one hope is that they walk away from Rask.
I was really excited about our prospects going into free agency as the B;s had $25 million to spend. Granted, almost half of the is going to Hall and Krejci – who we absolutely MUST have back as the 2d line center – leaving Sweeney with $13-14 million to snag a top pair L Defenseman, a mid level R D and one or two guys for the checking line with some sass and grit,,,, And then he goes and gives out almost half of what the B’s have left in Qualifying Offers to Kaase, Ritchie and Senshyn …. That leaves us with about $6-7 million left and we have not filled any for those 3 needs (never mind snagging a serviceable veteran goalie to back up Swayman til Rask gets back in February) …. OMFG!!! Well, at least Don went out and grabbed 3 more Swedes in the draft …
First off they had more then $25m available. Secondly it won’t cost a ton to re-sign Krejci IF, and that’s a big if, he wants to come back. The qualifying offers are a FORMALITY. People have to STOP overreacting. They just want to retain the players rights. They also have the ability to trade someone like DeBrusk which would gain them more cap space. Sweeney is excellent at juggling money, so let him handle it.
Lastly, they had a very good draft, so stop mentioning that as a negative.
Let Rask and Halak walk! Start Swayman and sign a vet as a backup
Exactly what I’m hoping they will do.
I have to admit I’ve never understood the Rask hate. The guy’s going to the Hall of Fame. He has never had a league *average* season, never mind a bad one. He’s marching right up the all-time totals. He’s had over a decade of excellence and consistency that no other active goalie can match, and every other team in the league must envy.
Is this *really* just one of those silly “Until he wins a Cup he’s a bum” bits of nonsense? (Leaving aside that he HAS a Cup ring, but.) If so, well, dang. Price and Varlamov haven’t won a Cup, so they must be bums. Pekka Rinne and Henrik Lundqvist didn’t win Cups, so they must be bums.
Question, what do you think of Roberto Luongo? Because that’s who Rask is, a guy who at times can be brilliant and other times bad. When you look at Rasks AVERAGES it doesn’t tell the whole story of just how inconsistent he really is. As for the Cup talk, don’t you want your highly paid franchise goalie to win you a Cup? Because I certainly hope that’s the standard a player like that is held to.
What do I think of Luongo? He’s a guy going to the Hall of Fame. But he and Rask aren’t at all comparable. Luongo had a *number* of years where he was league average or worse: 2010, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2019. He *never* had a dominant playoff other than in 2007 — the closest he came was 2011, and he just plain dissolved in the Finals. Never won a Vezina, never had a Cup ring, never was a First Team All-Star, never led the league in any significant statistical category.
Rask has done all those things. Has the Cup ring, has a Vezina, was First Team All-Star, led the league in goals against AND shutouts AND save percentage multiple times, has had several dominant playoffs.
Yes, absolutely: I want my team to win Cups. But I refuse to fall into the idiotic rabbit hole of declaring that the franchise goalie isn’t any good if he hasn’t led his team to one. No one would dare call the likes of Price, Rinne or Lundqvist to be inadequate goalies because they didn’t play on Cup winners. That is no more the “standard a player is held to” than it is for any other great hockey player who doesn’t happen to play on a Cup winning team. Which, in fact, doesn’t apply to Rask.
They are the SAME player (Regular season).
Players going into the Hall aren’t judged on a couple of Post Season appearances but they do weigh Cup wins.
No one ever said Rask wasn’t good, least of all me, so stop with that crap.
The ONLY reason Rask has a ring is he was the BACKUP (Whooppeee) on a Cup team, he literally had NOTHING to do with it, so you can stop with that crap too.
It’s great that Rask or any goalie makes it to the Hall but as I said it should be about winning CUPS. And I could give 2 poops about Price, let the Canadians love or hate him.
It seems to me that the Boohoo Tuukka crew climbs all over themselves to defend him like he was your little brother or something. I never said he sucked, never said he wasn’t Hall worthy…I just said he is Luongo, which means yet another Goalie who was good, maybe very good at times but couldn’t win a Cup for his team.
If you have a problem with that then you are way too sensitive to be a commenter in a hockey post because your butt hurt over the TRUTH.
link to fansided.com
That you Felger?
HA! I think I just opened myself a little …. It’s not Felger you dope, it’s the Big O!!!