Nikita Zadorov Returns From Personal Leave
- Moving to the Atlantic Division, the Boston Bruins welcomed back defenseman Nikita Zadorov today, who had missed the team’s last game due to a personal leave (Twitter Link). Hopefully, for the Bruins’ sake, Zadorov’s return to the lineup against the Detroit Red Wings tomorrow night will give Boston a much-needed jolt. The team has performed dreadfully since the trade deadline in early March, managing a 2-7-1 record in their last 10 games while being outscored by a 19-goal margin.
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Bruins Discussing Extension With Michael DiPietro
Once viewed as a potential goalie of the future with Vancouver, Michael DiPietro’s career hasn’t panned out quite as planned. However, he has turned into a solid goalie in the minors in Boston’s system and the Bruins would like to keep him around as Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek reports that the two sides are discussing a possible contract extension.
The 25-year-old will qualify for unrestricted free agency for the first time this summer, though not as a typical UFA. Instead, his lack of NHL experience to this point in time will make him a Group Six UFA, one that allows him to reach the open market a little earlier than more established players.
DiPietro has just three appearances at the top level under his belt, those coming with the Canucks where he got into one game in 2018-19, one the following year, and the last in 2021-22. The following season saw him play just once in the AHL with the bulk of his playing time coming with ECHL Maine.
However, things have gotten much better for DiPietro over the last couple of years. After putting up a 2.51 GAA and a .908 SV% in 30 games with AHL Providence last season, he has bettered those numbers this year, checking in at 2.03 and .928, respectively, in 38 outings. At a time where some third-string goalies have received one-way deals and others pricey two-way agreements with a strong guarantee, DiPietro is well-positioned to land a raise on his current $225K guarantee on his next deal.
At the moment, both of Boston’s AHL netminders are set to hit the open market this summer as Brandon Bussi is a pending unrestricted free agent as well. The 26-year-old has played fewer games than DiPietro this season and after not getting a look with the Bruins in parts of four professional seasons with them, he might look to catch on elsewhere to see if his fortunes change in another organization. That would seemingly position DiPietro to be the unquestioned number three option for Boston next season if they can come to terms on a new deal in the coming weeks and months.
Zadorov Away From Bruins For Family Reasons
The Bruins won’t have defenseman Nikita Zadorov available to them tonight as they continue their road trip in Anaheim. Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald relays that the blueliner has returned home to tend to a family matter. No timeline for a possible return was given as interim head coach Joe Sacco would only confirm that Zadorov would miss this game. The 29-year-old is in his first season in Boston after signing a six-year, $30MM deal last summer, one that has had some ups and downs. Zadorov has 17 points along with 183 hits and a league-leading 135 penalty minutes in 72 outings this season while logging a career-high 20:33 per game. Zadorov joins Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm as out for this one, meaning Boston’s three highest-paid defenders won’t be in their lineup.
Boston Bruins May Move On From Joe Sacco This Summer
The Boston Bruins may be in the market for another head coach this summer. In a wide-ranging article about the team’s season, Kevin Paul Dupont of The Boston Globe claims the Bruins will likely move on from Joe Sacco this offseason although they’ll want to keep him in a different role on the staff.
In his first head coaching role since his time with the Colorado Avalanche in the early 2010s, Saccos’ Bruins have managed a 22-22-6 record in 50 games. Boston shipped away significant pieces at the trade deadline and appeared poised for their first top 10 draft selection since picking Dougie Hamilton with the ninth overall pick in the 2011 NHL Draft.
- Moving back to eastern Massachusetts, Jim McBride of The Boston Globe reported that Bruins’ forward Mark Kastelic has returned to Boston due to an upper-body injury and will miss the rest of the team’s road trip. Given that their current road trip extends past next week, the news likely ends Kastelic’s availability for the rest of March. The bottom-six forward is enjoying the highest-scoring season of his career with five goals and 14 points in 61 games, leading to a three-year, $4.7MM extension with Boston in January.
Bruins’ Ty Gallagher Signs Two-Year AHL Deal
The Bruins are slated to lose 2021 seventh-round pick Ty Gallagher‘s signing rights on Aug. 15, but he’ll be staying in the organization anyways. He’s inked a two-year deal with AHL Providence starting next season, the Boston Herald’s Steve Conroy reports. He’ll finish the year with the P-Bruins on a tryout before his deal goes into effect for 2025-26.
The deal allows Gallagher to get reps in the Bruins organization without Boston having to use a contract slot on him, although it doesn’t prevent him from signing elsewhere if another NHL team comes calling. The 22-year-old defenseman spent three seasons at Boston University before transferring to Colorado College for his senior season. The move westward proved astute for the offensively-inclined rearguard, who erupted for 9-17–26 in 37 games after recording just five assists at BU last year.
A Michigan native, Gallagher checked in as the No. 10 prospect in the Bruins’ relatively weak pool earlier this season in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s overview. Only two defensemen, both already in Providence, were ranked ahead of him in Frédéric Brunet (No. 7) and Jackson Edward (No. 8), so it’s a tad surprising to see Boston hesitant to dole out an entry-level contract at this stage to retain his NHL rights. The Bruins only have 22 of 50 contract slots used for next season, with 13 pending RFAs in the organization.
Gallagher will now try to work his way up the organizational ladder to pursue his first NHL contract. He totaled 17-51–68 and a +37 rating in 148 NCAA games with BU and CC.
Bruins Recall Fabian Lysell, Michael Callahan
The Bruins announced they’ve recalled 2021 first-round pick Fabian Lysell from AHL Providence. Depth defenseman Michael Callahan is joining him on the track up to Boston, both under emergency conditions, Conor Ryan of the Boston Globe reports.
The Bruins weren’t carrying any extra skaters on their roster, so they wouldn’t have had available players to enter the lineup for Thursday’s game against the Golden Knights if injuries struck. It’s clear Boston anticipates there being a couple of questionable players, but it’s unclear who those are. No player departed yesterday’s overtime loss to the Sabres early.
Amid a disappointing season in the minors, Lysell remains the best winger prospect in one of the league’s worst pools, as opined by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic. He’s likely dropped to the No. 3 talent in Boston’s system overall, with Matthew Poitras still splitting time between the NHL and AHL and 2022 second-rounder Fraser Minten posting four points in three games for Providence since they acquired him from the Maple Leafs in the Brandon Carlo deadline trade, though.
Now 22, the 5’11” Lysell has taken a considerable step back in his third season with Providence. His 11-23–34 scoring line through 51 games is a lower rate of production than his rookie AHL season in 2022-23 and a sharp decline from last year’s 50-point breakout in 56 games. It’s not for a lack of offensive support, either. Providence has had multiple forwards show up and show out this year, namely Vinni Lettieri (48 points in 46 GP), Georgii Merkulov (48 points in 52 GP), and Patrick Brown (44 points in 52 GP). That makes Lysell’s regression all the more disappointing.
Nonetheless, he’ll now get another look on the NHL roster after recording a plus-one rating in his debut against the Blue Jackets on Dec. 28. How long his stint in Boston lasts remains to be seen – if his presence isn’t necessary for the B’s to have 12 healthy forwards against Vegas this week, they’ll need to either send him back to Providence or convert his emergency recall into a standard one and burn one of their four post-deadline recalls.
Callahan, 25, returns to the roster after spending most of January and February up with the big club. The 6’2″ lefty had a minus-two rating with four shots and four hits during 11 games over those recalls, the first of his NHL career. He averaged 13:08 per game as he remains in search of his first NHL point.
A standout defensive presence with the P-Bruins, the Massachusetts native has 1-7–8 in 43 appearances in what’s now his fourth season in Providence. He’s set to become a Group VI unrestricted free agent this summer.
Jokiharju Open To Talking Extension With Bruins
- Things have gone relatively well for new Bruins defenseman Henri Jokiharju. After playing time was quite hard to come by in Buffalo, the 25-year-old is logging over 20 minutes a night through his first four outings with Boston. Accordingly, he told reporters including Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald that he’s open to starting discussions on a contract extension already. Jokiharju has a $3.1MM cap charge this season and will be slated to reach unrestricted free agency for the first time in July. But with just seven points in 46 games this season and his limited role before the trade, it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to command a similar price tag this summer.
Update On Brad Marchand’s Injury, Extension Negotiatons
Much of the buzz around TD Garden this morning came from Brad Marchand‘s return to the ice in another team’s jersey. The Boston Bruins recently traded their former captain to the Florida Panthers just before the trade deadline for a conditional 2027 second-round pick.
Seeing Marchand practice in Panthers’ garb firmly cemented the reality of the trade in the minds of Bruins’ fans. However, as much as Marchand’s first game with Florida may have a similar emotional impact, it’s still far off.
The Panthers’ head coach, Paul Maurice, spoke to reporters after practice today, illustrating the team’s hope that Marchand will return to the ice before the end of the regular season (Tweet Link). Marchand’s recovery timeline from his upper-body injury is still considered week-to-week.
The upper-body injury prohibited Marchand from participating in Boston’s final three games before the deadline, effectively ending his 16-year career with the team on March 1st. Primarily because the injury limited Marchand to only three shifts in his final game with the Bruins, his last point with the team came on February 25th against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Conor Ryan of The Boston Globe asked if that would be his final game as a Bruin by questioning if that chapter of his career had fully closed during Marchand’s media availability. Ryan dictated Marchand, saying, “I don’t know, I guess is how I would respond to that. I don’t know what the future brings. I know it didn’t come together now. Can things change down the road? Potentially. But I don’t know where that goes.”
Extension negotiations between Boston and Marchand had been a talking point for much of the regular season. A report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in late October suggested that Marchand was close to signing a three-year extension with the Bruins, only to have the report refuted by Marchand himself. Similarly, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan shared one day after the trade that the Bruins had offered Marchand a three-year extension after offering him a two-year deal for much of the year, only to have Marchand disagree about the salary.
While the negotiations were taking place, Marchand and Bruins’ general manager, Don Sweeney, were fairly open with the media about their desires to agree on a contract extension. Although that may have been true for much of the season, the failed negotiations, the trade, and Marchand’s comments today don’t suggest he’ll return to the team a few months after they traded him.
Bruins To Keep Matthew Poitras In AHL
- While the Bruins’ reassignment of Matthew Poitras on Friday was expected to be a short-term one to make him eligible for the AHL playoffs, Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald reports that isn’t the case. The 21-year-old center remains in Providence as this week gets underway and will remain there for the foreseeable future, potentially the rest of the regular season. The 2022 second-rounder has 1-10–11 in 33 NHL appearances this season after notching 5-10–15 in the exact same number of showings last year.
Evening Notes: Gavrikov, Marchand, Hedman, Jokiharju
Los Angeles Kings general manager Rob Blake spoke in-depth about his efforts to extend defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov in a post-Trade Deadline media availability. Blake shared that keeping Gavrikov around is a top priority for the team, but finding a new deal could take some time after Gavrikov changed agents in February. But even with the flip, Blake reiterated that both the team and the player are confident a deal can get done.
Gavrikov has been a top defender for the Kings. He has averaged nearly 24 minutes of ice time on a nightly basis, good for second on the team behind Drew Doughty‘s average of 25:32. Gavrikov has brought a shutdown presence to those premier moments. He leads the team with 117 blocked shots, to go with 21 points, 14 penalty minutes, a plus-eight, and 34 hits in 60 games. He’s averaged north of 20 minutes of ice time in every season since his 2021-22 campaign with the Columbus Blue Jackets. That season stands as Gavrikov’s career-year, headlined by a career-high 33 points and 68 penalty minutes in 80 games. The 29-year-old defenseman has slowed his scoring since those days, but looks capable of carrying his brick wall style well into his 30s. The Kings will look to bank on that growth on his next extension, which will likely carry Gavrikov to the sunset years of his career.
Other notes from around the league:
- The Boston Bruins offered captain Brad Marchand a three-year extension before opting to trade him to the Florida Panthers, per ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. Kaplan goes on to add that Boston’s original extension offers to the 36-year-old Marchand were stuck at two years, but that the team expanded their offer in the waning minutes to try and secure a deal. Ultimately, the money wasn’t right for Marchand – and he opted to pursue a move to the Panthers instead. Marchand will have a chance to sign a more preferable deal when he enters unrestricted free agency this summer. The Bruins lost their second-highest scorer in dealing away Marchand, who has 21 goals and 47 points in 61 games on the year. He’ll be a major addition for the Florida Panthers, but will first need to overcome a shoulder injury that’s expected to hold him out for a few weeks.
- Tampa Bay Lightning captain Victor Hedman missed the team’s Saturday night matchup against the Boston Bruins and has been listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury. Hedman has made a major impact on the Bolts lineup over his recent stretch, with five points in his last five games and seven points in his last 10 games. J.J. Moser elevates to the top line in Hedman’s absence, while Emil Martinsen Lilleberg draws back onto Tampa Bay’s third pair. Moser has 10 points and a plus-13 in 35 games this season, while Lilleberg has 14 points, 85 penalty minutes, and a minus-seven in 58 games.
- The newest Boston Bruins defenseman Henri Jokiharju told reporters that he had requested a trade away from the Buffalo Sabres prior to his deadline-day move. He also clamored about his positive relationships with new Boston teammates Casey Mittelstadt and Joonas Korpisalo. Jokiharju joins the Bruins after six tough seasons with the Buffalo Sabres. He earned top-pair minutes at points during his Sabres tenure, as the team struggled to staff a hardy right-defense corp – but Jokiharju could never make much of his minutes. He set a career-high of 20 points in 74 games last season, but had just six points in 42 games with Buffalo this year. Jokiharju should fill a much more manageable bottom-four role in Boston, playing behind shutdown defender Andrew Peeke at least.