Bruins Have Yet To Make Specific Extension Offer To David Pastrnak
- Talks remain amicable between the Boston Bruins and David Pastrnak on an extension. Still, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported today that the Bruins have yet to make a specific offer to Pastrnak’s camp. It makes sense, all things considered, as Pastrnak has publically said multiple times since he was eligible for an extension that his main focus is on starting the season strong. The team will need to rely on him heavily, of course, with Brad Marchand out of the lineup. Dreger cited Jonathan Huberdeau‘s recent eight-year, $84MM extension as a reasonable comparison.
No Updated Timeline For Charlie McAvoy; Expected Back At Thanksgiving
It became apparent over the offseason that injuries were going to be a serious issue for the Boston Bruins this year, at least at the beginning of the season. While there have been positive developments on some, the same can’t be said for All-Star-caliber defenseman Charlie McAvoy. According to The Boston Globe’s Matt Porter, there’s no updated timeline on McAvoy’s return, meaning he’s still expected to rejoin the team around Thanksgiving. He is doing some shooting practice, Porter notes, but he’s yet to take any slapshots in practice.
Matt Grzelcyk Won't Start On LTIR
With several key injuries already, the Bruins aren’t the healthiest team heading into the regular season. However, there is good news on one of those fronts as Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that defenseman Matt Grzelcyk will not begin the year on LTIR. He underwent shoulder surgery in early June that was supposed to carry a minimum recovery time of five months. With the minimum LTIR placement time only being 21 days, the expectation was that he’d be a safe bet to go on there to give Boston a little bit of short-term wiggle room on the cap. The fact that he isn’t going there suggests that Grzelcyk will be ready ahead of schedule. The 28-year-old is coming off a career year offensively with 24 points in 73 games and certainly will be a welcome addition when he’s cleared to play.
Bruins, Pastrnak Will Continue To Discuss Extension Into The Season
- Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney spoke to the media this morning, including Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub, where he discussed a number of Bruins-related topics. Most notably, he touched on extension talks between the team and pending UFA forward David Pastrnak. While many teams and players, in hockey as well as other sports, generally put off contract talks once the season starts, that doesn’t appear to be the case here. Sweeney says the Bruins and Pastrnak have been talking almost every day and are comfortable talking into the regular season. While a deal isn’t done yet of course, the continued dialogue is clearly a good sign for the Bruins and their fans, showing Pastrnak presumably has interest in staying with the team.
Snapshots: Kane, Valimaki, Has
It seems it’s no longer an “if,” but instead a “when and where” that the Chicago Blackhawks trade franchise-great Patrick Kane. With Chicago escalating its rebuilding efforts this offseason, lead by the trade of Alex DeBrincat to the Ottawa Senators, it seemed Kane was as good as gone this summer too. However, the veteran has a full no-movement clause in his contract and appears keen on taking a wait-and-see approach this season with where he would want to be dealt. Still, given the tight squeeze on the salary cap for many teams, the forward’s impending free agency, and the fact that he’s still playing near the top of his game, finding a match on his shortlist of teams could prove to be a challenge nonetheless. One team that could be a fit is the Boston Bruins, but those challenges mentioned above pose as much of an issue to them as anyone else. The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont acknowledges those challenges, but looks to find a path to a deal between the two Original Six squads.
Given Kane’s $10.5MM cap hit, of which the Blackhawks can retain 50% in a trade, and Boston being $1.44MM over the salary cap ceiling, Chicago would certainly have to take some salary back from Boston. This might not be an issue, Dupont says, as the team could realistically craft a package around one or both of forward Jake DeBrusk and defenseman Brandon Carlo, who carry cap hits of $4MM and $4.1MM respectively. These two aren’t the sort of young prospects or premier draft picks Chicago would hope to acquire, but could represent a collection of young talent that would help get things moving forward more quickly for the Blackhawks. Dupont also points to youngsters Jakub Zboril or Jack Studnicka as an additional sweetener if needed, but does raise concern if a first-round draft pick was needed on top of this package.
- It’s once again that time of year where we’ll see at least a dozen players, if not more, hit the waiver wire each day, with some very intriguing names as part of that. Today’s crop of waiver-wire finds includes a pair of former top Avalanche prospects in Martin Kaut and Shane Bowers, who may still have room to grow, an intriguing defenseman in Mark Friedman, as well as another young 2017 first round pick like Bowers in that of Calgary Flames defenseman Juuso Valimaki. Considering the amount of players on waivers and teams needing to trim their rosters, many players that would be claimed any other time of the year, are able to be snuck through. However, Hailey Salvian of The Athletic believes Valimaki might not be able to sneak through so easily. Losing someone like Valimaki, who still has some upside, for nothing wouldn’t be ideal for Calgary, but for Valimaki, Salvian points out, it could be a fresh start, perhaps with an opportunity to once again establish himself as an everyday NHLer.
- The Hershey Bears, the AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals, have signed defenseman Martin Has to a one-year AHL deal, the team announced. That news alone doesn’t seem to make it much different from any other AHL signing, however it does carry with it the caveat that Has is a Capitals draft pick who has not signed an ELC, but is still eligible for one. Has was a fifth-round selection of the Capitals back in 2019, but has seen limited game action prior to last season. The 21-year-old defenseman did put together a solid year in 2021-22 though, getting into 57 games as a member of the Shawinigan Cataractes in the QMJHL, recording 20 points. The Capitals have one year remaining in order to decide whether or not they would like to offer Has his ELC, otherwise he will become a free agent next summer.
Waivers: 10/06/22
Another day, another set of players on waivers as the regular season approaches. Everyone from yesterday cleared, while today’s group looks like this:
Boston Bruins
Vinni Lettieri
Joona Koppanen
Dan Renouf
Keith Kinkaid
Colorado Avalanche
Edmonton Oilers
Calvin Pickard
Slater Koekkoek
Los Angeles Kings
New York Rangers
2008 NHL Draft Take Two: Sixteenth Overall Pick
Hindsight is an amazing thing, and allows us to look back and wonder “what could have been.” Though perfection is attempted, scouting and draft selection is far from an exact science, and sometimes, it doesn’t work out the way teams – or players – intended. For every Patrick Kane, there is a Patrik Stefan.
We’re looking back at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and asking how it would shake out knowing what we do now. Will the first round remain the same, or will some late-round picks jump up to the top of the board?
The results of our redraft so far are as follows with their original draft position in parentheses:
1st Overall: Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
2nd Overall: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings (2)
3rd Overall: Roman Josi, Atlanta Thrashers (38)
4th Overall: Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues (4)
5th Overall: Erik Karlsson, Toronto Maple Leafs (15)
6th Overall: John Carlson, Columbus Blue Jackets (27)
7th Overall: Jacob Markstrom, Nashville Predators (31)
8th Overall: Braden Holtby, Phoenix Coyotes (93)
9th Overall: Jordan Eberle, New York Islanders (22)
10th Overall: Jared Spurgeon, Vancouver Canucks (156)
11th Overall: Cam Atkinson, Chicago Blackhawks (157)
12th Overall: T.J. Brodie, Buffalo Sabres (114)
13th Overall: Josh Bailey, Los Angeles Kings (9)
14th Overall: Adam Henrique, Carolina Hurricanes (82)
15th Overall: Tyler Myers, Ottawa Senators (12)
The drop wound up being a small one for Myers who only goes three spots later than his original draft position. While he has been maligned at times due to some contracts that paid him above market value, he has turned in a solid career thus far.
Throughout his junior days, Myers wasn’t known for his point-producing abilities with his career-high in points checking in at 42 in his final season with Kelowna. Not bad, but players who top out at that level don’t typically become highly-productive players in the pros.
Myers put that theory to the test in his rookie season as he had more goals (11), assists (37), and points (48) than in any of his major junior campaigns. That made him the runaway winner of the Calder Trophy and all of a sudden, it looked like Buffalo had their two-way star defender of the future.
Unfortunately, that didn’t go as planned. While Myers’ numbers in his sophomore year were still pretty good (the second-best of his career thus far), he eventually became more of a stay-at-home defender. Eventually, the Sabres decided to shake things up, moving him to Winnipeg in 2015 as part of the Evander Kane trade.
With the Jets, Myers was a capable, albeit pricey blueliner for parts of five seasons. Since then, he has spent three years in Vancouver as a capable, albeit pricey defenseman.
That said, it’s worth looking at some of Myers’ numbers in context. In his 13-year NHL career, he has averaged over 20 minutes a night in every one of them. He’s eighth in all-time games played from this draft class and with a couple of years left on his contract, he’ll have a good chance of staying in the top ten when all is said and done. No, Myers didn’t quite live up to the promise of his rookie year but he has had a very solid career so far.
Now, we move on to the 16th selection which was held by Boston. They opted to take a longer-term project, selecting Joe Colborne out of the AJHL. However, after two very strong college seasons, the Bruins turned him pro in 2019 but he never played a game for them. Instead, they moved him, a first-round pick, and a second-rounder to Toronto to rent Tomas Kaberle at the 2011 trade deadline. (If you’re curious, that first-rounder turned into Rickard Rakell.)
Colborne spent parts of three seasons with Toronto but again, didn’t play much. He was flipped to Calgary in 2013 for a fourth-round pick that eventually was used on Ville Husso.
Colborne saw regular action with Calgary for three years and spent most of another year in Colorado but hung up his skates in 2018 after a seven-year NHL career that spanned 295 games. In the grand scheme of things, Boston could have done much worse with this pick but it’s safe to say in hindsight, there were better options available.
So, who should they have picked with that benefit of hindsight? With the 16th pick in the 2008 redraft, who do they take? Make your choice by voting in the poll below.
App users, click here to vote.
Waivers: 10/04/22
After all of the players from yesterday cleared, there is a new batch of talent on waivers today. Placement here is usually indicative of a training camp cut, though not necessarily. It gives teams the option to send a player to the minor leagues, but that doesn’t have to happen right away. Until a player spends 30 days on the active roster or plays in ten regular season games, they won’t have to clear waivers again.
Here are the players on waivers today:
Boston Bruins
Oskar Steen
Nick Wolff
Connor Carrick
Buffalo Sabres
Chicago Blackhawks
Luke Philp
Nicolas Beaudin
Dylan Sikura
Brett Seney
Columbus Blue Jackets
Minnesota Wild
Montreal Canadiens
Alex Belzile
Anthony Richard
Mitchell Stephens
New Jersey Devils
Tyler Wotherspoon
Robbie Russo
Joseph Gambardella
Jeremy Groleau
Pittsburgh Penguins
Vancouver Canucks
Collin Delia
John Stevens
Noah Juulsen
Brady Keeper
Guillaume Brisebois
Injury Updates: Bruins, Ducks, Flames
The Boston Bruins issued two injury updates, one of which could have a major impact on the team’s calculations for their opening-night roster. Bruins coach Jim Montgomery told the media today that top prospect Fabian Lysell was out day-to-day, with a target returning to play Wednesday against the New York Rangers. He also revealed that star winger Taylor Hall was injured and would be out with a week-to-week designation.
It’s the Hall injury that’s most significant here, especially since the team is already without winger Brad Marchand due to injury. This leaves the Bruins without their top two left wingers to start the season, absences that could significantly alter the complexion of the team’s top-six early in the year. With Hall and Marchand out, it’s possible that players such as Jake DeBrusk and Pavel Zacha are leaned on more heavily to create offense, and this injury could also increase the odds of Lysell making the team for at least a nine-game trial.
Some other injury updates from across the NHL:
- The Anaheim Ducks issued injury updates on two of their players: Trevor Zegras and Urho Vaakanainen. For Vaakanainen, the team said that he was released from the hospital on Friday and “continues to improve.” For Zegras, the team revealed that he is considered day-to-day with an upper-body injury but will be on the ice for today’s activities. This is good news for Vaakanainen, who hopefully is on the path to a safe recovery after he suffered a scary injury Friday when he was stretchered off the ice.
- The Calgary Flames issued three injury updates today, regarding forwards Emilio Pettersen and Martin Pospisil, as well as defenseman Dennis Gilbert. Per the team, all three players are considered day-to-day as they continue to battle for roles in training camp.
Taylor Hall, Fabian Lysell Suffer Minor Injuries, Out 1-2 Days
This afternoon saw a preseason rivalry contest with the Boston Bruins playing host to the Philadelphia Flyers. For the most part, things went the Bruins’ way, as they defeated the Flyers 4-0 with young forwards John Beecher and Marc McLaughlin each netting a pair of goals. Despite the promising performance, the team did have a couple of injury scares when both Fabian Lysell and Taylor Hall were forced to leave the game with injuries.
However, it looks like Boston avoided the worst with these injuries. In speaking to the media, including The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said both players only have minor injuries. Jimmy Murphy of Boston Hockey Now adds that both will be out only one or two days. Injuries are never good news, but for a Boston team trying to compete despite a myriad of long-term injuries already on the books, missing a dynamic forward like Hall and a top prospect trying to make the team like Lysell for only a few days is certainly a relief.