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Jakub Zboril

Examining A Pivotal Offseason For The Boston Bruins

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Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub wrote a piece today going over his thoughts on the offseason that was for the Boston Bruins. Anderson writes that while the offseason losses were a challenge for the team, he believes the club can still contend for a division title, and at the very least make the playoffs in the Atlantic Division.

While Anderson offers up many reasons for optimism, he does believe that if the Bruins were to falter, they should look to move on from the eight unrestricted free agents that the Bruins will be dressing on opening night and try to acquire assets for them rather than throwing assets after band-aid solutions. Boston does have an extensive list of unrestricted free agents at the end of this year including Jake DeBrusk, James van Riemsdyk, Milan Lucic, A.J. Greer, Matt Grzelcyk, Derek Forbort, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Jakub Zboril. Moving on from these players would help facilitate a re-tool should the Bruins opt to go down that path.

There is a belief with Anderson and others that the Bruins could be buyers in the summer of 2024 when the cap goes up and the bonuses come off Boston’s cap. An added bonus to selling at the deadline would be that any assets acquired at the deadline could help the team make moves next summer when they have cap space to play with. Now, while it seems silly to be looking at trade deadline moves when the season hasn’t even started, it is an interesting idea for the Bruins for the reasons mentioned above.

One final note, and this could be a big one, is that Boston’s first-round pick this season was dealt in the Tyler Bertuzzi trade. The pick is top-10 protected and if Boston were to fall down the standings, they could grab a top-10 pick this year in a re-tooling year and give Detroit their 2025 pick when they presumably have re-stocked the NHL roster. The risk there of course is that they falter again in 2025 and hand the Red Wings a top-10 pick, but that seems unlikely given that the team will still have some solid pieces in place and possibly some reinforcements to join them.

Atlantic Notes: Lightning, Edvinsson, Zboril

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As is typical for any team once they are knocked out of the playoffs, Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times reports that laundry list of playoff injuries sustained by the Tampa Bay Lightning in their opening-round matchup. Throughout the playoffs, most teams usually keep their player’s specific injuries very close to their chest.

Erik Cernak, who would only manage to play nine minutes in Game One before being removed for the rest of the series, was dealing with a concussion after sustaining a high hit from Toronto Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting. Similar to Cernak, trade deadline acquisition Michael Eyssimont was also dealing with concussion symptoms but was able to return to the team and score a goal in Game Five.

Victor Hedman, who would only miss Game Two in the series, was apparently dealing with a hip impingement, and Tanner Jeannot, who would only play three games in the playoffs for the Lightning, had a high ankle sprain. Most impressively, Brayden Point, who had a brutal run into the boards aided by Morgan Rielly in Game Three, had a rib cage cartilage fracture resulting from that play and still managed to play in the rest of the series.

Other Atlantic Division notes:

  • The Detroit Red Wings announced that top prospect Simon Edvinsson has undergone successful shoulder surgery, and his recovery timeline will be 4-6 months, meaning he will likely be out to start next season. In his first taste of NHL action this season, Edvinsson played in nine games towards the end of the season in Detroit, scoring two goals. Primarily playing for their AHL affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins this year, Edvinsson played in 52 games, scoring five goals and 22 assists.
  • Mark Divver of NHL.com reports that Boston Bruins’ defenseman Jakub Zboril will suit up for Czechia in the IIHF World Championship. Zboril, who is on the first year of a 2-year, $2.275MM contract, played in 22 games this year for Boston, scoring one goal and three assists.

Boston Bruins Extend Jakub Zboril

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Slated to become a group six unrestricted free agent this summer, a former first-round pick has decided to stay with the organization that drafted him. Defenseman Jakub Zboril signed a two-year contract extension with the Boston Bruins this morning, carrying a cap hit of $1.138MM per season.

Zboril, now 25, played just 10 games this season before tearing his ACL in a game against the Nashville Predators on December 2, 2021. The Czech defender played well this season in a bottom-pairing role, notching three assists in 10 games as well.

While Zboril won’t hit the ceiling the team envisioned for him when they drafted him 13th overall in 2015, he has turned into an everyday NHL player. That’s important for the cap-strapped Bruins, who now retain a reliable depth defenseman for a reasonable cap hit with some term. Per CapFriendly, though, the Bruins now have just $2.4MM in cap space entering this offseason with multiple UFAs, including captain Patrice Bergeron. With Zboril locked in now, an indication they view him as a regular next season, expect the Bruins to move on from either Matt Grzelcyk or Mike Reilly via trade. Both are left-shot defensemen who fell out of favor with the Bruins coaching staff near the end of the season.

Zboril will become an unrestricted free agent again in 2024.

Atlantic Notes: Sabres, Zboril, Point, Matthews

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The Sabres have shown interest in Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev in the past, notes Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News.  Buffalo is in need of goaltending for next season regardless of whether or not they plan to have Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen jump up full-time to the NHL or not.  Georgiev is a strong candidate this summer given New York’s salary cap situation and while the 26-year-old has had a tough year (a GAA of 2.91 and a SV% of just .898 in 31 games), there could still be a bit of upside left to make him a worthwhile short-term option.  They have shown interest in bringing back Craig Anderson and the veteran could be a good mentor if Luukkonen is on the roster in a platoon situation.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • The Bruins have had extension talks with defenseman Jakub Zboril, reports Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal (Twitter link). The 25-year-old was limited to just ten games with Boston this season before his year came to an end with a torn ACL.  Zboril is eligible for Group Six unrestricted free agency this summer since this is his fifth professional season but has just 54 career NHL games under his belt so a low-cost one-year deal to give him another chance next season would make some sense for both sides.
  • Lightning center Brayden Point will return tonight after missing Thursday’s contest, relays Joe Smith of The Athletic (Twitter link). Head coach Jon Cooper acknowledged that the 26-year-old has been dealing with a nagging issue, terming his absence last game as more than just maintenance.  Point has 55 points in 62 games this season and they’ll need him healthy for the playoffs so the fact he only missed the one game has to be encouraging.
  • Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews will return to the lineup tonight against Florida after missing the last three games with an undisclosed injury, mentions TSN’s Mark Masters (Twitter link). The 24-year-old has four games left to get two goals which would make him the NHL’s first 60-goal scorer since Steven Stamkos reached that mark back in the 2011-12 season.

Carlo Added To COVID Protocol; Zboril Undergoes Surgery

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The Boston Bruins are already shut down for the holiday break, but today brought some bad news for two of their defensemen. Brandon Carlo has been added to the COVID protocol, the tenth player so far for Boston. He joins Brad Marchand, Craig Smith, Patrice Bergeron, Jeremy Swayman, Trent Frederic, Anton Blidh, Oskar Steen, Taylor Hall, and Curtis Lazar on the shelf, unavailable for the time being. The first few names should be eligible to return before the Bruins take the ice again on December 27, but if Carlo has tested positive and is experiencing any symptoms, he will not.

Beyond the COVID issues though is Jakub Zboril, who is out for the season after undergoing knee surgery to repair a torn ACL. The young defenseman underwent the procedure on December 16 at Mass General Brigham after suffering the injury on December 2.

Zboril, 24, seemed finally ready to contribute at the NHL level, six years after going 13th overall in the 2015 draft. It’s been a slow development path so far, but during last season and the early going this year, he had taken a big step to force his way into the lineup on a regular basis. In the nine games before exiting early against Nashville, he had averaged nearly 17 minutes a night while recording three points.

Importantly, this injury means that Zboril will not reach the 80-game threshold required to make him a restricted free agent. Instead, he will now qualify for Group VI unrestricted free agent status, given he has played just 54 NHL contests and turns 25 in February. There would have been an argument to be made over whether the Bruins should qualify him anyway, given he would have been arbitration-eligible, but with this, the decision is no longer in their hands. The defenseman will hit the open market, should the Bruins not reach an extension with him before free agency opens.

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