NHL Notebook: Playing the 'What If' game when it comes to constructing Bruins' roster taken at BSJ Headquarters (Bruins)

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NHL Notebook: Playing the 'What If' game when it comes to constructing Bruins' roster

By Conor Ryan

Aug 17, 2019 • 11:58 pm

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The Bruins' prospect pipeline may not be as loaded as say, the Rangers (Kaapo Kakko, K'Andre Miller, Adam Fox, Vitali Kravtsov) or the Avalanche (Cale Makar, Bowen Byram), but when it comes to young talent already excelling at the NHL level — Boston has to be near the top.

Go down the list — Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak, Jake DeBrusk, Brandon Carlo, Matt Grzelcyk, Danton Heinen, Connor Clifton. All players aged 25 or under — all pulling their weight (and getting better) on a Bruins team already lifted by a stout veteran core.

And yes, while the "next generation" of Bruins talent is already making a name for themselves up in the NHL ranks, what might have been had Boston added at least one more budding star to the roster?

We’ve examined quite a few different lineup possibilities for the 2019-20 season by using Sean Tierney’s fantastic WAR Lineup Creator, which uses players’ projected full-season WAR to predict a team’s total points for the upcoming season. 

We’ve already seen how Boston could get a lift by both using Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak in more of a 1A/1B role — as well as breaking up its top line of Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak in order to achieve more balance in its top six.

All encouraging stuff, and we’re just scratching the surface.

But let’s have fun with this tool — after all, we are stuck in the doldrums of the offseason. 

Alright, let me revise that. Fun might not be the right word. 



But man, look at this club and what could have been with just a few different decisions made back on that June day in 2015 — given both what we already know about the players that Boston missed out on and what is expected of them in 2019-20.

While most of the anger directed at the Bruins whiffing on two of its three consecutive first-round picks in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft revolves around Boston’s inability to add an impact player up front — man, would this D corps be something else if it added Thomas Chabot. 



One of the few bright spots on a miserable Senators team, Chabot has been a steal since Ottawa scooped him up with the 18th overall pick in 2015 — as the 22-year-old blueliner tallied 55 points over 70 games this past season while averaging 24:17 of ice time.

For as good as Boston’s top pairing of Chara-McAvoy is, a second pairing of Chabot-Carlo in 2019-20 already comes close to matching them in terms of projected full-season WAR (ProjFSW) — and both McAvoy and Chabot are nowhere close to their ceilings. Sigh.

Mathew Barzal, the 2017-18 Calder Trophy winner and 16th overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft by the Islanders, stands as another key piece that just got away from Boston. Although, when looking at ProjFSW, Boston's third line of Heinen-Barzal-Steen would have the same total (2.5) as a line of Heinen-Coyle-Steen. So what if Boston kept Coyle in at 3C and opted instead for another winger, say, Kyle Connor or Brock Boeser— taken 17th and 23rd overall by the Jets and Canucks, respectively?

If we were to add Boeser, who has averaged 27.5 goals per year over his first two NHL seasons despite missing a combined 33 games, into the top-six equation, now you're cooking.



Whether it be either as the goal-scoring winger that Krejci has searched in vain for over the years or as a fantastic compliment to a top line with Bergeron + Marchand, the Bruins really couldn't go wrong if they added a winger of Boeser's caliber four years ago.






Charlie McAvoy 





__________________


A hat tip
for finding this gem of a stat for you this weekend. 


With just one more victory in 2019-20,
Tuukka Rask
will tie
Felix Potvin
for the most ever wins — by a Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick.


Already Boston’s career wins leader with 265 to his name, Rask was drafted 21st overall by Toronto during the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, but was dealt to Boston in 2006 for
Andrew Raycroft
— setting one team up for their goaltender of the future and another with a black hole in net for close to a decade. 


In total, the Leafs have drafted 37 goalies since the NHL Draft started up in 1963 — of which three have won at least 200 games — Potvin (266), Rask (265) and
Ken Wregget
(225). 


In an odd twist of fate, the Bruins’ all-time wins leader among players that they drafted also did not win a single game in Boston — as
Dan Bouchard
(drafted in 1970) won 286 games over his career after getting picked up by the Flames in the 1972 NHL expansion draft. Bouchard holds the edge in wins over Hall of Famer
Ken Dryden
, who was drafted by Boston in 1964 before eventually winning 258 games and six Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens. 

__________________


Butch stops by Foxboro 


Training camp is still a few weeks away over at Warrior Ice Arena, but
Bruce Cassidy
was spotted at Gillette Stadium earlier this week to soak in one of the Patriots’ final public practices during the preseason. 




While he’s still regarded as one of the newcomers of the Boston sports coaching fraternity, Cassidy did note during the Stanley Cup Final that there’s plenty of camaraderie across the multiple sports. 


“I’ve gotten to know them a lot more recently,” Cassidy said back in June of his interactions with
Brad Stevens, Alex Cora
and
Bill Belichick.
“Brad’s a little different, because we share a building, so I’ve sat down and talked with him through the course of this year, last year, when we’ve had some doubleheader games or our paths cross.


‘We share a practice facility — they’re across the street. The other coaches, you don’t run into as much, but there’s been phone conversations. Bill is at the game the other night. He was waving the flag and it was great to spend some time with him before the game. So I believe it will get closer-knit now that I’ve gotten to know these guys, but in general, I think it’s always been real strong.


“Claude (Julien) was good friends with Bill, Claude was there for years, so obviously he nurtured those relationships. Alex is relatively new, so I think there’s always a common goal and that is the pressure to win and the expectations in Boston. So we all kind of feel the same thing, which is a good thing. You want those, and it’s bringing us closer together.”

Stats and graphs via Natural Stat Trick, Corsica, Sean Tierney and HockeyViz. 

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