For a team coming off of a 107-point season and one win short of a Stanley Cup title, the Boston Bruins are set to open training camp next week with a slew of question marks across the roster.
The obvious one remains: When will Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy sign new deals?
Perhaps more importantly: How are the Bruins going to pay for it?
While Boston is one of many clubs still stuck in the mud when it comes to the RFA front, the B’s can at least take some solace in the fact that most of the remaining questions with the team don’t center around how they can recoup production lost via free agency/trades/retirement, but rather where this large assortment of returning talent fits into the lineup.
Most of those questions regarding the lineup revolve around the talent up front.
Sure, 63-37-88 are poised to once again be one of the top lineup trios in the league. While the cast could be rotated, a fourth line featuring the likes of Sean Kuraly, Chris Wagner, Joakim Nordstrom, Par Lindholm and more should be trusted once again to slow down top-six competition and kill penalties.
But after that?
Who will be the latest participant vying for a top-six role to David Krejci’s right?
Will Charlie Coyle stay at center or move up to the wing?
Can a youngster like Jack Studnicka or Oskar Steen earn a job out of camp?
Is slotting down David Pastrnak to the Krejci line the right move?
But if you slot Pastrnak down, who moves up with Patri-
You get it. There’s going to be a lot of tinkering up front between next week and the start of the regular season on October 3.
Elsewhere, things seem a bit more settled.
Once again, Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak will split duties in net.
And on the blue line, even with Kevan Miller’s timeline still uncertain and John Moore slated to miss the start of the season due to offseason shoulder surgery, the key cogs should remain in place — barring any severe contract snafus for McAvoy & Carlo — for a D corps that held opponents to just 2.58 goals per game last season (3rd in NHL).
And yet, bold as it may be, could the Bruins actually benefit from putting a few of their D pairings in a blender for 2019-20? Let's take a look:
Before we dive in, let's establish a few things right off the bat.
Given their injury status, we're going to leave Kevan Miller and John Moore out of the equation for right now when it comes to lineup tinkering. And, while I might be getting ahead of myself, I don't see the Bruins falling victim to the same scenario that plagued the Maple Leafs for the first half of last season with an RFA in William Nylander. Boston still needs to shed some cash, for sure, but my hunch is that both McAvoy and Carlo are both on board come October 3. As such, they're included in this lineup.
If we were to look at the returning (available) pieces, one would figure that Boston's D corps would look similar to this:
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Grzelcyk-Clifton
Seems about right, with Chara-McAvoy (587 5v5 minutes together) and Krug-Carlo (484 5v5 minutes) standing as Boston's most-utilized pairings last year. While Grzelcyk was most often paired next to Miller last season (361 5v5 minutes together), the latter's injury-riddled campaign often meant that Grzelcyk was part of multiple different combinations last season – with the Charlestown native's versatility allowing him to play on his weak side at times when needed, giving Bruce Cassidy the option to put a pair of left-shot D on a single pairing.
Clifton, who logged 100:09 of 5v5 TOI with Grzelcyk during the postseason and is a natural right-shot D, stands as the likely next-man up on the third pairing with both Miller/Moore out. One can't discount Steven Kampfer as well, while Urho Vaakanainen could very well supersede the rest of the competition with another strong training camp.
As a whole, you won't find too many complaints with the D corps as constituted above. But perhaps Boston could find even more success if it was to tinker with its first and third pairings, especially when it comes to easing Zdeno Chara's workload in what will be his 14th season with the Bruins.
Let's be clear — even at 42 years old, Chara is still a very effective defenseman, and should once again rank near the top of all B's skaters when it comes to usage on the PK. But given his age (and the development of the next crop of B's blue liners), could the Bruins opt to slot Chara down into a less strenuous role and shave off some of his hefty TOI totals (21:05 ATOI last season)?
Chara himself may not be too thrilled about it, but when it comes to finding a way to both maximize his effectiveness while keeping him fresh for what should be another postseason run next spring, it could be an option that proves beneficial for all parties when looking at the big picture.
Chara is no stranger when it comes to playing alongside a younger defenseman, with most of his reps over the previous three years spent next to either McAvoy or Carlo, both at least 20 years his junior. One would have to think another youngster like Vaakanainen or Clifton (who led all B's defenseman last season with a 0.95 5v5 goals against per 60 minutes rate) would thrive with the hands-on tutelage of a future Hall of Famer, while Cassidy would still obviously turn to No. 33 on the PK and in multiple situational scenarios in the D zone.
Of course, any move to cut down Chara's minutes would only be on the table if Boston finds a suitable solution on the top pairing next to McAvoy. BU bias aside, there certainly is a lot to like about reuniting McAvoy and Grzelcyk.
While Grzelcyk might have entered the league as a depth piece in 2017 that fit the mold as an undersized, offensive-minded defenseman, he thrived as one of Boston's secret weapons last season, and packed quite a punch when slotted up at times with McAvoy.
Between both the regular season and postseason, McAvoy and Grzelcyk logged about 250 minutes of 5v5 TOI together. During that stretch, Boston held the edge in:
- Shot Attempts: 246-190 (Boston held 56.42% edge in shot share)
- Scoring Chances: 125-91
- High-Danger Scoring Chances: 51-35
- 5v5 Goals: 11-8
- Shot Attempts: 894-826 (Boston held 51.97% edge in shot share)
- Scoring Chances: 422-380
- High-Danger Scoring Chances: 164-166
- 5v5 Goals: 46-38
Stats and graphs via Natural Stat Trick, Corsica, Sean Tierney and HockeyViz.