He’s only been a part of the Bruins organization for just under eight months, but based on his local ties, community involvement and play on the ice, you’d think that Charlie Coyle has been a key cog with the B’s for years now.
After emerging as one of Boston’s playoff heroes last spring on the road to the Stanley Cup Final (nine goals, 16 points during postseason play), Coyle has continued to engrain himself within Boston’s lineup — addressing a major vacancy by anchoring the third-line pivot position.
And while Coyle has fit in rather seamlessly with his new club, if we were to rewind back to last February, the consensus on the day that Don Sweeney pulled the trigger on the deal to bring the Weymouth native aboard was much more mixed.
Now, most of second guessing had little to do with Coyle, who addressed an obvious need on the 2018-19 Bruins while bringing versatility and even-strength scoring punch to a B’s team in need of contributions beyond the likes of David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron.
Rather, most of the criticism revolved around the cost that the Bruins had to pay in order to pry Coyle out of Minnesota, with the Wild acquiring promising forward Ryan Donato and a conditional fifth-round pick (later became a fourth-rounder) in the transaction.
Even if the Harvard product failed to really hit the ground running in his first full season in Boston (six goals, nine points in 34 games with the Bruins), there was still an awful lot to like about Donato and his potential in the NHL.
Armed with a lethal, heavy shot and a propensity to use said shot early and often (75 SOG with Boston), Donato seemed like a lock to be regular 25-goal scorer up in the NHL ranks — with the 22-year-old validating those thoughts after racking up 16 points in his first 22 games with his new club in 2019.
As such, when the deal went down, I made comparisons to another trade in which Boston solved a major need but surrendered a promising piece of the future — the 2011 trade that brought Rich Peverley to Boston for a Cup run in exchange for future star Blake Wheeler.
Whoops.
Now, we’re only looking at the early returns in the Coyle/Donato trade, to be fair. But even with just the initial eye test, you’d have to think that Sweeney managed to fleece Paul Fenton (who lasted just one season in Minnesota) with this deal.
Even if Coyle isn’t exactly lighting up the scoreboard (2 goals, 3 assists in 16 games) this season, it’s easy to spot the impact that the 27-year-old skater has provided in Boston’s bottom-six — with Boston holding a 196-164 edge in shot attempts and a plus-10 SOG differential during his 202:49 of 5v5 TOI.
Add in an individual 5v5 expected goals mark of 1.93 (fourth on the team after the usual suspects of Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak) and his 15:53 of ice time, and Coyle is doing his part to drive Boston’s third line during even-strength action.
The results for Donato out in Minnesota this year have been a bit more muddled, unfortunately. While the youngster earned looks as the Wild’s top-line center between Zach Parise and Mats Zuccarello during training camp, the forward has more often than not been relegated into the bottom six as Minnesota’s season has trudged along.
Donato’s offensive game has yet to pick up so far this season (1 goal, 2 assists in 14 games), but it’s been the learning curves that come with the finer details of his game that have often forced Bruce Boudreau to either sit him on the fourth line or out of the game entirely.
Since October 20 (a span of eight games), Donato has only averaged 8:50 of ice time per contest.
“It’s just growing pains,” Boudreau told the Star Tribune in October.. “ … He’s still learning the 200-foot game, how to play without the puck. I think right now he wants to look really good, and he’s trying to do plays he shouldn’t be doing because he wants to make an impression, a good impression. Sometimes it backfires on you.”
Now, given his skill set, there’s a good chance that Donato learns the ropes and becomes a regular NHLer. It happened just a couple years ago with another volume shooter in Frank Vatrano — who is up to 33 goals in 112 games with the Panthers after Boston traded him away.
More than anything, Donato needs some extended reps in order to morph into the player that Minnesota projected him to be when it traded for him. Those minutes were not going to be viable in Boston, where the urgency is there for the Bruins to take home a Cup during this two-to-three-year window before their veteran core begins to slip some.
Donato could make the Bruins pay down the road, for sure. But if Coyle helps put Boston over the top once again this postseason en route to a title, we could indeed be staring at another Wheeler-Peverley trade — one that Boston will take every single time.
OTHER NOTES
Another major takeaway from Friday’s miserable loss to the Red Wings? Even in a win, Detroit’s roster is ROUGH, especially on the blue line — with the likes of …
**Puts on glasses**
Patrik Nemeth — Filip Hronek
Madison Bowey — Mike Green
Dylan McIlrath — Dennis Cholowski
... forming the Red Wings' D corps.
Yuck.
As such, don’t be surprised if Detroit backs up the Brink’s truck for Torey Krug if the soon-to-be UFA ends up hitting the open market this summer. Both the Bruins and Krug are still committed to working out a contract extension in Boston, but Detroit looms large as a tantalizing option for the Michigan native.
Along with the boatload of cash that Detroit can (and will) throw at Krug next summer with over $37 million in cap space freed up, Krug has other connections to the Red Wings, as he played for Detroit coach Jeff Blashill during his time with the Indiana Ice of the USHL.
Even if Krug *does* take a hometown discount in Boston (as so many other stars have done before him) one has to figure that price is still going to likely pay him at least $7+ million annually — with term standing as possibly the main roadblock when it comes to an extension.
Things are going to pricy for the Bruins when it comes to retaining Krug’s services, but with the Red Wings lurking — it’s going to be paramount for Boston to lock up its power-play QB before the real bidding can begin.
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- Some great news out of Thailand, as Ryan Straschnitzki — one of the players involved in the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash back in 2018 — has now started to move his legs again after receiving experimental spinal surgery in the country. Straschnitzki, who was paralyzed from the chest down, is one of only 30 or so individuals to undergo such a surgery.
- Looks like Evander Kane might need to stay out of Vegas for a bit, as the Sharks forward was sued by The Cosmopolitan casino for allegedly failing to pay back $500,000 in gambling markers. Woooof.
- A classy move by No. 87 this week.