Last season, when a promising Bruins campaign was stunted by the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually snuffed out by the Lightning up in the Toronto bubble, Cam Neely did not mince words when it came to the hard truths facing this roster in 2021 and beyond.
“We’ve got some guys that have played a lot of good hockey for us, a lot of years for us,” Neely said last September. “Their careers are somewhat winding down and we have to really take a hard look at where we are as an organization.”
A season later — with a veteran core that’s not getting any younger dealt the same second-round exit in 2021, this time at the hands of the Islanders — Neely offered a similar sentiment about the state of an Original Six franchise staring at the crossroads between a desperate retool and a likely painful rebuild.
“We’ve got to take a hard look at our roster this summer,” Neely said via Zoom on Tuesday. “It ticks off one year older and that’s something we’re looking at. What do we need to do for this next wave here? It’s something we have to work towards this offseason. “
Of course, Neely’s comments last fall brought upon another push for the Cup with this core in place — with Don Sweeney adding the likes of Craig Smith in free agency and Taylor Hall, Mike Reilly and Curtis Lazar at the trade deadline.
And even though the potential of one last Cup push with the likes of Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand leading the way in 2021-22 likely lies in Boston’s ability to retain David Krejci and Taylor Hall — it certainly seems like the decision-makers on this Bruins’ club are trying to keep that contention window ajar for at least one more kick at the can.
“We have some holes if we can’t get (our UFAs) signed and that will certainly dictate what direction we may have to go in,” Neely said Tuesday. “I can tell you this, I know that March and Bergy understandably would like us to take another run.
"If we get the pieces signed that we’d like to, I think it’s worth taking one more shot at it here. Dependent on what we can do on the back end as well. Tuukka is up in the air with his surgery, so we’ll see where that goes.”
The decision to run things back might be more agreeable than what would be a bleak rebuild given the dearth of NHL-ready talent in Boston’s pipeline, but the fact of the matter is getting the band back together isn’t enough if this team really wants another legitimate shot at the Cup next postseason.
If Boston realistically wants to contend, it’s going to have to put out a lot of fires spread throughout the roster — be it on the blue line or further down the forward corps.
“I don’t think we can look at the roster now when you lose in the second round and say you can compete for a Stanley Cup," Neely said. "I mean, players that are on that roster that are coming back certainly need to improve. Need to get more out of the third and fourth line. Need to get more of the second line, we didn’t get enough of in that last series.”
As much as Boston could hope for rebound performances from the likes of a Charlie Coyle or better health for a Brandon Carlo, adding depth via free agency and trades appears to be the top priority for Sweeney after the B's sort out their own UFAs.
For as much as the narrative surrounding the 2019 Blues was their ability to knock the B’s around in their seven-game triumph, the fact of the matter is that that St. Louis club followed the same blueprint as plenty other Cup champions over the last few seasons, including the 2020 Lightning — a deep lineup capable of rolling out four impactful lines and bigger bodies patrolling the blue line.
Whether it be adding another scoring winger next to Coyle on the third line, a high-energy forechecker on the fourth line and one (if not preferably two) defensemen — Sweeney is going to have its work cut out for him this summer.
“We have some areas of depth that we’d like to continue to address," Sweeney said Tuesday. "It showed up through the Islanders series, where we get dinged up and ran into some injuries. I think the depth of the Islanders roster and their scoring ability showed up and we just didn’t get it done to the level that we needed to. Otherwise, we’d still be playing.
''So, we have to acknowledge the shortcomings, both at a player level and at a management level in terms of the roster composition, as you pointed out. We have to target some areas and expect some improvement in some players that they would admit, and did admit, that they fell short in."
Sweeney added: “How the pieces fall – we’ve been a very competitive team and we put ourselves in a position to compete at the Stanley Cup level. And we’ve just fallen short.”
Based on both Sweeney and Neely’s comments — the Bruins are holding out hope that the Bergeron era still has at least another year or two of contention left. But just how realistic those hopeful musings are is likely going to fall on their ability to supplement this roster with more talent.
Time will tell.
OTHER TAKEAWAYS
A ‘unique’ situation for Krejci
The first step for Boston when it comes to orchestrating another run with this veteran core will be shoring up its top-six unit by inking both Hall and Krejci to new contracts.
And while both Hall and Krejci expressed an interest in returning to Boston last week, there are plenty of hurdles that both team and player need to clear in order to facilitate a reunion — whether it be Hall inking a deal slightly below what he’d command on the open market or Krejci having to weigh a potential move overseas.
Given both need and the fact that there aren’t any other suitable top-six centers on the market (unless you want to give up a McAvoy/Pastrnak for Jack Eichel), re-signing Krejci makes plenty of sense for Boston. But at this point, it appears as though all parties are in a bit of a holding pattern.
“In talking to both players at the end of the year, and even when Taylor got here, he’s expressed interest, mutual interest, to have him back,” Sweeney said. “Had an early conversation with his representatives and obviously, we’ll have to see where all of the pieces fit together. In David’s case, it’s very unique in the fact that he would like to continue to play with the Bruins, he’s obviously imay return home at some point in time. Whether that’s next year or down the road.
“His family dynamic is important to him. He’s asked to have a little bit of time in the next few coming days to allow him, on his own, to have conversations with his family and then we’re going to sit back down and have a real honest conversation. I do believe David does want to continue to play and he’s made it pretty clear that he if he’d like to continue his career, this is the place he’d continue to play should he chose to stay at the NHL level.”
Plenty of factors at play in net
Re-signing both Hall and Krejci both is a given if this club wants to brace for another run in 2021-22, but the situation in net is much more complicated — with Sweeney and his staff having to now find a balance between potentially bringing back Tuukka Rask, handing youngsters like Jeremy Swayman an extended look and/or adding another veteran netminder into the fold this summer.
At this point, Rask would not be able to return until at least January or February of 2022 due to offseason surgery, but Boston is going to likely need to make a decision at some point this summer on whether or not they want to bring their all-time winningest goalie back — given that signing another UFA will need to be a priority to pair with Swayman if Boston moves on.
“He indicated to us that he fully intended to rehab with the intention of coming back and we’ll go through our meetings and such and go forward,” Sweeney said of Rask. “But we have to factor in that he could be a part of that.
''Whether or not that means that the two young guys get the bulk of the work in the early going and see where Tuukka comes, or we go to augment our group and create internal competition and then reevaluate how Tuukka’s doing, coming out of the rehab process.”
If Rask does return, Boston could opt with the very young tandem of Swayman and Dan Vladar to open the season — although that does hold plenty of risk if bother youngsters hit the expected developmental speed bumps that impact all green goalies.
The last thing Boston wants is for another talented Bruins roster in 2021 to be treading water for the first few months due to a struggling netminder (The Flyers send their regards), but Sweeney noted that the organization is ready to give both goalies an extended look next season. At this point, they may not have a choice.
“I think we’re very comfortable with the depth in the organization having those two young players. … If we’re going to go to market and bring in a player that we feel is ahead of those two players or certainly from an experience standpoint, or we do roll the dice a little bit, allow those guys to see if they can handle the workload, which is a tall task,” Sweeney said. “Make no mistake about it, it’s a tall task.
“Small sample size of Jeremy, he played extremely well. Daniel played well in his starts. ... Again, we’re still in the early stages and feel comfortable with the depth. But we have a very crucial decision to make and chart a course for certainly the first part of the season as to when Tuukka will be ready. We have to forecast that accurately if Tuukka does decide to come back and play and how he fits in.”
As I noted last week, expect Boston’s situation in net to evolve rapidly over the coming months. There’s a ton of factors in play here — and it’s going to be a looooong offseason.
In the market for a top-four D?
Rounding out the depth in the bottom six and on the blue line are going to be key for this club over the summer, but ideally Boston won’t just be settling for a third-pairing blueliner or a 7th D.
While Boston should be in the market for an established, bigger blueliner like a Jamie Oleksiak or a D-zone stalwart like Jon Merril, Neely also stressed the need for Boston to acquire a legitimate top-4 presence to pair next to Brandon Carlo or perhaps even Charlie McAvoy.
“The elusive left D we’ve been looking for that can chew up a lot of minutes. … That’d be more of a shutdown or some puck movement,” Neely said of offseason needs. “Some offensive blue-line acumen. As we saw, you can never have enough D and we never seem to have enough. For some reason or another, we get banged up.
“I think our D this year had maybe eight concussions, which is something I don’t know how to combat. But that position is something that we’ve been looking for, for a while. And hopefully we can do something to grab someone that’s going to help, maybe play 20 minutes a game for us.”
Hmm, a legitimate top-4 D that can both shut down opponents and generate looks down the other end of the ice? Acquiring that is easier said than done, and it might be best facilitated via trade. We’ll be delving deep into potential targets in the coming weeks, but you wonder if Boston might kick the tires of previously reported targets like Mattias Ekholm or a Noah Hanifin?
Don’t expect any major signings ahead of Seattle Expansion Draft
The status of pending UFAs like Krejci, Hall and Rask might loom large, but don’t expect any of those dominos to fall before the first major offseason event takes place — the Seattle Kraken expansion draft on July 21st.
With free agency set to open up on July 28, one would think that Boston wouldn’t want such a tight window for signing a player like Hall before he hits the open market, but signing these UFAs ahead of the expansion draft would then force Boston to use one of its protected slots on a player like Krejci or Hall.
The preferable route would be for Boston to not sign any player leading up to July 21, use the 7-3-1 protection format (seven forwards, three defensemen, one goalie) to retain as much talent as the club can — and then sign their UFAs in the week prior to the start of free agency.
Of course, Sweeney noted that both team and player can “talk in generalities” over a contract, so the framework of new contracts could be constructed before that one-week sprint to free agency.
“I think, again, we’ll have discussions and hopefully be able to find common ground,” Sweeney said of his pending UFAs and not signing ahead of the Kraken draft. “You run the risk, you get into that interview period and period beyond expansion that may get closer to the deadline, and they find ground somewhere else that they feel is a better fit. There’s a risk there.
“But again, the fact of expansion and exposing other player associated with that – you want to keep the strongest roster you possibly can on the depth side of things, and we’ll try to do that like everybody else.”
While the likelihood right now is that Seattle should have plenty of options on the blue line if Boston opts to protect Charlie McAvoy, Carlo and Matt Grzelcyk — there’s a whole lot that can change between now and late July. But regardless of who Boston protects, Sweeney expects the B’s to lose at least one valuable piece of its puzzle.
“We have tough decisions to make all the way across the board, as does every team,” Sweeney said. “I think we all experienced that going through the Vegas expansion. So, you’re going to lose a good player. We’ve come to a decision like we did last time.
“I think you limit the – maybe the mistakes of adding to that, based on the fact that they put themselves in a position. The rules are there for their benefit and you just have to try and hope that they pick one guy that you might have depth to replace. Or you have to go to market to replace. But I think we’re going to stick with exposing the one player and move on from that.”