Bruins Notebook: B’s assistant coach Jay Pandolfo reportedly leaving for BU coaching job; potential fallout from Arvidsson trade

The personnel standing at the top of the Bruins’ bench might look a bit different in 2021-22 and beyond, as B’s assistant coach Jay Pandolfo is reportedly heading back to his alma mater.

According to a report from Jeff Cox and Kirk Luedeke of the New England Hockey Journal, Pandolfo is set to become the associate head coach at Boston University — pairing him with his former Terrier teammate and current head coach of the program in Albie O’Connell. 

Pandolfo, who hails from Burlington, played at BU from 1992-96 before logging 15 seasons up in the NHL ranks. After closing out his playing career with a short stint in Boston, Pandolfo officially joined the B’s in a player-development role in 2014 before making the jump over to assistant coach in 2016-17 — working primarily with Boston’s forwards as part of Bruce Cassidy’s staff. 

Speaking back in May, Cassidy praised Pandolfo’s ability to complement Boston’s coaching staff, especially when it comes to connecting with the players on the ice. 

“What he brings away from the technical side — he's the youngest guy on our staff and the most recently retired player,” Cassidy said. “So I think that benefits us with his relationships with the players. He's a little closer to that part of the game ,so we can go to him on those things. So when players don't quite look right, what is it? He's able to get their ear. He's a Stanley Cup champion. So for us on the staff, that's invaluable insight and especially in these playoff series. ... So that's what we lean on him mostly for. A great guy.”

In terms of potential replacements on Boston’s coaching staff, the Bruins have plenty of intriguing options — likely headlined by Providence bench boss Jay Leach. 

Leach has done a terrific job down in the AHL ranks, compiling a record of 121-71-22 over three seasons with Boston’s top development club and is viewed by many as a rising star in the pro coaching ranks — especially after reportedly getting an interview for the Coyotes head coaching gig, which eventually went to Andre Tourigny. 

If Boston wants to keep their promotion in house but might prefer to keep Leach down in the AHL for at least another year or two, another tempting candidate is Chris Kelly — with the 2011 Stanley Cup champion serving as a player development coordinator with Boston since the summer of 2019. The 40-year-old Kelly does have some coaching experience in the NHL, serving as an assistant on Marc Crawford’s staff in Ottawa back in 2019. 

What Arvidsson trade means for Nashville, the Kraken and rest of NHL

With plenty of NHL clubs terrified of moving assets and augmenting their rosters ahead of the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft on July 21, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the next few weeks will likely be pretty dormant in terms of deals and tangible transactions between clubs.

Well, at least that was the thinking before Thursday morning, as the Predators and Kings signed off on a trade that sent winger Viktor Arvidsson to Los Angeles in exchange for a 2021 second-round draft pick and 2022 third-round pick.

While Arvidsson’s game had tailed off over the last few seasons after lighting the lamp 34 times in 58 games in 2018-19, the return does seem … adequate, if not perhaps a bit underwhelming given the winger’s age (28) and bounce-back potential.

But beyond just moving Arvidsson’s contract in order to potentially ink free agents like Juuse Saros, Dante Fabbro, Mikael Granlund and Eeli Tolvanen, Nashville’s decision to move on from their scoring winger is also another sign that plenty of teams are starting to feel the looming effects of the Kraken's arrival — and are making moves accordingly to best maximize the protection slots afforded to them.

With Arvidsson gone, perhaps the Predators can go with the 8-1 protection route and keep Roman Josi, Ryan Ellis, Mattias Ekholm and likely Fabbro from the clutches of Seattle. If Arvidsson was still on the books and Nashville did the 8-1 route, they’d likely lose Arvidsson for nothing — given that he’d probably be unprotected for a Kraken team that would easily take a flyer on him. 

Yes, the Bruins are likely in line to lose a solid player later this month in the expansion draft (my hunch is either Connor Clifton or Jeremy Lauzon), but in the grand scheme of things, the B’s are in a better spot than most in that they’re likely not going to have to part ways with key pieces of their roster just in order to allocate more protection slots elsewhere.

As for where the Preds go from here, it sure seems like Nashville is looking to work on an extension with Ekholm — who would be my top target for Boston on the trade market this summer.

But if Nashville GM David Poile is viewing the Arvidsson deal as the first step in an eventual rebuild that deconstructs his team’s current core as it looks to the future, perhaps the narrative might change when it comes to how the Preds view Ekholm’s tenure there in 2021-22 and beyond. 

If Nashville opts to truly blow it up, things will becoming very, very interesting — given that the Bruins would be far from the only club vying for Ekholm’s services out on the trade market. 

Providence inks Zummack to AHL contract

There still isn’t a whole ton of movement up with the NHL club, but the Providence Bruins added to their roster on Thursday afternoon — signing forward Eli Zummack to a two-year AHL contract.

Zummack, 21, played the previous five seasons with the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL — recording 239 points (70 goals, 169 assists) over 254 career games. In his final campaign in 2021, Zummack posted 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) over 21 games. 

The playmaking pivot was not drafted (perhaps due to his smaller frame at 5-foot-9, 179 pounds), but appeared in development camps with both the Maple Leafs (2018) and Lightning (2019). 

“Eli improved each year as a playmaking center with the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League,” Providence GM John Ferguson Jr. said in a statement. “We are excited to have him in Providence and look forward to watching his growth and development this season.”