It sure looks and feels like the Bruins are going to go with internal solutions at the right wing spot alongside Brad Marchand and Charlie Coyle to start next season. We say this with the full knowledge that the forward line combinations could be mixed and matched to kingdom come before the NHL even hits Thanksgiving given Jim Montgomery’s propensity to tinker and tweak with his lineup, and the best-laid plans could be changed early and often.
But with the significant chatter this week about 20-year-old Matt Poitras and the hope that he can be a part of Boston’s center picture this season, it’s natural to wonder what the top-6 is going to look like for the Black and Gold. It feels like there has already been some organizational discussion about slotting frontline center Elias Lindholm with game-breaker David Pastrnak and with Pavel Zacha as he moves from the middle to a left wing spot.
So that leaves a right wing spot vacant alongside Coyle and Marchand who could see a lot of competition during training camp, from young hopefuls like Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov to third-line regulars like Trent Frederic and Morgan Geekie.
“I think we're trying to check off the box to being internally competitive. Do we have a gap there we want to see somebody take advantage of, whether it be Fabian Lysell or anybody else?” said Don Sweeney. “You look at where Geeks [Morgan Geekie] went into a lineup spot and produced, so we’ve got sort of an internal growth modem, but we checked off a lot of boxes with two key components and then a guy that we feel will internally increase our competition.”
Lysell certainly checks the boxes in the skill and speed categories offensively, and he seemed to have matured as a player after posting 15 goals and 50 points in 56 games for the P-Bruins last season. He would have made his NHL debut late last year, but that was scrubbed after taking a late-season hit that eventually caused him to shut things down during the AHL playoffs.
“The injury late last season certainly didn’t help, but Fabian has taken some steps,” said Bruins player development coordinator Adam McQuaid. “He came over and started playing pro when some guys are still in juniors and I think sometimes we forget that, but for him it’s just to come in, be confident and not overcomplicate things.
“We know he’s skilled, but he doesn’t necessarily need to light the world on fire. Just come in, be reliable and create opportunities when they’re there. He’s somebody we’re really excited for because he’s got two years [of professional hockey] under his belt now.
But it also seems like a leap to assume that a 21-year-old rookie is going to be able to consistently play in a top-6 role with two veterans like Coyle and Marchand. And it’s a real question if either Geekie or Frederic will be able to produce enough offensively to be a permanent solution at the right wing even if both players are coming off career high seasons offensively last year.
Surely there will be other forwards that may get auditions there like Justin Brazeau or Max Jones, and there could very well be a training camp audition that goes very, very right as Danton Heinen did last season while logging more than his share of top-6 minutes.
But let’s be honest here.
Don’t these all feel like stopgap solutions until the NHL trade deadline where it feels like a goal-scoring winger (Brock Boeser anyone?) that can fill a top-6 role is going to be the thing atop Boston’s shopping list after it was well down on the priorities during NHL free agency? The hope just has to be that this doesn’t negatively impact Boston’s offensive output as they continue to look for ways to build an offense that wasn’t quite good enough this past season.
KASTELIC FOLLOWING GRANDPA’S FOOTSTEPS
Mark Kastelic wasn’t the key aspect of the Linus Ullmark trade with the Ottawa Senators, but he’s a rugged, physical forward with good faceoff abilities that’s absolutely going to be a bottom-6 factor for the Black and Gold this season. In fact, Kastelic and newly signed winger Max Jones could really give a very different look to the fourth line if they are playing together and banging around bodies while stirring things up physically.
One little-known fact before the trade is that Kastelic was already in the Bruins family as his grandfather Pat Stapleton was a B’s defenseman from 1961-63 in a 10-year career that eventually saw him become an All-Star defenseman with the Chicago Blackhawks.
“It’s super exciting…for me and my family and everyone around me,” said Kastelic. “You see the ‘B’ and they’re just known worldwide. The amount of history they have in the organization. For me, it’s even special that my grandpa played for them for a little bit as well. It’s just really exciting to play for an Original Six.
“It’s something that as a player you always dream about getting that opportunity and what better place to join a team in Boston. Just really excited to be back in the United States as an American guy. Boston’s a great city. You can’t really beat it…I can’t say it enough how excited I am to join it with the history they have.”
The 6-foot-4, 226-pound center is more of a big, heavy, physical player than his grandfather was as an offensive defenseman-type, and the prediction here is that Bruins fans are really going to like this player once he starts blowing up opponents with the hard hitting that’s all over his NHL plays on YouTube.
ONE TIMERS
*Jeremy Swayman declined to file for salary arbitration this past week as around a dozen NHL restricted free agents filed for salary arbitration, and one day later the Bruins declined to take up arbitration with the goaltender as well. It’s not really a surprise given that Swayman didn’t have a positive experience sitting in on the arbitration hearing a year ago, and the B’s weren’t at all enthused about taking their star goalie back to arbitration either.
Don Sweeney’s latest update on Swayman was back on his July 1 availability following Boston’s free agent signings, and he reiterated getting a contract finalized was a priority and obviously even more so after Ullmark was dealt to the Ottawa Senators.
“Sway [Jeremy Swayman] is a big part of this whole dynamic of what we're trying to put together. It’s a priority for us, we're going to continue to find a negotiated landing spot, and the timing is what it is, however long that takes,” said Sweeney. “It's not impacted by what we did [on the opening day of NHL free agency]. We're in a great spot to find as I said, the best negotiated deal we can find for both sides.”
One should expect that the Swayman contract is going to be below the $7 million AAV neighborhood when it’s all said and done, but it’s probably good news that Juuse Saros set the upper ceiling with his seven-year contract for $61.9 million ($7.74 AAV) that he signed with the Nashville Predators. The 29-year-old Saros has topped 60 games played in each of the last three seasons while finishing in the top 5 in Vezina Trophy voting each of those seasons as well and is clearly another level up from Swayman at this point in terms of comparable goaltenders when it comes to contract talks.
Saros is wrapping up a four-year, $20 million contract (the same deal that the B’s signed Ullmark to as a free agent as well) headed into his extension, which could be what the Bruins are looking at/hoping for in a next contract for Swayman as he enters the No. 1 goalie phase of his stellar career.