So, here I am with another post with my 3 Amigos colleagues Kirk Luedeke (the founder of TSP) and Reed Duthie. If you missed the previous posts, look back not too far and you will find them. I hope (I’m sure) you will find them informative.
Decisions, decisions, decisions: That’s what is facing Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney, President Cam Neely and the brain trust of your Boston Bruins. The most critical decision dropped this week when the interim tag was removed from coach Bruce Cassidy. It was crucial for this to be done as early as possible because, despite being two months away from the expansion draft and the entry draft, some key decisions are going to have to be made by mid-June as to which players receive qualifying offers and contracts, and who moves on, potential buyouts and buried contracts.
Editor’s note- Reed Duthie debuts at the Scouting Post with his thoughts on what could be on the horizon for the Boston Bruins personnel-wise. Reed is not only one of the 3 Amigos, but he is the accomplished play-by-play announcer for the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs. With the hockey season over, we hope to see more of Reed’s contributions here in the offseason as a longtime follower of the Bruins and astute analyst.
You have to crawl before you can walk, and you have to walk before you can run. If this season was any indication, the Boston Bruins as a group are certainly finding their way, maybe not running just yet but certainly getting up to a brisk jog.
Although the end of season / early playoff injuries put the Bruins a hole they couldn’t recover from we learned a lot about this team in terms of heart and soul. The additions of traditional blue collar players like Noel Acciari & Sean Kuraly gave the Bruins an energy boost, while Charlie McAvoy made Bruins fans begin to dream in optimistic terms once again.
But after a hard fought loss where do the Bruins go from here?
Patrice Bergeron is Boston’s “Mr Everything” (Photo courtesy of Alison M. Foley)
The NHL season is around the corner, and for the second consecutive season, the Scouting Post blog is back to provide the season preview and deeper look at the Boston Bruins from a position-by-position perspective. The team will soon break training camp on the 2016-17 NHL season at a brand-spanking new practice facility- the Warrior Ice Arena- in Brighton, and although the World Cup of Hockey is up first, there is no shortage of subplots and storylines swirling around this Bruins club.
Given the optimism surrounding the team at forward, we’ll start with the centers. Now, some might take issue with beginning the series from what is Boston’s greatest area of strength, but I started with the goaltenders last year, so there is a method to the madness.
Unlike last year, I am including an audio component to each post, so that allows me to write less and talk a little more, which will save me from carpal tunnel, but will also go a little easier on your eyes. So, without any more foreplay- here we go.
The Bruins are strong at the center position up and down the roster. They don’t have any flashy, dynamic types, but in Patrice Bergeron, have the best two-way pivot in the game, despite what Selke Trophy voters last year would have you believe. David Krejciis the ole reliable playmaking center, but with offseason hip surgery casting his season in doubt, there are some concerns about his durability, especially as he is entering the new year on the wrong side of 30. The B’s big-money free agency ticket item from the summer, David Backes, will be previewed both as a center and a right wing- but we’ve yet to determine where the B’s will slot him, and that promises to be one of the more intriguing storylines as the team breaks camp. Ryan Spoonercurrently holds down the third center spot, and the fourth line pivot is wide open. Noel Acciari finished the final 19 games of the schedule after recovering from a shattered jaw in his rookie pro season, while fellow Providence College product Tim Schaller was brought in to provide competition in the offseason. The B’s also recently announced the signing of Dominic Mooreto a one-year deal, and former 2006 eighth overall pick Peter Mueller, who is trying to make an NHL comeback after concussions and injuries derailed a promising start.
The B’s also have some interesting potential in the system. Whether you’re talking the tiny but ultra-skilled and feisty Austin Czarnik or the slick, cerebral 200-foot pivot in Boston University sophomore Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, the B’s have a couple of options that might not be as far off on the horizon as one might think. Neither is likely to have a great impact this year (though Czarnik is in the AHL and is a dark horse to make some noise and see some NHL action after his excellent rookie pro season), but both Czarnik and JFK are mature players who are likely to work their way into the mix sooner rather than later. The latter player has already drawn comparisons by people in the Bruins organization (as well as some outside the club) to Bergeron, which is a high bar to set for the Swede.
In addition to Czarnik, Colby Cave is an effective two-way center who had a scoring role as captain of the Swift Current Broncos (where he lined up with B’s 2015 1st-rounder Jake DeBrusk) and showed some flashes of ability as a rookie in 2015-16. Sean Kuraly was a center in college, but is expected to shift to wing in the pros, now that he’s expected to start out in the AHL at Providence.
The B’s stirred up some dust when they drafted U.S National (U18) Team center Trent Frederic with the 29th overall pick. Interestingly enough, management (to include the departed former chief scout Keith Gretzky to Edmonton to be Peter Chiarelli’s newest assistant GM) likened the St. Louis native and University of Wisconsin-bound power forward to none other than his childhood idol Backes, who gave up the captaincy of the Blues to sign with Boston a week after the 2016 draft. In Frederic, the B’s get a big slab of beef at the center position for down the road, and if you believe his various coaches who rave about his intelligence and work ethic, there’s more than meets the eye here- he could be a late-bloomer, though don’t expect all that much in terms of production. The B’s also added huge Finn Joona Koppanen(6-5), but he’s more of a defensive clampdown specialist, so even if he makes the NHL, it’s not going to be as a scorer.
A project who will be worth the wait in terms of ceiling and offensive potential is Harvard sophomore and 2014 2nd-rounder Ryan Donato. Watch for the South Shore (Scituate) product to make some noise- this kid is the real deal, and we think he’s going to break out in Cambridge now that Jimmy Vesey has moved on to Broadway. TSP has been a huge fan of Donato’s ever since watching him first dominate the New England prep circuit in 2012-13 and then raise the bar in his draft season. He’s as intelligent and skilled as they come, and knocks on his skating aren’t fair given that he’s bigger than his dad (he gets his size from his mother’s side of the family and a former NFL linebacker uncle), but the hockey sense and hands are elite. Wisconsin junior Cameron Hughesand rising freshman Jack Becker (6th and 7th picks in 2015) are also in the mix as potential payoffs, but will require time and patience, and even then- neither might not ever make it as viable pros.
Outlook: The Bruins have ability and depth up the middle. Bergeron and Krejci (when fully healthy) give the B’s as good a 1-2 punch as any team in the league, but how Backes will fit into that dynamic as the potential third-line center (or whether he moves up and plays a top-two line RW role) remains to be seen. We also have to see how Krejci fares at camp; now that he’s been ruled out of the WCOH for Team Czech Republic, he has some extra time to heal, but if he’s not ready to go, then it’s a no-brainer: Backes moves up to the second line behind Bergeron. Spooner is the source of quiet debate- he appears to be the odd-man out here, as he’s not an ideal fourth-line center if Backes is 3C, and he is one of Boston’s few real trade chips given his youth, skill level and cap-friendly deal (though he’s up for a new pact in 2017). Dominic Moore is a 36-year-old veteran who could mean that Acciari goes back to Providence for more seasoning, and of course- the B’s added Mueller to a PTO, though that is no sure bet that he will even sign or play center for them. Schaller is a wild card for the fourth line as well, but if he’s going to make the Boston roster, he’ll probably need to do it on the wing somewhere.
All in all- center will be the absolute least of Boston’s worries this season, as the team has talent, experience and a roster to weather injuries and unexpected setbacks.
Now, listen to the pod for more (and working on getting these exported to SoundCloud for those who want to do download and listen later- bear with me- it’s coming):
The 3 Amigos ride again…TSP founder Kirk Luedeke, and Ontario pals Dominic Tiano (OHL Writers) and Reed Duthie (Hamilton Bulldogs play-by-play) have teamed up for a pre-season podcast after a long summer and we brought some big guns to the podcast- Boston Bruins defenseman Torey Krug.
My initial reaction after seeing some of the criticism of the Bruins signing Krug to a four-year extension in late June- shortly before the start of free agency- was to do this…
Lady Lyanna Mormont reacts to those who took issue with the Torey Krug extension.
Enough with the teaser, though- Krug joins us at the front of the podcast to talk about the extension, being a smaller defenseman in the NHL, his outlook on leadership, and many other topics including an outlook on the B’s defense.
Once he departs, Dom Reed and yours truly talk a little Zach Senyshyn, OHL 2017 NHL draft hopefuls and of course- the World Cup of Hockey.
Apologies for the quality of the audio- this is a low-budget, low-tech operation, but at least we’re not charging you to listen.
Enjoy the podcast and thanks as always for the support!
As alluded here the other day, the B’s made good on the rumor that they were looking to add a veteran forward, announcing Tuesday that former Harvard standout Dominic Moore signed a one-year pact that will pay him $1M in 2016-17. He reportedly gets a bonus of $100,000 if he plays north of 42 games, so that deal adds to his announced base salary of $900k. TSP didn’t list him in our option players rundown, but we thought about it- Moore is just one of those players that in hindsight is the kind of guy that appeals to the Bruins and what they like to do.
On the bright side- Moore is an experienced center who is one of the better faceoff men in the league, even if his offense is a far cry from what it used to be (and with a career-high of 41 points- Moore was always known as a bottom-six, defensive forward). He’s a good guy and leader who will be a trusted veteran for the coaches and someone to mentor a few of the younger players.
On the down side, Moore is 36 and if no other moves are made to the roster, represents more of the same old, same old (pun intended) where the progression of younger players on the Boston roster is blocked by a low-upside but established NHL old salt. While you can make the argument that rookie Noel Acciari lacks the kind of higher-end potential to argue against Moore taking his spot on Boston’s 4th line, there are other players who represent an upgrade in skill at the position who now are effectively relegated to Providence (Austin Czarnik comes to mind) with the arrival of Moore in Boston.
It would probably be a bad assumption to say that the arrival of Moore and a possible trade of forward assets to acquire help at the defense position are mutually exclusive, but according to the Boston Herald’s Steve Conroy (via Twitter), B’s GM Don Sweeney said yesterday that “he’ll continue to look for D help but nothing imminent. Believes current group can improve & youngsters can challenge.”
Moore has gone through a lot in his 765 NHL games, including the loss of his wife (and former Harvard soccer star), Katie, to cancer. If you can’t get behind his potential to help the Bruins, even the most clinically detached of fans can recognize that the guy has overcome a lot to get to where he is in his pro hockey career, and sometimes- those intangibles are worth more than meets the eye. HNIC and NHL video on him here (you might want a tissue handy):
ESPN E:60 feature on Moore and leaving the NHL for a year to be with his wife:
Don’t believe everything you read, and there are worse players to bring in than Moore. He provides some experienced depth, but if you were a fan who didn’t appreciate the additions of Simon Gagne and Max Talbot to the Boston roster in recent seasons, then there’s likely nothing else that can be said here that will alter your feelings on Moore right now.
But regardless of how you feel about the move from a hockey perspective, it shouldn’t be difficult to get behind the man. Somewhere, Katie Moore is pulling on a Bruins jersey and getting ready to cheer him on for one more season.
scoutingpost 