I think Plan A was to sign Hall and trade DeBrusk for a defenseman. That's why they didn't get too serious about OEL. They needed to wait to see what Hall did. I also think they signed Smith with the idea of having a Hall - Krejci - Smith second line. Two playmakers (and play drivers) in Hall & Krejci and a shooter who can get inside in Smith. It would have been a good line. Unfortunately, Sweeney underestimated Hall's greed vs his desire to win. The Bruins thought they could get him with a lowball offer and it backfired. To be fair, Colorado also offered him $6m so they B's weren't alone in thinking they could get Hall on a team friendly deal. Regardless, plan A has failed.
So what's plan B? Are they going to try to find someone else who can be a playmaker and play driver to play with Krejci and Smith? Rumors are they've contacted Dadonov, but he's going to turn 33 this year. Do we really want to get older? Granlund is another playmaking winger who could mesh well with Krech. He's 28 and has two near 70 point seasons under his belt. Have there been any rumors about him?
Plan C could be Mike Hoffman. 30 goals, 60 points. He's not a passer so IMO they'd have to re-think their 2nd line. If Hoffman was going to be Krejci's LW I think the line would work better with someone like Kase over Smith. Again, giving Krejci guys who like to pass and create as a unit as opposed to individually. The downside there is that while the 2nd line gets better, they still don't have someone who gets inside, which I think is a big priority for the front office. And there's the off-ice baggage that comes with Hoffman, which could also scare them away. At this point, they may be thinking they'd be better off just giving DeBrusk another chance at 2LW, hoping the trade rumors scared him enough to get more serious about showing up every night.
Which leads me to Plan D, as in defense. Without DeBrusk as the primary trade chip, their ability to deal for someone to replace Chara has probably vanished. They never closed the door on Z and this is why. He's their safety net. But without significantly upgrading the forwards they're probably going to get back into the OEL conversation. I'm not sure how much leverage they will have in that conversation after blowing them off the first time around, but if you look at what cap dumps are being traded for, this really shouldn't be that hard of a deal to complete.
At the end of the day, I think the forwards are marginally improved with the addition of Smith and the defense is marginally improved with OEL replacing Krug. I'm not sure about the spirit and drive of the group though, last year's team was on a mission. This year's team wasn't even sure they wanted to keep their captain. Krug was beloved and let go. DeBrusk is well liked and they considered moving him. Rask must be feeling the heat from Neely's stare...
Marsh - Bergy - Pasta
DeBrusk - Krejci - Kase
Bjork - Coyle - Smith
Kuraly - Lindholm - Wags
Chara - McAvoy
OEL - Carlo
Gryz - Miller
Which leaves a long list of guys who should either be in our lineup or have value around the league: Studnicka, Frederic, Kuhlman, Lauzon, Clifton. As well as some guys that provide depth as healthy scratch: Moore, Zboril and possibly Sensyshyn (because he's waiver ineligible).