Tomorrow’s Globe:
The Bruins haven’t added impactful offense via free agency since the summer of 2006, when Marc Savard, about to turn 29, came aboard.
www.bostonglobe.com
For Bruins fans, the focus of general manager
Don Sweeney’s fixing
this offseason is up front, the perpetual hunt for goal scoring. All of which will group the Bruins alongside at least a couple dozen other NHL franchises in need of the same thing when free agency opens July 1.
Important to note off the top that the draft each year feeds, at best, three or four gifted scorers into the Original 32. Figuring an average career of 5-6 years, that tells us the NHL has some 20-25 players who can be considered game-changing goal scorers. Those guys exist and they demand
a ton of dough.
David Pastrnak, one of the truly gifted, now makes $11.25 million a year, the going rate for that select group blessed with deadly mitts. Florida’s
Sam Reinhart (57 goals/94 points), another of the gifted, is poised to cash in as an unrestricted free agent. If the Panthers allow him to get to market, a big if, underlying demand is such that he should see multiple offers beginning at seven years, $70 million.
Maybe Sweeney wins that money toss. If so, bravo.
The Bruins have the cash to get it done, and the need was there during their playoff run. Just keep in mind that Reinhart, 28, is walking into a market so hot that his offers could soar upward of the $13.25 million the Maple Leafs will pay
Auston Matthews next season. Only one thing is certain: There will be pain.
The Bruins haven’t added impactful offense via free agency since the summer of 2006, when
Marc Savard, about to turn 29, came aboard to co-chair the No. 1 pivot spot with a 21-year-old
Patrice Bergeron.
Savard was never a gifted goal scorer, pre- or post-Boston, but he arrived as one of the game’s coveted setup artists. His ample assists helped him average just under 90 points for his first three years on Causeway Street, the kind of numbers that even the uber-talented Bergeron never approached across his Hall-of-Fame-to-be career. Could there be a better case to highlight the fact that there’s a whole lot more to succeeding at the No. 1 center position than point production?
Beyond the hunt for the hot hand in front, another fix for the Black and Gold, one potentially easier to fit into the budget, would be a key alteration to the back end aimed at wringing more production out of
Charlie McAvoy and
Hampus Lindholm.
McAvoy still needs to channel his shooter’s ego — if it’s in there to tap — and coach
Jim Montgomery has to prod him more into the offensive scheme, activating him off the right defense spot for the attack. McAvoy is a bold, imposing force when wheeling with the puck on his stick in the back end and neutral zone. With those legs and stick skills, he could cause havoc in the offensive end, at even strength and on the power play.
Once across the blue line, McAvoy is first and foremost a distributor, then a reluctant shooter and a far-too-infrequent dynamo charging to the net or wrapping around the cage for feeds into the middle. He has all the giddyup in the world. Now’s the time to see his beast-mode gumption. If not now, when?
The smooth, skilled, earnest Lindholm saw his offensive production cut in half this season, from 10-43–53 to 3-23-26. Those latter numbers are far more in line with the career average he carried here from Anaheim. Like McAvoy, the Bruins need more from him, ideally the 2002-23 version of himself, a player confident again in moving pucks up ice, maintaining offensive-zone pressure, pocketing points when they’re available. He doesn’t have to be McAvoy Lite, but just a return to Hampus Best.
Overall, the Bruins’ blue-liners saw their point production drop by more than 26 percent this season, from 39-166–205 in 2022-23 to 31-120–151. Half of that 54-point dip could be found in Lindholm’s drop from 53 to 26.
Bruins defensemen ranked a lowly 27th league-wide with 151 points, far off pace-setters Colorado (62-179-241), Edmonton (48-167–215), Vancouver (37-171–208), and the Rangers (44-157-201).
Points from the back end don’t necessarily a Stanley Cup champion make, but the Oilers and Rangers entered the weekend with that dream still on their sticks. Dallas defensemen (183 points) ranked 12th, with Florida (171) 18th.
Of the five teams whose defensemen collected fewer points than Boston’s this season, only Washington (135) qualified for the playoffs. The Rangers then mopped the floor with the Capitals, 4-0, in Round 1.
Be it by trade or the free agent market, acquiring another left-shot blue-liner could go a long way in increasing the Bruins’ offensive pop. It would be a guy to switch in and out of the Nos. 1 and 2 pairings with Lindholm, working with McAvoy or
Brandon Carlo as right-side runningmate.
One in-house answer here could be
Mason “Let-’er-rip”
Lohrei, fresh off logging an impressive rookie season, but his work was not a sample size big enough to feel assured he could be the one who makes for a top-four reset.
Some potential defense targets to keep in mind now with free agent roughly a month away:
Brady Skjei (LD),
Chris Tanev (RD),
Shayne Gostisbehere (LD/RD),
Joel Edmundson (LD/RD), and
Brandon Montour (RD). Skjei and Edmundson, their tool kits considerably different, could offer the best answers in the overall scheme to help McAvoy and Lindholm lift their offensive effectiveness.
Skjei (6 feet 3 inches, 210 pounds) looks ideal for this role. He is 30, exiting a deal with the Hurricanes that carried a $5.4 million cap hit, and just put up a career-best 13-34–47. Overall, his game could make him a seamless fit in the top four. Provided bidding doesn’t run off to crazyland, the Bruins could make it work at around $6 million.
Edmundson’s game is not nearly as offensively robust, but his size (6-5, 220) and physical play could buy McAvoy some space on the No. 1 pairing. In situations where Lindholm-McAvoy ride together, the Edmundson-Carlo duo would offer shutdown length and heft. About to turn 31, Edmundson finished the season with the Leafs on a deal carrying a $3.5 million AAV. In his final two seasons with the Blues, including the 2018-19 Cup season, he averaged 113 shots on net and 20 minutes of ice time. McAvoy hit the net 133 times this season, followed by Lindholm (99).
