Boston Bruins 24-25 Roster/Cap thread VIII

[bbfan419]

Landon DuPont is definitely appearing to be a generational D talent. He was 14 years old on a U18 team in western Canada - put up 19g, 43a for 62p in 30 games. Hes over a PPG as a 15 year old in the WHL this year. So far looking to be the 1st overall in 2027.

The Bruins current future looks pretty bleak and these upcoming drafts have a ton of talent in the top 5-10. Will be nice to obtain/hold onto picks in the coming years.

If you are lucky enough to add McKenna and then DuPont in back-to back years that is a great way to start a rebuild, but also means you have to really suck for 2 years, unless you can make trades for picks that end up winning the lottery

 

[Oates2Neely]

Taylor Hall is not Taylor Hall any more. For Geekie? Fine whatever, not that you can make that work easily. For anyone else of value? Absolutely not.

That’s what was said about Buffalo Taylor Hall. He then arrived in Boston to score 8 goals in his first 16 games. Not the same player he was 5 years ago but he’d be an upgrade for sure

 

[Oates2Neely]

I don’t think this fanbase is ready to blow things up and suck, just to draft 18 yr olds who may or may not be good in 5 years. Ask San Jose fans how much fun they’ve had the past 7-10 years

 

[Absurdity]

Merkulov - Zacha - Pastrnak
Marchand - Lindholm - Lysell
Frederic - Coyle - Geekie/Brazeau
Koepke - Beecher - Geekie/Brazeau
Viel

When Kastelic is back, one of Geekie or Brazeau are benched. If they still suck, start selling.

 

[RiverbottomChuck]

Merkulov - Zacha - Pastrnak
Marchand - Lindholm - Lysell
Frederic - Coyle - Geekie/Brazeau
Koepke - Beecher - Geekie/Brazeau
Viel

When Kastelic is back, one of Geekie or Brazeau are benched. If they still suck, start selling.

What about Poitras?

 

[Blowfish]

Would anyone trade Coyle for Hall ?

No way

 

[4ORRBRUIN]

Would anyone trade Coyle for Hall ?

The Bruins would, Not because I think Coyle stinks but the contract swap would be sweet

 

[BradMarchandismydad]

The Bruins would, Not because I think Coyle stinks but the contract swap would be sweet

I am begging Donald to dump this contract somewhere

 

[bbfan419]

No way

What is we got a 2nd as well?

 

[Blowfish]

What is we got a 2nd as well?

Hall hasn’t been good for some time now. Big contract and coming back from injury.

Coyle is the one player that I feel works hard every night.

 

[BradMarchandismydad]

Hall hasn’t been good for some time now. Big contract and coming back from injury.

Coyle is the one player that I feel works hard every night.

There’s seven million players who play hard, he has bad offensive impacts. Every winger on his line outside of Trent Frederic has seen diminished output for the entirety of his career. It’s not a coincidence.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1858997524352410051

I know we don’t believe in advanced stats here but we currently have zero centers who score goals or are playmakers. Stats, advanced stats, eye test all support it.

It’s indefensible roster construction. Fire Sweeney

 

[Absurdity]

What about Poitras?

That lineup is what I prefer Sacco go with within the next couple of games. I also missed Johnson, but he can be the 13th over Viel or play on the 3rd line.

I think Poitras gets a call up before the trade deadline. A lot will depend on how he does in Providence, he hasn't been lighting it up, and how well the Bruins do with Sacco at the helm.

There’s seven million players who play hard, he has bad offensive impacts. Every winger on his line outside of Trent Frederic has seen diminished output for the entirety of his career. It’s not a coincidence.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1858997524352410051

I know we don’t believe in advanced stats here but we currently have zero centers who score goals or are playmakers. Stats, advanced stats, eye test all support it.

It’s indefensible roster construction. Fire Sweeney

JFresh's point still stands, but I would argue Zacha and Beecher have been wingers for the majority of the season. However, it's still not a good look for Lindholm and Coyle. I wonder how these stats are compared to last season's.

 

[4ORRBRUIN]

Hall hasn’t been good for some time now. Big contract and coming back from injury.

Coyle is the one player that I feel works hard every night.

Last year of Halls deal at almost the same money. Coyle has another year after the one.

Coyle is good at fooling people that he's working hard.

No mystery why the pk blows as well, he plays on it. He should be a healthy scratch to get his out out of his ass and try to get something out of the 11m we are stuck paying him.

Hall, everyday of the week for the rest of this season over another year after this one with Coyle.

 

[Fenian24]

Would anyone trade Coyle for Hall ?

In a heartbeat

 

[BradMarchandismydad]

That lineup is what I prefer Sacco go with within the next couple of games. I also missed Johnson, but he can be the 13th over Viel or play on the 3rd line.

I think Poitras gets a call up before the trade deadline. A lot will depend on how he does in Providence, he hasn't been lighting it up, and how well the Bruins do with Sacco at the helm.


JFresh's point still stands, but I would argue Zacha and Beecher have been wingers for the majority of the season. However, it's still not a good look for Lindholm and Coyle. I wonder how these stats are compared to last season's.

Coyles impacts have been middling to bad for his entire career.

Lindholm had a good year or two but he was between two game breaking forwards in Tkachuk and Gaudreau. Last few years he’s come down to Earth in a not so good way.

Signing Lindholm was a last ditch effort with the hope that he was secretly the reason Gaudreau (completely filthy playmaker) and Tkachuk (arguably best winger in the league) were great. This has not been the case. Fingers crossed he can turn it around.

I’m absolutely all set on Coyle, though.

 

[Jorah Marshmont]

This would be a good season for some Hall first overall magic

 

[Fenian24]

Hall hasn’t been good for some time now. Big contract and coming back from injury.

Coyle is the one player that I feel works hard every night.

Smiling Charlie is softer than baby poo. He seems like the head of the country club/entitled mentality this team has. Dumping him for a pick would be great and use his money to improve the top 6.

Literally addition by subtraction.

 

[BruinDust]

There’s seven million players who play hard, he has bad offensive impacts. Every winger on his line outside of Trent Frederic has seen diminished output for the entirety of his career. It’s not a coincidence.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1858997524352410051

I know we don’t believe in advanced stats here but we currently have zero centers who score goals or are playmakers. Stats, advanced stats, eye test all support it.

It’s indefensible roster construction. Fire Sweeney

Is his roster construction flawed? You betcha.

But you can run a group of complimentary centers IF you have enough play driving wingers. It's the wingers now who carry the puck up through the neutral zone, try to gain entry with possession. Look at all the play-driving wingers racking up points around the league now.

Problem is their best winger is basically a shooter who can make plays but leans more into finding soft spots for shooting opportunities. And their best play-driving winger is 36 going on 37 years old. They don't have anyone else on the wing who even remotely fits this mold.

So it exposes how all their centers are complimentary players. Which was one of the main reasons I was against signing Lindholm. Even if they couldn't find a play-driving center, leave the center position as is and focus on play-driving wingers. If neither was available, than just stand pat and wait for a play-driving C or Wing to shake loose. They didn't need more complimentary two-way forwards. And now what's done is done. If a play-driving forward came available tomorrow, they would be hard-pressed to capitalize with no cap space. Now salary has to go out to make it work and we all know how hard it is to move bad contracts in a cap system. Borderline impossible until the deadline.

 

[BradMarchandismydad]

Is his roster construction flawed? You betcha.

But you can run a group of complimentary centers IF you have enough play driving wingers. It's the wingers now who carry the puck up through the neutral zone, try to gain entry with possession. Look at all the play-driving wingers racking up points around the league now.

Problem is their best winger is basically a shooter who can make plays but leans more into finding soft spots for shooting opportunities. And their best play-driving winger is 36 going on 37 years old. They don't have anyone else on the wing who even remotely fits this mold.

So it exposes how all their centers are complimentary players. Which was one of the main reasons I was against signing Lindholm. Even if they couldn't find a play-driving center, leave the center position as is and focus on play-driving wingers. If neither was available, than just stand pat and wait for a play-driving C or Wing to shake loose. They didn't need more complimentary two-way forwards. And now what's done is done. If a play-driving forward came available tomorrow, they would be hard-pressed to capitalize with no cap space. Now salary has to go out to make it work and we all know how hard it is to move bad contracts in a cap system. Borderline impossible until the deadline.

I think the closest thing you can find to a team that won the Stanley Cup in the last decade with complimentary centers are the Tampa Bay Lightning, but I really wouldn’t describe Point in that way. Maybe St. louis but then again ROR is a fantastic two way player, and Schenn had a great year.

Every other team has had 2 elite or great play driving centers.

Struggling to think of other examples there.

Flawed to me is underselling it by an order of magnitude. This is a putrid top 9 outside of Pastrnak and Marchand.

I genuinely can’t think of a roster with worse centers in the entire league.

 

[wintersej]

They have to change something. Can't hurt to give Sacco interim, then you can explore the coach and trade market in the meantime.

The Tyler Johnson of the coaching staff

 

[BruinDust]

I think the closest thing you can find to a team that won the Stanley Cup in the last decade with complimentary centers are the Tampa Bay Lightning, but I really wouldn’t describe Point in that way. Maybe St. louis but then again ROR is a fantastic two way player, and Schenn had a great year.

Every other team has had 2 elite or great play driving centers.

Struggling to think of other examples there.

Flawed to me is underselling it by an order of magnitude. This is a putrid top 9 outside of Pastrnak and Marchand.

I genuinely can’t think of a roster with worse centers in the entire league.

St. Louis had a younger Robert Thomas but he can drive play with his playmaking. I'd call ROR and Schenn more complimentary (especially ROR). And complimentary doesn't mean lesser, just it dictates who you line them up with more. And the shift is more the past few years. But now you got guys like Panarin, Kaprizov, Marner, Kucherov, Rantanen, Nylander, who are just as valuable to their teams offensively as the centers are. In some cases, mores so. It was once almost blasphemy for a winger to get Hart consideration (other than OV for his generational goal scoring). Now it's much more common. Rantanen and Kaprizov especially are criminally underrated.

It's not the roster with the worst centers, it's the roster with the worst group of forwards in the league. Boston or Chicago. The numbers speak for themselves.

 

[UncleRico]

I am begging Donald to dump this contract somewhere

I’d rather dump about 3-4 other contracts before Coyles. At least Coyles is up soon anyways