Boston Bruins 24-25 Roster/Cap thread XV

[ODAAT]

Time to sell Donny

too busy with 4 Nations, we`ll see him acquire little more than a 4th line plug at the deadline, sell nothing

 

[22Brad Park]

Back in 2005-06, the Bruins young center and captain had been negotiating a new deal. Management wasn’t happy. They ended up trading their franchise player for 3 nickels. Management got their way.

Now we have this franchise goalie who management is upset with… I say if there is to be a game changing trade - it involves this kid.

Would you like or dislike a Swayman + Merkulov for Gibson + Zegras trade?
I would be fine with it.

No for me and good bet Gibson lands in Edm anyhow.

 

[Bruin4]

Would you like or dislike a Swayman + Merkulov for Gibson + Zegras trade?
I would be fine with it.

A while back I proposed a similar trade.
Gibson and McTavish for Swayman and maybe Coyle.
Then I’d sign McTavish to an 8 year 8 per contract.

I think Gibson is still a top goalie and I think Zegras could be a steal if You get him out of Anaheim. Only thing I don’t like with your deal, not enough Salary going back. Keep merl and send a much larger cap hit back

 

[RiverbottomChuck]

too busy with 4 Nations, we`ll see him acquire little more than a 4th line plug at the deadline, sell nothing

I have a horror scenerio in my mind where he trades the 1st for the completely wrong guy and they continue to whiff and it becomes a top 7 pick.

 

[TorontLoL 67]

I'd like to see Coyle traded. It would be a start anyway. Guy is way too comfortable not producing and coasting most of the time. Hell I'd be comfortable with those paychecks at that performance level if it were me. But I'm not a professional hockey player.

 

[Deal Law]

too busy with 4 Nations, we`ll see him acquire little more than a 4th line plug at the deadline, sell nothing

Getting Hampus back will be just like a trade. It will be our own internal trade*

*Copyright Chaim Bloom

 

[Deal Law]

The next move Sweeney executes should be for whatever team is stupid enough to hire him after we fire his ass. I don’t want that imbecile trading, drafting, signing, waiving, demoting or promoting anyone ever again for this team.

 

[BruinsJoe]

2025-2026 holes to fill with around 24mil to spend on 95.5mil cap space...not great!!!

31 440 000$ forwards group
xxxxxx xxxxxx Pastrnak
Zacha xxxxxx xxxxxx
Lindholm Poitras Coyle
xxxxxx Kastelic xxxxxx

22 125 000$ D corp
Lindholm Mcavoy
Zadorov Carlo
xxxxxx Peeke
Osterle

11 250 000$ goalies
Sway
Korpi

 

[Oates2Neely]

Even at that he's a better defenseman than Mason is already


He will be fine, He was gettin high marks for his coach.

Not getting much ice time with the stacked roster.

I’m going to their game tomorrow night vs BU it’ll be my first time watching him live. You can’t teach size. He has a great shot. Just needs some maturing

 

[Fenian24]

Back in 2005-06, the Bruins young center and captain had been negotiating a new deal. Management wasn’t happy. They ended up trading their franchise player for 3 nickels. Management got their way.

Now we have this franchise goalie who management is upset with… I say if there is to be a game changing trade - it involves this kid.

Would you like or dislike a Swayman + Merkulov for Gibson + Zegras trade?
I would be fine with it.

Want nothing to do with Zegras, McTavish on the other hand I would expand on this deal to get him.

 

[Oates2Neely]

Back in 2005-06, the Bruins young center and captain had been negotiating a new deal. Management wasn’t happy. They ended up trading their franchise player for 3 nickels. Management got their way.

Now we have this franchise goalie who management is upset with… I say if there is to be a game changing trade - it involves this kid.

Would you like or dislike a Swayman + Merkulov for Gibson + Zegras trade?
I would be fine with it.

Incredible that your solution to this mess is to deal Swayman who has been really good lately in front of a disaster of a team for Gibson (he sucks) & Zegras (he’s soft). Swayman McAvoy Pastrnak are the core going forward. Add to it. Lohrei might be working his way into becoming part of that core. Hopefully Poitras soon. Swayman is NOT the problem in Boston

 

[pucksindeep92]

5 years at 4.1

Would be a year longer than I’d like, but I’d be pleasantly surprised if his agent settles for less than 4.5 upfront without testing the market first.

 

[Gee Wally]

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/09/sports/boston-bruins-playoff-chances/

Technically, mathematically, even historically, it remains too early to say the Bruins are all done.

Realistically, in the court of common sense, in a world where if it bounces like a puck then it’s a puck, their chase for a playoff spot is finished.

The bigger question is where does ownership take it from here? Does Charlie Jacobs have a fix for this sorry, pricey, uninspired, boring lot now far removed from the rough-tumble-and-entertaining bunch his dad purchased for pocket change a half-century ago?
If so, now’s about time to hear it from the younger Jacobs, who’s on record as saying his franchise defines itself by challenging for, and winning, the Stanley Cup.

Uh, Bueller?



When no one else can figure it out, be it players or front office, then it’s on the owner, the corner office on Causeway where the bucks never stop flowing. Even Robert Kraft finally figured, yeah, it was on him when he jumped off the high chair in Foxboro and shook down the thunder in hopes of salvaging the last couple of cobblestones remaining on pot-holed Patriots Way.

Fifty-seven games into their 82-game schedule, parked 11th in the East with a .526 points percentage, this iteration of the Bruins has proven to be not talented enough, not driven enough, just not good enough, to clinch one of the eight seeds in the conference.

Too sloppy on defense in critical moments, especially of late. Too short of offensive scoring talent and touch all season, now four-plus months and counting. Perhaps most concerning, there is little sense of urgency, even now when it’s apparent what condition their condition is in (read: critical).

Their last viable hope is that Jeremy Swayman can start and win, say, 18-20 of their remaining 25 games. Yet, though solid most nights, their No. 1 goaltender has lost more than he’s won this season (18-18-4) and his save percentage (.898) remains an itsy bit below the .900 level that is the get-in figure for goalies considered NHL elite.

Which is to say, Swayman has been very good but not great, though still better than everyone in Black & Gold other than David Pastrnak. He just hasn’t been everything they need, someone to make those big, game-saving, 10-bell stops in huge moments, which inevitably is what makes or breaks franchise goalies. Swayman has been just OK when they needed him to be the best player on the ice.


Meanwhile, upon returning to action, the Bruins will play seven more times prior to the March 7 trade deadline. It portends to be the most critical stretch of days here since November 2005, when a frustrated front office felt the best way to get things going was to deal Joe Thornton to the Sharks.

Did that shake things up? Hell yeah. By the following spring, Thornton was pocketing MVP honors, general manager Mike O’Connell was out on the street, and Harry Sinden, Boss Causeway, was officially on his way to the deep back woods of the front office. Peter Chiarelli then was hired as GM. Five years later, the city was celebrating its first Stanley Cup title since ‘72, and the only Cup in the half-century of Jacobs ownership.

What happens here in the run-up to March 7? For now, GM Don Sweeney and club president Cam Neely have to decide if it’s time to buy or sell. If they’re buying, the needs here are too great, the roster too thin, to take a bonafide stab at winning the Cup this year. If they’re selling, the only big, contractually unfettered asset is Swayman, and while he has been less than hoped for thus far in ‘24-’25, he’s too rare a talent to swap out now at this stage of his career. He could end up Jumbo Joe Deux.

The bigger issue to watch is whether Charlie Jacobs is going to go status quo and keep Sweeney and Neely as co-clerks of the works. Or, will he now, for the first time since truly taking over the operation and promise of the Original Six franchise in recent years, display courage and vision to do whatever it takes to put an entertaining, talented, Cup-worthy team on the ice.

We have watched the talent drain down, the product soften up, ever since Game 7 of the Cup Final here in 2019. When I asked Jacobs last spring, at the club’s end-of-season autopsy, what ownership was doing to improve the product, avoid more postseason failures, he looked dumbstruck. He asked me to repeat the question.

“We did do something,” said a flustered Jacobs. “We fired the coach.” And then he backed his front office.

Some 6-7 months later, they did that again with the coach. And now, not much has changed, although through no lack of effort from interim bench boss Joe Sacco. He inherited a bench that Neely and Sweeney engineered, one clearly not enough to keep the customer(s) satisfied.

Next move to you, Charlie Jacobs, if you have one. Something has to change.

 

[DKH]

After yesterday gotta blow it up

I don’t care if the new GM takes 7 10 years we gotta get it right

We need minimum. 5 top 5 picks

 

[Oates2Neely]

I'd like to see Coyle traded. It would be a start anyway. Guy is way too comfortable not producing and coasting most of the time. Hell I'd be comfortable with those paychecks at that performance level if it were me. But I'm not a professional hockey player.

Coyle is capable of so much more. He’s big, he protects the puck well, he has speed when he wants to skate, and he has a good shot. He should be able to take over large chunks of the game. We all watched him in 2019 playoffs. He just rarely turns it on. He just seems comfortable coasting most nights. If Coyle had HALF the edge/ attitude of Lucic McQuaid Kevan Miller Nathan Horton.. he’d be an unstoppable force. He’s just a happy go lucky kid who puts in his 17 mins TOI & is completely content to go home after a loss to play with his puppy and watch the bachelorette reruns. Grow some balls kid. I’d move him for a 2nd

 

[Bruin4]

Incredible that your solution to this mess is to deal Swayman who has been really good lately in front of a disaster of a team for Gibson (he sucks) & Zegras (he’s soft). Swayman McAvoy Pastrnak are the core going forward. Add to it. Lohrei might be working his way into becoming part of that core. Hopefully Poitras soon. Swayman is NOT the problem in Boston

He's far from the problem, but if he could help be the solution in possibly getting a number one center for the next Decade-Decade and a half Id do it. Im pretty sure you'd have to add, but with him having no trade protection, he might be the quickest way.

 

[DKH]

Bedard & Oliver Moore for Pastrnak

Marchand for Vegas 25 & 26 firsts

McAvoy for Dobson & Celebrini

Swayman for Binghamton & Neighbors

All 20 guys need to go

First wave

Evan Gold GM
Bourque president
Shawn Thornton coach

 

[Alicat]

Trying to stay positive.

All you can do because there’s enough misery elsewhere.

 

[Oates2Neely]

He's far from the problem, but if he could help be the solution in possibly getting a number one center for the next Decade-Decade and a half Id do it. Im pretty sure you'd have to add, but with him having no trade protection, he might be the quickest way.

Trevor Zegras is not a center he’s a LW, and not a good one at that. For the love of god you folks clamoring for Zegras should spend 2-3 games watching a Ducks game. I wouldn’t trade Swayman for 4 Zegras’

 

[Bruin4]

Bedard & Oliver Moore for Pastrnak

Marchand for Vegas 25 & 26 firsts

McAvoy for Dobson & Celebrini

Swayman for Binghamton & Neighbors

All 20 guys need to go

First wave

Evan Gold GM
Bourque president
Shawn Thornton coach

So where does McAvoy end up ?

Long island or California ?

Trevor Zegras is not a center he’s a LW, and not a good one at that. For the love of god you folks clamoring for Zegras should spend 2-3 games watching a Ducks game. I wouldn’t trade Swayman for 4 Zegras’

Im not saying for Zegras, sorry about that. I should of been more clear. Thats why I said for a Number one Center for the next Decade-Decade an Half.I Never mentioned Zegras in that quote at all.

But I do like Zegras and Ive watched the Ducks plenty enough to where Id take McTavish for Swayman.

 

[Oates2Neely]

A full tear down isn’t necessary. McAvoy was drafted at 14th overall. Deal the guys who don’t have a future here. Keep your picks. Find out what you have in Lysell Merkulov. If you fall out of the playoffs so be it. Pick the BPA at 12th-16th overall. Spend cap space in the summer on YOUNG players if any are available. Attempt to make trades for young talent up front. Maybe it takes 2 seasons to regroup. Don’t force it.

 

[gvkmedia]

A while back I proposed a similar trade.
Gibson and McTavish for Swayman and maybe Coyle.
Then I’d sign McTavish to an 8 year 8 per contract.

I think Gibson is still a top goalie and I think Zegras could be a steal if You get him out of Anaheim. Only thing I don’t like with your deal, not enough Salary going back. Keep merl and send a much larger cap hit back

I agree it would be nicer to get McTavish but I don’t think Anaheim would move him.
Lack of salary going back - don’t think they would take Coyle unless they flip him

 

[Bruin4]

I agree it would be nicer to get McTavish but I don’t think Anaheim would move him.
Lack of salary going back - don’t think they would take Coyle unless they flip him

yea, I dont think they would neither. Gibson is still a good goalie, he's just been in Anahiem too long, so he has Value and Sweeney been able to find goalies a lot easier than true number one centers, so I like the idea of moving Swayman if he can bring one back.

Id also move Swayman and Lindholm for Zegras and Gibson if Lindholm would waive. Id do that in a NY minute and then go heavy after Marner or Rantanen with the Cap space that was created.

 

[Dr Hook]

Bear should have been on that list. And he probably could be available outside the top10.

Plus he’s named Bear- Sweeney should do whatever takes to draft him.

 

[Ozzy Osbourne]

The next move Sweeney executes should be for whatever team is stupid enough to hire him after we fire his ass. I don’t want that imbecile trading, drafting, signing, waiving, demoting or promoting anyone ever again for this team.