Left wing or Left D?

[BadBruins]

Don't understand your last paragraph. If you bring in some of the older players you suggest, some of whom (Iginla, Sharp) are clearly fried, where would you have the room for the younger players you listed?

It's time to give these kids a chance. Some have had a year in Providence and NHL experience. You can always find a Stafford-type dude later in the season.

This is what people say this every year. Give the kids a chance. See what the rookies can do. Truth is very few coaches are going to let 19-20 year old kids occupy half of the roster. There is probably going to be four wide open top-9 spots available if Spooner is moved/dealt. You will have McAvoy and Carlo on the backend possibly occupying top-4 spots. Pastrnak himself is still just 20. Instead of rookies seeing more playing time, you actually just get elevated roles for for the likes of Nash and Schaller. Or Hayes and Beleskey. There is going to be opportunity for youth whether a veteran scorer is brought in or not. Transitioning 2 or 3 rookies is a lot easier than 5 or 6. Cassidy is going to be about 100% focused on winning, not player development.

I'm not advocating to bring in crappy old veterans. It's not on me to do the research and scouting required to find out who's toast vs who still has something left. I just want to see an experienced player or two added who can clearly slot ahead of the four mentioned (Nash, Schaller, Hayes, Beleskey).

 

[ODAAT]

This is what people say this every year. Give the kids a chance. See what the rookies can do. Truth is very few coaches are going to let 19-20 year old kids occupy half of the roster. There is probably going to be four wide open top-9 spots available if Spooner is moved/dealt. You will have McAvoy and Carlo on the backend possibly occupying top-4 spots. Pastrnak himself is still just 20. Instead of rookies seeing more playing time, you actually just get elevated roles for for the likes of Nash and Schaller. Or Hayes and Beleskey. There is going to be opportunity for youth whether a veteran scorer is brought in or not. Transitioning 2 or 3 rookies is a lot easier than 5 or 6. Cassidy is going to be about 100% focused on winning, not player development.

I'm not advocating to bring in crappy old veterans. It's not on me to do the research and scouting required to find out who's toast vs who still has something left. I just want to see an experienced player or two added who can clearly slot ahead of the four mentioned (Nash, Schaller, Hayes, Beleskey).

Good post, and to further your point, we saw what having many kids or still developing prospects looks like in that first round series, yes the young or relatively inexperienced did well but we saw them literally learning on the fly and the Sens exposing that inexperience and lack of depth that was/is truly ready for prime time

Now, the positive is those players now have some playoff experience to draw off of and hopefully when they face the same next season, they`ll be a bit more ready for what`s about to hit em`

 

[Numbah4]

This is what people say this every year. Give the kids a chance. See what the rookies can do. Truth is very few coaches are going to let 19-20 year old kids occupy half of the roster. There is probably going to be four wide open top-9 spots available if Spooner is moved/dealt. You will have McAvoy and Carlo on the backend possibly occupying top-4 spots. Pastrnak himself is still just 20. Instead of rookies seeing more playing time, you actually just get elevated roles for for the likes of Nash and Schaller. Or Hayes and Beleskey. There is going to be opportunity for youth whether a veteran scorer is brought in or not. Transitioning 2 or 3 rookies is a lot easier than 5 or 6. Cassidy is going to be about 100% focused on winning, not player development.

I'm not advocating to bring in crappy old veterans. It's not on me to do the research and scouting required to find out who's toast vs who still has something left. I just want to see an experienced player or two added who can clearly slot ahead of the four mentioned (Nash, Schaller, Hayes, Beleskey).

In a salary cap world, you have to develop talent. You can't buy it. Players aren't going to come to the Bruins for less than market value. A la the Patriots. For a chance at a championship. There'a a decent chance DeBrusk or Heinen(maybe both) can be your middle 6 LW's at an incredibly cheap price. Our hole at LD is much bigger. Chara is 40 and has a year left. Krug can't defend well enough to close out games.
If ya want to win, you better have a Top 4 who can play in tightly contested playoff games. We don't. LD is a significantly bigger hole IMO. If Zboril and Lauzon look good after a year in the AHL, that could change. But, they're a year behind DeBrusk and Heinen in the development process. Maybe Bjork can be that winger too very soon.

 

[BadBruins]

In a salary cap world, you have to develop talent. You can't buy it. Players aren't going to come to the Bruins for less than market value. A la the Patriots. For a chance at a championship. There'a a decent chance DeBrusk or Heinen(maybe both) can be your middle 6 LW's at an incredibly cheap price. Our hole at LD is much bigger. Chara is 40 and has a year left. Krug can't defend well enough to close out games.
If ya want to win, you better have a Top 4 who can play in tightly contested playoff games. We don't. LD is a significantly bigger hole IMO. If Zboril and Lauzon look good after a year in the AHL, that could change. But, they're a year behind DeBrusk and Heinen in the development process. Maybe Bjork can be that winger too very soon.

That's kind of what I was getting at. Focus efforts and money on the D. Don't waste time chasing expensive forwards. There are plenty of forwards every year in their 30's who sign for like $900k-$1.2M and hold down stable middle-6 spots. The type of contracts that can't hurt you if it doesn't go right.

I know Stafford didn't light the world on fire, but I'm pretty confident he would pop 15-20 in a full season (or more). The shot and finish alone are miles ahead of what we've ever seen from Beleskey, Hayes, Nash etc. He's shown he can do it before. Clearly wasn't much interest in him as a rental. He's 31 year old coming of a 21 point season. If the price is right, it fills a hole on the right side, which IMO is the biggest need up front. It doesn't take a spot away from a kid or a rookie. Most likely Hayes, Acciari, Czarnik, or Nash.

The left side I'm not worried about at all. Between Cehlerik, DeBrusk, Vatrano, Bjork, Heinen, Spooner (possibly), and Beleskey (bounce back candidate), it's going to be fine. Heck you could even throw Gabrielle in there. I would throw Kuraly, Blidh, and Schaller in the mix too, but with all due respect, hopefully they rarely see time above the 4th line.

 

[s3antana5757]

That's kind of what I was getting at. Focus efforts and money on the D. Don't waste time chasing expensive forwards. There are plenty of forwards every year in their 30's who sign for like $900k-$1.2M and hold down stable middle-6 spots. The type of contracts that can't hurt you if it doesn't go right.

I know Stafford didn't light the world on fire, but I'm pretty confident he would pop 15-20 in a full season (or more). The shot and finish alone are miles ahead of what we've ever seen from Beleskey, Hayes, Nash etc. He's shown he can do it before. Clearly wasn't much interest in him as a rental. He's 31 year old coming of a 21 point season. If the price is right, it fills a hole on the right side, which IMO is the biggest need up front. It doesn't take a spot away from a kid or a rookie. Most likely Hayes, Acciari, Czarnik, or Nash.

The left side I'm not worried about at all. Between Cehlerik, DeBrusk, Vatrano, Bjork, Heinen, Spooner (possibly), and Beleskey (bounce back candidate), it's going to be fine. Heck you could even throw Gabrielle in there. I would throw Kuraly, Blidh, and Schaller in the mix too, but with all due respect, hopefully they rarely see time above the 4th line.

I'll keep banging on the mythical table for a D, especially a top LHD all summer long.

With that being said, I think they should spend some money and potentially some prospects on getting a top 6 LW. The cost of Beleskey + Hayes = Landeskog. If we go get Landeskog, you've got probably 35 million or so tied up to the top 6. You could fill out the entire forward group for a round 45 million assuming another 6-10 forwards all making at or around the minimum. You've got 9 million or so for goalies leaving you with 54 million for forwards and goalies. Even if you assume 75 million, that leaves you 21 million for the D. Krug/Chara are 9. CMac/Carlo are 2. Leaves you with 10 million for another 3-4 spots.

So after all that, it's possible to do add a big money guy, and I for one think they should. We continue to fill out the 3rd line with the guys you mentioned, JFK, Senshyn, etc. Even if they re-sign Stafford for around $1 million, a 3rd line of Vatrano-Spooner/JFK-Stafford is good. 4th line continues to be grinders on small contracts and young guys fighting for minutes. I think that line-up can go places especially if they add that top defenseman.