Boston Bruins Off Season Roster/ Cap Discussion

Goes to show why a cross check to the face like the one he got needs to be actually punished, not the slap on the wrist the DOPS gives.

They just gave Nurse 1 game for cross checking byfield in the back of the head when he was laying face down on the ice on a dead play. Won't even miss a single playoff game. And we all know what bennett did to marchand.

Physical hockey is my favorite type to watch, but how the cheap bullsh*t is still going on basically unpunished blows my mind.
Well said, you are screwing with someone's health, and get shitty 1-2 game suspension, make it longer, much longer great game but it keeps shooting itself in the foot.
 
Intestinal fortitude in contract negotiations does you no good if you have no leverage. Lohrei was a -43 this year. Mittelstadt was the only other player close at -29 and much of his year was spent on another team. Lohrei needs to sign a bridge deal and do better. Meanwhile Swayman was the one who broke the B's bank; not vice-versa. Cam said "I can think of 64 million reasons he should sign" and Jeremy said "I want 66 million." Sway won. Too bad those big balls can't stop pucks.

I was talking about the negotiations prior to last year.
 
We all know Swayman had a bad year, but outside of Pasta and Geek so did everyone else - all you guys who want to jettison Swayman as far away as possible have no plan in place in case your dreams come true - who is going to replace him? Do you want to go with Korpi for 55 games? There aren't any worthy no 1 UFA guys out there and since Swayman is so useless you aren't getting anything for him either - so what's your plan guys?
Do what most teams do keep on the lookout for a goalie that is not eating up all your cap, than take that cap room and get players out in front of your tandem, Maybe try DiPietro.
 
Sweeney’s under the radar trade was Jokiharju. The Zadorov - Jokiharju pairing was very good the 3 games in I went to in April - Washington, Carolina, and Devils. Great communication and chemistry I keyed on them in person to verify what I saw on TV but ice level and more than cameras this pair was good.

I’d go super pairing Hampus & McAvoy and Zad Z& Juri my second pair

Bruins top 4 right up there with top 5-10 easy
What's your 2025-26 lineup look like?
 
Sweeney’s under the radar trade was Jokiharju. The Zadorov - Jokiharju pairing was very good the 3 games in I went to in April - Washington, Carolina, and Devils. Great communication and chemistry I keyed on them in person to verify what I saw on TV but ice level and more than cameras this pair was good.

I’d go super pairing Hampus & McAvoy and Zad Z& Juri my second pair

Bruins top 4 right up there with top 5-10 easy
Agree with your top two pairs. What’s your third pair preference?
 
Thoughts on Jokiharju?

He didn't put up big points or anything, but he was +7 in 18 games, he seemed to gel with Zadorov, and they got the majority of Dzone starts for our defense (66 of 98 starts in the DZone).
I don't know. He seems to fit alright, but I'm not... Like WOWED by any means.

What salary is he projected to come in at? Anyone know?

At anywhere near his current salary, I look elsewhere, personally
 
ending the season, these are my Bruins forward locks I want on the opening night roster (unless traded of course)

1 Pasta
2. Geekie
3. Lindholm
4. Mittelstadt
5. Zacha
6. Poitras
7. Lysell
8. Minten
9. Lauko
10. Kastelic
11. Khus

Fill in the other two spots however you see fit.
Yeah, I like those guys too

Add either Ehlers or Boeser, and Jeannot for the 4th line. He and Kastelic can wreak havoc.
 
I don't know. He seems to fit alright, but I'm not... Like WOWED by any means.

What salary is he projected to come in at? Anyone know?

At anywhere near his current salary, I look elsewhere, personally
The market for RD is rough too, even more so with Pionk just extended. They may have to go the trade route.

I wouldn’t be against Joker, but I’m worried it’s a Mike Reilly situation. Signing the devil you know type thing
 
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I don't know. He seems to fit alright, but I'm not... Like WOWED by any means.

What salary is he projected to come in at? Anyone know?

At anywhere near his current salary, I look elsewhere, personally
My view is similar. Not wowed... but he was quietly effective. On one hand I feel like we need more from the 2nd pair RD, but I really don't want to spend more money on defense than what we pay now (plus Lohrei's raise). I can't imagine Jokiharju making less than $3.1 with the cap going up...

Maybe our D will need to be like the old Blackhawks D, with a super top pair (Keith-Seabrook), and an underrated 2nd pair (Oduya-Hjalmarsson).
 
The market for RD is rough too, even more so with Pionk just extended. They may have to go the trade route.

I wouldn’t be against Joker, but I’m worried it’s a Mike Reilly situation. Signing the devil you know type thing
I actually think the Pionk deal was better than fair. I feel a lot of people don’t know how good of a player he is.

The market for Jokiharju will dictate what his deal is. Not his previous salary. That was a contract signed with some thought that even though his numbers were kind of up and down during his bridge, he was worth the gamble for one more season. Fingers crossed for progress that never transpired.

Now we know. He’s a strong-skating RHD who will generally miss a chunk of time each year and get you 15 points every 60 games. What is the going rate for a player of his history? I’m not sure.
 
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What's your 2025-26 lineup look like
Geekie - Lindholm - Pastrnak
Marchand - Zacha-(Lysell to lose)

Bottom 6 candidates
Mittlestadt 2/3L C
Minten 4L C
Poitras 3L C
Lysell 2/3 RW
Khushnutkidov 3/4 LW
Kastelic 4L RW
Lauko 4L LW
Beecher 4L C/LW

Defense
Lindholm - McAvoy
Zadorov - Juriharju
Lohrei- Peeke
 
I like the same 11 guys, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to improve the team when I'm bringing back 11 of 12.
That's exactly it....Those 11 guys aren't good enough. As far as I'm concerned, these are the only forwards I'm committed to:

Pasta, Geekie, Lindholm, Zacha, Minten...MAYBE Mittelstadt.

Other than that, all options are on the table. This was the WORST OFFENSIVE TEAM IN THE EASTERN CONFERENCE. Bringing back 11 guys from this existing forward group would be ludicrous. We aren't 1-2 players away from fixing this group. Wholesale changes need to be made. Starting with the coaching staff.

....and that doesn't even factor in our awful PP/PK this season.
 
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I really hope Lohrei has more intestinal fortitude than Swayman….because I think the front office has a whole lot more ammo against him than they did when they broke Swayman during negotiations/arbitration.
BWAHAHAHAH

They broke him ? Bad take buddy
 
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BWAHAHAHAH

They broke him ? Bad take buddy
If anyone broke Mr. Wonderful it was his agent and the Players Association.
They fed him crap about "resetting the market for goalies" and probably told him he's the next Martin Brodeur, and of course he's so highly educated that he's THE PACKAGE!
His head swelled so big he could barely walk with it, let alone skate with it.
They broke him while he sucked it up like a fat kid at Thanksgiving with a plate of gravy.
I'm really worried that he's the next cautionary tale.
The next Rick DiPietro?
 
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TOP TWO LINES

Geekie - Lindholm-Pastrnak

Zacha is on my second line preferably as center with Marchand -if not he jumps to LW with Mittlestadt

Right now Mittlestadt is the piece of furniture I don’t know where or what room it should go in

My top 6 is pretty good especially if Marchand comes back as I been told he is (I’ll take the L but that’s what I been told will happen)

I’m Sacco & Sweeney I’m telling Lysell you played enough to know how to prepare and understand the skill and pace - he got better especially the last week

BOTTOM SIX

L4
Lauko/Khush- Minten - Kastelic

I like it a lot

L3 if Mittlestadt goes here where does Poitras go ?

1. Lines 1 and 4 are set with me
2. Zacha is on my line 2
3. Marchand back he’s on L2 with Zacha C
4. Marchand not back then Mittlestadt C on L2 with Zacha LW
 
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If anyone broke Mr. Wonderful it was his agent and the Players Association.
They fed him crap about "resetting the market for goalies" and probably told him he's the next Martin Brodeur, and of course he's so highly educated that he's THE PACKAGE!
His head swelled so big he could barely walk with it, let alone skate with it.
They broke him while he sucked it up like a fat kid at Thanksgiving with a plate of gravy.
I'm really worried that he's the next cautionary tale.
The next Rick DiPietro?
Here's my take on the whole Swayman debate...

1. Fundamentally, I hate paying goalies premium money. Any goalie. I've been pretty vocal about that.
2. Swayman stunk this season. But the team stunk too, so I'm not putting 100% of that on him.
3. I do think he'll be better next year. He's already shown that he can perform with a decent team in front of him and the guy didn't suddenly forget how to stop pucks. He knows he needs to be better and he strikes me as a guy who's a professional and is dedicated to his craft.
4. I'm not a fan of the personal attacks on him that some people have posted on this board. I find that extremely distasteful. He was simply trying to extract as much money from the club as he could get. I expect EVERY player to try to do that. I ALSO expect the front office to do their job too. I blame Sweeney more for that awful contract, than I do Swayman.
5. Goaltending isn't the reason this team didn't make the playoffs. Offense and special teams were.

Bottom line is that Swayman was disappointing (fixable), we can't score (needs to be addressed this summer), had sustained injuries to key players on the blue line (will correct itself with time), and then threw in the towel at the trade deadline because this team was going nowhere.
 
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If anyone broke Mr. Wonderful it was his agent and the Players Association.
They fed him crap about "resetting the market for goalies" and probably told him he's the next Martin Brodeur, and of course he's so highly educated that he's THE PACKAGE!
His head swelled so big he could barely walk with it, let alone skate with it.
They broke him while he sucked it up like a fat kid at Thanksgiving with a plate of gravy.
I'm really worried that he's the next cautionary tale.
The next Rick DiPietro?
Swayman is responsible for this - whoever was in his ear did him no benefit

He acted out of character blowing off kids at a camp - I had him pretty high up there as a Goalie & person and went down a few notches
 

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