Where do the Bruins go from here?

[Jared Dunn]

They've got enough depth that they'll probably weather it but not including in season trades losing Bergy, Krejci, Hall and Foligno up front is a lot to replace from a system that isn't exactly brimming. They will wildcard this year I'd guess maybe and in a dogfight for it with Buffalo, Ottawa and a couple metro teams

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Weather the storm this year and hope next year's UFA class stays as stacked as it could be but I think Aho/Matthews re-up before camp. Schiefele as a Bruin in 2024-2025 wouldn't surprise me.

 

[pickles555]

"Where do the Bruins go from here?"

To the bottom of the Atlantic division?

 

[glovesave_35]

I guess that's kind of my point though. If you know low playoff/wild card seed + first/second round playoff eliminations are the immediate future until you sink to the bottom, why is trading McAvoy + Pasta for a couple of A++ prospects and a couple of years of high drafting not a good idea?

I know it sounds very NHL 2023 but I do think in this instance it makes the most sense.

Pasta + Zacha + McAvoy + Lindholm + Ullmark isn't horrible by any means but it isn't getting you very far and Boston doesn't have the cap space nor the prospects to build around this.

They had a record season this year. Even if you lose your best player you don't go into rebuild mode directly after that.

 

[HFpapi]

Point (79th)
Barzal (16th)
Thompson (26th)
Miller (15th)
Hintz (49th)
Thomas (20th)
Aho (35th)
Larkin (15th)
Suzuki (13th)
Nelson (30th)

Check the track record of top 10 picks that turn out to be serviceable #1 centers.

Check the track record of the average 35th, 49th, 79th overall picks and see how many even make the NHL.

Drafting Brayden Point in the 3rd round isn't exactly a strategy you can set your watch to.

 

[Gjman2019]

It will be an *okay* team for a few seasons with no real chance to win anything.

Then, given the Bruins prospect pool and lack of any foundational players under the age of 23, they will become one of the worst for god knows how long.

Or, they can get ahead of the curve of this fast-approaching reality, decide to not be a middle-of-the-road team for the next few seasons but instead trade two insanely valuable assets for a haul of top 20 league-wide prospects and first round picks.


Yes, precisely.

When you consider that their 1/2 center punch is Zacha/Coyle and 3rd best player is 35, that they have zero cap space and arguably the worst prospect pool in the league, it starts to make more sense.

What you're suggesting is what they should do in my opinion......To me it's a no brainer ..

I doubt they do it though......I think they'll be in no man's land for years.......

They may find a way to make a deal or 2 to change the situation or have a couple of their own guys really step up but until that happens i think they're a no man's land team......

 

[Kranix]

Check the track record of top 10 picks that turn out to be serviceable #1 centers.

Check the track record of the average 35th, 49th, 79th overall picks and see how many even make the NHL.

Drafting Brayden Point in the 3rd round isn't exactly a strategy you can set your watch to.

Neither is getting Crosby at #1. The bruins don't need to bottom out to get someone to play top 6 centre. They need elite scoring. They've already got some in marchand and pasta.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Very well said and perfect parallel with Detroit.

They got extremely lucky being able to plug in Datsyuk and Zetterberg for Yzerman/Fedorov all the while having Lidstrom there through it all.

Bruins plugged Mcavoy in for Chara and have had Bergy and Marchand as constants.

This isn't a model that works in perpetuity.

When a team is good for so long it just feels meant to be and like everything will work itself out but reality will hit for Boston just as it did for Detroit.

In my very humble opinion, Boston has the opportunity to look long-term and get way ahead of the curve here and end up with maybe the best prospect pool/young asset base in the entire league by selling off right now.

Remarkable to think the Bruins would then pray any of said prospects develop into a McAvoy or Pastrnak.

 

[BostonBob]

"Where do the Bruins go from here?"

To the bottom of the Atlantic division?

Probably wishful thinking on your part but be prepared to be very disappointed. They still have Ullmark and Swayman in nets, McAvoy, Lindholm and Carlo on the blueline and Pastrnak, DeBrusk, Marchand and Zacha on their top 2 lines. They'll be a Playoff team this coming season.

 

[PainForShane]

This might be the silliest thread I have ever seen.

Bruins just came off a record breaking regular season. They are getting older, their most complete player retired, so now they have a hole at center.

Where do they go from here? They go looking for a center, that's where.

So many potential options, far too many to list them all. For instance, would anyone be surprised if Scheifele / Lindholm / Pettersson tell their team they won't re-sign and then come over via trade? And if the wait lasts until next summer, if Matthews or Stamkos can't get a deal done you'd think they'd listen hard to a Boston pitch. And then you have discount guys like Chandler Stephenson (UFA next year) who could step into a top 6 role and not be terrible, same with Kuznetsov depending if Boston wants to take the risk and / or he rediscovers his game. And that's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there's at least 5-10 more decent to good options that Bruins mgmt is evaluating rn as we type this. The point is there are a lot of potential solutions that don't involve blowing up the team, why would anyone blow up a team with McAvoy and Pasta (and Swayman) still well under the age of 30.

***

So yeah, the Bruins clearly have a hole at center but the rest of the team is objectively very good (including the coaching which no one is talking about). From the perspective of this neutral fan, this team is not a disaster, far from it.

To the OP Leafs fan who is a self-described "first class Bruins hater," if we assume you started this thread honestly, Boston just needs to find a center, it is difficult but not impossible. Oddly enough, Leafs might be in a similar situation depending on Matthews, so be ready for a Boston fan to potentially start a similar thread about the Leafs if any of them are upset about this one

 

[ricky0034]

There just seems to be a strong parallel to Detroit years ago, when Lidstrom finally retired and they were suddenly a team build around an aging Datsyuk/Zetterberg and a bunch of grinders. At that time a lot of people were like "lol it's Detroit they'll just call some guys up from Grand Rapids and keep winning as usual". The reality was that they were shedding HOF-level talent year over year, and quickly became a middle-seed, one-round-and-out type of team. And after a few years it was more like a low-seed, one-round-and-out team.

It took way too long for the Wings to acknowledge that it was time to rebuild, and the late stage of the process was visibly traumatic to the organization and fanbase. The Bruins are potentially facing the same sort of thing having lost Bergeron, Krejci, Rask in quick succession and Marchand in the near future. Instead of Datsyuk/Zetterberg it's going to end up being Pastrnak/McAvoy and a bunch of filler. And that's going to create issues for the organization if they choose to just keep grinding forward as if nothing has changed.

I'm not saying this is set in stone, but it's a strong parallel up to this point. The organizational decisions being made over the next 12 months (along with the standard draft/trade/injury luck which is always a factor) will determine how the rest of it plays out.

the Bruins have 7 years until McAvoy/Pastrnak are the same age that Zetterberg/Datsyuk were when Lidstrom retired

 

[HFpapi]

Remarkable to think the Bruins would then pray any of said prospects develop into a McAvoy or Pastrnak.

This is disingenuous. The logic of a rebuild isn't to reconstruct the same roster like-for-like with the picks and prospects.

It's a capitulation of the present in favour of the future when you recognize that your best assets aren't going to be good enough to lead you anywhere because the rest of the team is too weak.

Rather than let their value erode away into nothing to stay as a bubble team, you set yourself up much better in the future by cashing in on them.

 

[BostonBob]

Rather than let their value erode away into nothing to stay as a bubble team, you set yourself up much better in the future by cashing in on them.

You keep throwing out this trading away McAvoy and Pastrnak scenario and stripping down the team and every single Bruins fan here tells you that you're wrong. Pssst........guess what - you're wrong.

 

[Fatass]

Imo the Bruins will have one of the biggest point drops ever from one season to the next. I see a 40-50 point drop. From 135 to 85-95.

 

[HFpapi]

You keep throwing out this trading away McAvoy and Pastrnak scenario and stripping down the team and every single Bruins fan here tells you that you're wrong. Pssst........guess what - you're wrong.

I'm a Leafs fan so fine by me.

No longer a threat in the east for a few years and then I see you in the basement of the league for a long time after that.

My scenario I think brings the Bruins back around to relevance in 5ish years so I'm glad the plan is to just keep trying to replace HOF players with more HOF players until it all caves in.

 

[pickles555]

Probably wishful thinking on your part but be prepared to be very disappointed. They still have Ullmark and Swayman in nets, McAvoy, Lindholm and Carlo on the blueline and Pastrnak, DeBrusk, Marchand and Zacha on their top 2 lines. They'll be a Playoff team this coming season.

No wishful thinking, don't really care where boston is to be honest,

I see them as a bubble wildcard team next season

 

[PainForShane]

You keep throwing out this trading away McAvoy and Pastrnak scenario and stripping down the team and every single Bruins fan here tells you that you're wrong. Pssst........guess what - you're wrong.

It's not just Bruins fans.

Also, OP hasn't thought any of this through. Pasta has a full no move and he's been in Boston his whole career, zero chance he wants to move. He also makes 11+ a year -- 6th highest cap hit in the league, highest for a RWer. So not sure what the chances are that any non-rebuilding team can realistically afford him, let alone a team he'd waive for. Even less of a chance that retaining anything significant for the next 8 years would actually help Boston.

More importantly, the rebuilding teams are the ones with the best (and usually most) draft picks, so in OP's universe that's the best place for Pasta to go. Best of luck convincing him to waive his no trade so he can play for Anaheim or Arizona (neither of whom probably want him anyway given he's in his prime and how far they are from competing).

Just an absolute dog sh** of an idea from a guy who hates the Bruins (at least he is honest about the hating part)

 

[HFpapi]

It's not just Bruins fans.

Also, OP hasn't thought any of this through. Pasta has a full no move and he's been in Boston his whole career, zero chance he wants to move. He also makes 11+ a year -- 6th highest cap hit in the league, highest for a RWer. So not sure what the chances are that any non-rebuilding team can realistically afford him, let alone a team he'd waive for. Even less of a chance that retaining anything significant for the next 8 years would actually help Boston.

More importantly, the rebuilding teams are the ones with the best (and usually most) draft picks, so in OP's universe that's the best place for Pasta to go. Best of luck convincing him to waive his no trade so he can play for Anaheim or Arizona (neither of whom probably want him anyway given he's in his prime and how far they are from competing).

Just an absolute dog sh** of an idea from a guy who hates the Bruins (at least he is honest about the hating part)

There would be a lineup down the block for Pasta @ 11 million. EK has multiple suitors at 11.5 and he's old and injury prone.

The cap is rising and top players are already getting 13+.

 

[PainForShane]

There would be a lineup down the block for Pasta @ 11 million. EK has multiple suitors at 11.5 and he's old and injury prone.

The cap is rising and top players are already getting 13+.

Your first bolded is true but misleading. Reportedly EK has only 2 teams interested (Canes and Pens), neither one has cap space, and that's even with SJ retaining. He'll get moved eventually but I think you'll be surprised at the return. You also haven't considered there's no way in hell Pasta waives his no trade given he's a homegrown Boston guy and has played there for the past 10 years.

Also last I checked MacK was the highest paid player at 12.6m. As of today, no one's making 13+ though Matthews very well may get there next deal (he'd be the only one).

Next time get your facts straight

 

[HFpapi]

Your first bolded is true but misleading. Reportedly EK has only 2 teams interested (Canes and Pens), neither one has cap space, and that's even with SJ retaining. He'll get moved eventually but I think you'll be surprised at the return. You also haven't considered there's no way in hell Pasta waives his no trade given he's a homegrown Boston guy and has played there for the past 10 years.

Also last I checked MacK was the highest paid player at 12.6m. As of today, no one's making 13+ though Matthews very well may get there next deal (he'd be the only one).

Next time get your facts straight

Matthews is rumoured to be at 13.5. Marner & Leon will follow suit followed by every other top player. We are in the era of $ 13 million/py contracts. 11 for the next 8 for Pasta will be on the very low end for an elite player.

 

[Machinehead]

Today, the Bruins are going in my Puckdoku.

 

[PainForShane]

Matthews is rumoured to be at 13.5. Marner & Leon will follow suit followed by every other top player. We are in the era of $ 13 million/py contracts. 11 for the next 8 for Pasta will be on the very low end for an elite player.

I'm sorry bro. I thought this thread was about blowing up the team now, not blowing up the team 4-6 years from now when according to you Pasta's 11m cap hit will be considered "very low end for an elite player." As of this offseason, Pasta has the sixth highest cap hit in the entire league so very limited dance partners if any at all esp given his no-trade ie full veto power (which I noticed you failed to mention).

Congratulations on moving the goalposts all the way to Saskatchewan, if you didn't do it intentionally imo that is even more impressive.

***

Also as of today not a single player is making 13m per year, it's laughable that you're arguing we are in the era of 13m AAV contracts. I have no idea why anyone would argue something that is so obviously wrong. Do you realize how you sound? You brought up Leon and Mitch, too bad they aren't UFAs until 2025, which is a full two years from now. In other words, not now. And this still has nothing to do with Pasta waiving his no trade (he won't), which is clearly the more relevant thing here anyway.

Lmk if you have any questions about any of this I guess. In the meantime hope you are having fun in Saskatchewan

 

[Jamaican Patty]

They probably will stop having massive choke jobs now that #37 is gone, so that’s a positive.

 

[Over the volcano]

This might be the silliest thread I have ever seen.

Bruins just came off a record breaking regular season. They are getting older, their most complete player retired, so now they have a hole at center.

Where do they go from here? They go looking for a center, that's where.

So many potential options, far too many to list them all. For instance, would anyone be surprised if Scheifele / Lindholm / Pettersson tell their team they won't re-sign and then come over via trade? And if the wait lasts until next summer, if Matthews or Stamkos can't get a deal done you'd think they'd listen hard to a Boston pitch. And then you have discount guys like Chandler Stephenson (UFA next year) who could step into a top 6 role and not be terrible, same with Kuznetsov depending if Boston wants to take the risk and / or he rediscovers his game. And that's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there's at least 5-10 more decent to good options that Bruins mgmt is evaluating rn as we type this. The point is there are a lot of potential solutions that don't involve blowing up the team, why would anyone blow up a team with McAvoy and Pasta (and Swayman) still well under the age of 30.

***

So yeah, the Bruins clearly have a hole at center but the rest of the team is objectively very good (including the coaching which no one is talking about). From the perspective of this neutral fan, this team is not a disaster, far from it.

To the OP Leafs fan who is a self-described "first class Bruins hater," if we assume you started this thread honestly, Boston just needs to find a center, it is difficult but not impossible. Oddly enough, Leafs might be in a similar situation depending on Matthews, so be ready for a Boston fan to potentially start a similar thread about the Leafs if any of them are upset about this one

Yup

 

[BostonBruins11]

Don't forget replacing their long time #2 center and often best playoff performer as well.


So the new narrative from Bruins fans is going to be that Patrice Bergeron was holding you back and you are a better team without that dead weight?

Second or third time in this thread I've seen it mentioned that you were a better team without him.

To be fair Bergy came back injured playing with a Herniated disk. The team played with a lot more urgency/energy prior to him rejoining. The team definitely took the foot off the gas like " Oh Bergy's back, we'll win easily now". Krejci also didn't have enough strenght to take faceoffs. Regardless they were way to banged up in the 1st round to go deep in the playoffs.