Eddie Jurak said:For me it really depends on what the road forward is. I would rather blow it up now then spend the rest of the Bergeron era on a slow descent into mediocrity (or worse).
The problem I see is that the team is:
1. Lacking in talent (see 1st line RW).
2. Unable to retain the all of the talent it does have (UFA Soderberg, RFAs Hamilton, Krug, Smith).
3. Beyond Pastrnak and perhaps Morrow, short on young guys capable of providing low cost value.
I'm not optimistic. How does next year's team look if they are forced to roll with an even thinner and less talented roster than the current one?
Of course, the returns to blowing it up are also unclear.
In hindsight, I think Chiarelli wrecked the organization with the Seguin deal. Even if Chiarelli was correct that Seguin's greatest value to the Bruins was as a trade chip, that doesn't excuse his bungling of the deal.
I disagree to a point. The Seguin deal looks to be an error, but the depth they acquired is part of the solution for the future. It is fairly reasonable that they can retain the UFAs and RFAs with the cap going up and Iginla's penalty coming off the books. You have to realize that they will be losing Campbell, Paille and McQuaid and likely replacing them with $600K cap hits. That's a $3mm savings and likely pays Dougie on a bridge contract. They should have enough money to keep their free agents and add one reasonable piece to what is still a pretty young team, save for Chara and Seidenberg. The real issue is the existing players need to play up to their ability. I count only Soderberg and maybe Krejci as playing up to expectations and the latter has missed half the season so far.
Edit- Another key factor for the future is Claude. He needs to learn to adapt to younger players. Spooner, Koko, Morrow and Pastrnak are legit NHL talents. They need to be utilized. If he can't find a way to get players like that in the lineup and effective, then no amount of tweaking by Chia is going to fix it.