2019-2020 Bruins

j44thor

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I’m more curious as to the rationale. I don’t follow Perry at all, so saying he’ll be a disaster without any additional context is annoying.
He's been a net negative possession player last 4 years and hasn't topped 20g in last 3 years. He is a less physical Backes who can shoot but can't create or drive possession. Not a good fit for today's NHL. Not to mention coming off major knee surgery.
 

burstnbloom

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I’m more curious as to the rationale. I don’t follow Perry at all, so saying he’ll be a disaster without any additional context is annoying.
He's just not the guy you remember. He's been trending sharply downward since he hit 30. Players of his type have traditionally aged poorly. He's scored 42 goals in his last 184 games, he's gotten slower and more of a defensive liability each season and he's unlikely to regain that foot speed to keep up with the play. I always liked him and his style, but he's likely done.
 

LogansDad

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I don't know if he is going to necessarily be "overpaid", but he's going to get more than the Bruins can give, for sure.

I thought he was a great fit for this team in basically every way, except financially, so I'm sad to see him go.
 

cshea

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Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
DeBrusk - Krejci - Backes
Heinen* - Coyle - Kuhlman
Nordstrom - Kuraly - Wagner
Lindholm - Gaunce - Ritchie
Cehlarik*

Chara - McAvoy*
Krug - Carlo*
Grzelyck - Clifton
Moore - Kampfer

Rask
Halak

*= unsigned RFA

I think that’s about where they stand today. I do think they need to move an F. Gaunce is waiver fodder. Ritchie and Lindholm could also be waived, but I think they’re here for Boston. Maybe it’s just the Scandinavian thing, but Lindholm seems like another Nordy and a best case scenario for Ritchie is Wagner. Feels crowded. D seems set. Moore won’t be ready, so he goes on LTIR. The other 7 seem like reasonable bets to open the season on the big club.

$10 million in cap space not including the 10% cushion.
 

PedroSpecialK

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Could any of the defensive moves be in anticipation of a possible Chara retirement?
He'd saddle them with his cap hit this year if he retired - I don't see it as likely, but I wouldn't at all be against them resting him til the new year or something
 

Salem's Lot

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Even if the retirement was due to the cup finals injury? Would that be LTIR-eligible?
If he is injured and can’t play this season, he wouldn’t retire. He would be placed on LTIR until 7/1/2020 when his contract will expire. At that point he would be free to re sign with Boston, sign a contract with another club, or retire.
 

cshea

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The D moves are just for depth. They operate under the “you can’t have too many defenseman” philosophy and constantly refer to the 2016 playoff series against Ottawa as a reason why. They don’t want the Tommy Cross’ of the world forced into action. Depending on what you think of Zboril, they’re 10/11 deep right now with Vaakanainen, Lauzon and perhaps Zboril NHL ready in Providence.

I think they are done on defense until camp. Moore could be out until December, so that puts them at 8. Miller could be a trade candidate if he comes in healthy and they decide Clifton has passed him on the depth chart, although Clifton being waivers exempt works against him to start the year. They also have to hedge against McAvoy and Carlo holdouts.
 

Mr. Wednesday

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The D moves are just for depth. They operate under the “you can’t have too many defenseman” philosophy and constantly refer to the 2016 playoff series against Ottawa as a reason why.
And the philosophy was reinforced with how deep they needed to dig into the roster on defense in the playoffs this year.
 

DJnVa

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Cup odds are out:

OddsShark has Bruins at +1000 to win the Cup.

Tampa Bay is +700, Vegas and Toronto also +1000.
 

cshea

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Per Cap Friendly, the B’s signed 2018 7th rounder Pavel Shen to his ELC. He’s ticketed for Providence. Turns 20 in a few weeks, bounced around between 3 Russian leagues last season including 20 games in the KHL (1 assist). Not a ton of production in those pro leagues (4 assists in 38 games) but he fared better against his age group playing for Russia at the international level, 3 goals and an assist in 7 WJC games. Reports from development camp were good, and signing him seems to indicate the team thinks highly of him.

Anyways, Providence is getting crowded. Suspect Lauko is headed back to the Q. Here an early look at the possible roster for Providence:

Forwards:

Samuel Asselin*, Brendan Woods*, Robert Lantosi*, Brendan Gaunce, Paul Carey, Trent Frederic, Cameron Hughes, Ryan Fitzgerald, Peter Cehlarik^, Anton Blidh, Zach Senyshyn, Karson Kuhlman, Jack Studnicka, Joona Koppanen, Anders Bjork, Pavel Shen, Oskar Steen, Jakub Lauko?

Defense:

Urho Vaakanainen, Axel Andersson?, Jeremy Lauzon, Jakub Zboril, Joel Messner*, Cooper Zech*, Chris Breen*, Wiley Sherman, Alexey Solovyev*

Goalies

Maxim Legace, Dan Vladar, Kyle Keyser

*= AHL only deal
^= Cehlarik needs waivers to be sent to Providence

That’s 18 F and 9 D. As far as prospects go, not sure there is room for Lauko or if he is even eligible since he played in the QMJHL last season and still has eligibility. I don’t think the team has laid out a plan for Axel Andersson either other than saying they want him in North America. He still has junior eligibility as well.
 

RedOctober3829

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Bruins games on NBC or NBCSN
10/26 vs. St. Louis 7:00 NBCSN
11/5 at Montreal 7:30 NBCSN
11/29 vs. NY Rangers 1:00 NBC
12/11 at Washington 7:00 NBCSN
1/19 at Pittsburgh 12:30 NBC
2/5 at Chicago 8:00 NBCSN
2/9 at Detroit 12:30 NBC
2/12 vs. Montreal 7:30 NBCSN
2/16 at NY Rangers 3:30 NBC
2/27 vs. Dallas 7:30 NBCSN
3/3 at TB 7:30 NBCSN
3/10 at Philly 7:30 NBCSN
 
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cshea

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According to Cap Friendly the B’s signed Alex Petrovic to a PTO.

Righty stay at home/physical D. Played for Florida and Edmonton. Mostly a depth 6/7/8 guy, but they kinda need some camp bodies. Moore and Miller will likely not be ready to go, McAvoy and Carlo could be holdouts and I’d imagine they’d dial back the work load of some of the other vets who are coming off a deep run and thus short offseason.
 

cshea

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Fluto has an excellent piece up on The Athletic that mainly focuses on the PP and Cassidy and the team’s gameday PP preparation. Some really great insight here from Cassidy as he breaks down some PK’s. It also touches on some of his communication with the players.

https://theathletic.com/1166398/2019/08/28/oh-boy-we-can-eat-this-alive-why-hours-of-work-are-worth-it-for-bruce-cassidy-and-the-power-play/
I’m glad Cassidy hates the neutral zone drop delayed entry as much as I do!

Cassidy is really great, open and insightful with the media in addition to being a fantastic coach.
 

mwonow

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Fluto has an excellent piece up on The Athletic that mainly focuses on the PP and Cassidy and the team’s gameday PP preparation. Some really great insight here from Cassidy as he breaks down some PK’s. It also touches on some of his communication with the players.

https://theathletic.com/1166398/2019/08/28/oh-boy-we-can-eat-this-alive-why-hours-of-work-are-worth-it-for-bruce-cassidy-and-the-power-play/
I’m glad Cassidy hates the neutral zone drop delayed entry as much as I do!

Cassidy is really great, open and insightful with the media in addition to being a fantastic coach.
That's a really good article, thanks for sharing - the video is especially helpful
 

cshea

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I’d say the start of the regular season. The cap hits get screwed up if they don’t sign before then. Like Nylander dragged it out until December 1 last season so his cap hit for year 1 was like $10 million or something even with a sub $7 million AAV. The Bruins can’t really do that.

With all the unsigned UFA’s it feels like once 1 pulls the trigger the rest will sort of fall in line. Carlo and McAvoy are a pretty unique cases though. Carlo doesn’t really have a comparable and McAvoy has zero leverage since he is not eligible for an offer sheet.
 

McDrew

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I think part of the reason is that its a really bad photoshop and not a picture of an actual jersey.
 

The Long Tater

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I would just like to let it be known how excited I am for this season to start.

I am very, very excited.
Ditto. My daughter goes to UNLV so that is an excuse for me to go visit and take her to the game vs VGK on the 8th. Very into it.
 

cshea

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10 days left before the start of the regular season. I missed the last 2 games, but basing of box scores and other things, here’s a stab at the 23 man roster they open with.

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
DeBrusk - Krejci - Kuhlman
Bjork - Coyle - Heinen
Nordstrom* - Kuraly - Wagner
Lindholm, Ritchie

* I believe Nordstrom has been practicing but he hasn’t appeared in a game yet.

I just can’t see Backes making the team at this point. To me, his only path towards being on the roster is Nordstrom on IR or Kuhlman demoted. Kuhlman seems to have the inside track on that 2RW spot and Cassidy seems to think highly of him so I think he sticks to open the year. I guess they could waive Lindholm or Ritchie but that seems unlikely until they get a better sample on those guys. Reports have been good on Lindholm. The Bjork - Coyle - Heinen has put up some impressive on-ice stats and has been their best line with the caveat that it is just preseason. I thought Bjork was a candidate to start in Providence but I think he has played well enough to break camp with them. I suspect we’ll see a lot of shuffling going on in the early going to get everyone going until they settle in.

Chara - McAvoy
Krug - Carlo
Grzelyck - Clifton
Kampfer

IR: Miller, Moore

No drama or suspense here. They’ll have some decisions to make when Miller and Moore are ready, but that’s down the road a bit and these things seem to sort themselves out. Vaakanainen is first up when the injury bug strikes. He appears ready but no need to rush it. I suspect he gets a good run this year at some point, his progress and development ties into the decision they have to make with Krug at the end of the year.

Rask
Halak

Close to 50/50 split in the early going.
 

IdiotKicker

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It feels like there's not enough turnover from last year's team. And yes, I know last year's team got to within 60 minutes of the Cup, but I think a certain level of turnover is necessary to keep an organization moving. I like seeing Kuhlman in there, and I'm hopeful on Bjork, but I guess that just seeing it all laid out like that, I'd like one more new body on the 3rd or 4th line. I know we may get a mid-year trade, but it just feels like there needs to be something new there.

On the back end, I am really, really excited to see what Carlo does this year. I think he is growing into a really outstanding player, even if the offensive part of his game isn't big right now. He was phenomenal in the Columbus series, and I'd love to see him play at that level for an extended period of time. May have just gotten a little burnt by the end with all the injuries and ice time he was logging, but I'm hoping for big things from him.
 

Kramerica Industries

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It feels like there's not enough turnover from last year's team. And yes, I know last year's team got to within 60 minutes of the Cup, but I think a certain level of turnover is necessary to keep an organization moving. I like seeing Kuhlman in there, and I'm hopeful on Bjork, but I guess that just seeing it all laid out like that, I'd like one more new body on the 3rd or 4th line. I know we may get a mid-year trade, but it just feels like there needs to be something new there.

On the back end, I am really, really excited to see what Carlo does this year. I think he is growing into a really outstanding player, even if the offensive part of his game isn't big right now. He was phenomenal in the Columbus series, and I'd love to see him play at that level for an extended period of time. May have just gotten a little burnt by the end with all the injuries and ice time he was logging, but I'm hoping for big things from him.
I strongly disagree. Did you watch the 2019 Red Sox??
 

cshea

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Carey, Gaunce and Petrovic are on waivers today. More cuts expected before practice. Petrovic being on waivers means they signed him. I don’t really see the need, but I guess it doesn’t hurt to have another NHL vet around in the AHL. The Providence blueline feels crowded (Zboril, Lauzon, Vaakanainen, Sherman, Zech, Alexyev, Petrovic, Breen, Messner) so the trickle down may be Axel Andersson to CHL/Europe.
 

burstnbloom

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Axel in Moncton seems like a good bet. He has a ways to go and he's low enough on the depth chart that he has to know he has no shot at the NHL this year. I'd like to see him take a year in the Q and learn NA hockey on a stage where he should have a chance to do really well. I'd hate to ruin him by getting him crushed by 28 yo AHL lifers as he adjusts his entire life and hockey game at 19.
 

The Gray Eagle

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Backes looked shockingly good last night. I know it's just preseason but he actually looked mobile and his hands looked good too. If he's invented a time machine, hopefully he can put Chara and Bergeron in it too.

And also Bobby Orr.
 

Haunted

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The guy is easy to root for, especially with this story. His failure certainly isn't for lack of trying.

But all the same...........
 

joe dokes

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Backes looked shockingly good last night. I know it's just preseason but he actually looked mobile and his hands looked good too. If he's invented a time machine, hopefully he can put Chara and Bergeron in it too.
His hands haven't really suffered in his decline. If he was able to get a puck last year, he got off really quick shots and sharp passes.
 

veritas

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Carey, Gaunce and Petrovic are on waivers today. More cuts expected before practice. Petrovic being on waivers means they signed him. I don’t really see the need, but I guess it doesn’t hurt to have another NHL vet around in the AHL. The Providence blueline feels crowded (Zboril, Lauzon, Vaakanainen, Sherman, Zech, Alexyev, Petrovic, Breen, Messner) so the trickle down may be Axel Andersson to CHL/Europe.
Petrovic has a long history of being a replacement level NHLer, but I thought he looked pretty good in the preseason. He's on a 700k 2-way deal, at that price I like him as insurance / veteran presence in the AHL if he clears waivers.

Lauko was assigned to Providence yesterday, a good sign for him as there were questions on whether he'd head back to the Q. I thought he showed promise in the preseason, playing in the AHL should help his development. Senyshyn is/was a similar player and at that same age had to repeat juniors because he wasn't AHL eligible or NHL ready. I think that stunted his development a bit, he was able to rely on athleticism too much at that level. Long term I'm really high on Lauko, I think he's their 4th best prospect. I might start an adopt-a-prospect thread for him if anyone else is interested in getting that forum going again.

Ryan Fitzgerald, Kyle Keyser, Joona Koppanen, Jeremy Lauzon, Zach Senyshyn, Pavel Shen, Oskar Steen, and Urho Vaakanainen were all assigned to Providence today. Not really any surprises there.

I thought Steen looked like he could play in the NHL now, but that's a big jump from the SEL, and it can't hurt to let him get his feet wet in the AHL first. It'll also let them give him some experience at center if they want to.

A bit disappointed that Vaak didn't earn a spot. I thought he looked good in the preseason but didn't really make a jump from last year.

Interesting that Studnicka is still with the B's, although with Bergeron and Krejci struggling with issues it may be due to necessity. He didn't look NHL ready to me in the preseason.

Frederic is well ahead of Studnicka, and ahead of Frederic from last season it seems. I rolled my eyes at the "best shape of his life" story this summer, but he looked slimmer and quicker and more effective. I feel like he's been around a while but he's still only 21, exactly a year older that Studnicka.
 

veritas

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Oh, and as for Backes, despite not passing the eye test the past couple seasons, some advanced metrics still have him as a very good defensive winger while driving shot quality at 5v5. He's not worth his contract but he's still a solid bottom 6 player.
 

cshea

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I think Backes is going to be part of a RW merry go round to start. Pastrnak is a lock up top. Backes, Ritchie, Kuhlman, Wagner all fit in somewhere and probably rotate accordingly. The wild card is if Bjork makes the team, that would put him in the mix on RW or bump Heinen over to RW (Bjork has played LW in camp) and then it gets crowded. My guess at this point is Bjork or Kuhlman go to Providence as more of an asset management transaction to buy them more time before waiving Backes or Ritchie.

As for Vaak, barring injury, there isn’t really a spot for him. 6 of 7 D spots were already accounted for (Chara, McAvoy, Carlo, Krug, Grzelyck, Kampfer). The left side is locked down, I don’t think he was unseating any of them.I guess maybe he could’ve made it over Clifton but Clifton is a righty, more experienced and also cheaper which I think counts for something. I’d rather him get big minutes in Providence and then be first up when the injury bug inevitably hits.

My disappointment in camp is Senyshyn. With the RW situation, a good camp could’ve pushed him into the mix. Instead he was pretty much invisible. Not that I had high hopes for him, but he doesn’t even look capable of a bottom 6 PP specialist type role.
 

Over Guapo Grande

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My disappointment in camp is Senyshyn. With the RW situation, a good camp could’ve pushed him into the mix. Instead he was pretty much invisible. Not that I had high hopes for him, but he doesn’t even look capable of a bottom 6 PP specialist type role.
From someone who wouldn't even know how to lace up a pair of skates, I rely on you all here for most (all) of my hockey knowledge. RE: the bolded, would that be a Spooner-type role?
 

kenneycb

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Kinda. Spooner has a top 6 type of game but doesn't have top 6 talent, if that makes sense. Generally the bottom 6 are more grinders, go in the dirty areas, etc. wherase Spooner was more of a finesse type guy. I don't know enough about Senyshyn to say whether he falls into that role or more of a, say, good Chris Kelly role.