The Bruins’ brass will meet with reporters on Wednesday and Cam Neely, Don Sweeney and the rest of the honchos will no doubt perform the usual post-mortem of the 2023-24 season.
But any clues that Neely and Sweeney give about what they plan to do in the offseason with their approximately $21 million in salary cap space will be far more interesting than picking over the body of the ‘23-24 Bruins.
While the B’s could very well be still playing hockey with a pinch more luck and perhaps a better call from the Toronto situation room on one particular goal interference call, most reasonable people believe the Florida Panthers were the better team and rightful winners of the series.
It is just as true that reasonable people can look at this Bruins’ transition season – with the losses of Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Taylor Hall, Nick Foligno, Dmitry Orlov, Tyler Bertuzzi and Garnet Hathaway – and see it as a success, relatively speaking. They didn’t stink, as many predicted. They earned 109 points, won a playoff round and were legitimately competitive in the second round. They got through the season and remained competitive.
Now they have a chance – with the right player targets and their best sell jobs – to get right back into the upper echelon off the NHL.
Fans see the cap space and their eyes light up. And it’s not just the fans. Charlie McAvoy spoke on Sunday about the anticipation of things to come from young players within the current lineup like Mason Lohrei, Justin Brazeau and, of course, Jeremy Swayman. But he also talked about what could be coming in from the outside.
And for anyone potential free agents out there, McAvoy already began to pitch.
“I couldn’t see myself playing anywhere other than Boston. This is the best city in the world, these are the best fans in the world. I’m so grateful to be here in this city and if I had the opportunity to sell to people, I’d absolutely jump at it,” said McAvoy. “I know that this is unique offseason for us to have some money to spend I think and if it comes to that point and I’m able to help anybody if they’re looking to come here. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about this place.”
There are players out there. While some B’s fans are obsessed with getting a first line center, that commodity is not that easy to acquire. The top center expected to go on the market, Elias Lindholm, finishes as a third line center on a team, the Vancouver Canucks, that also got bounced in the second round. There’s Steven Stamkos, thought here to be a Bolt for life but yet is still without an extension. He’s still a very useful player but, at 34, his days as a 1C may be behind him.
Chances are the B’s would get more bang for their buck by targeting a wing that can fill the net. At the top of the market is Sam Reinhart, who is still in the midst of his career-year with Florida (57 goals) and coulld play center as well. One would think that the Panthers would try their best to keep that band together. Equally intriguing, if not more so, is Jake Guentzel, whom the Penguins traded to Carolina at the deadline. He seems ready to test the market. He’s a two-time Stanley Cup winner with Pittsburgh and a two-time 40-goal scorer. Patrick Kane (20-27-47 in 50 games) proved he still has gas in the tank. Tyler Toffoli would be a fairly major add.
There’s also the unforeseen trade market, which got kick-started on Tuesday with defenseman Ryan McDonagh going from Nashville back to Tampa Bay for draft picks.
The last couple of offseasons hinged around whether Bergeron would be coming back. This summer should be equally intriguing, if not more so.
Captain Brad Marchand, while the competitor in him refused to call this season a success, is bullish on what the B’s have in house with the young players ready to blossom and what he referred to as the “new core.” But he’s energized by a possible impact player or two coming in.
“Every player is an impact player. Come playoff time, every depth player is a huge impact player and that’s where you win,” said Marchand. “We have a lot of cap space, we have a lot of opportunity. We have some holes that need to be filled and some guys who’ll be leaving and contracts that are up. Some of those holes will be filled by guys who are already in this room, some won’t. With the foundation we have, the growth guys took, you look at (Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha) and the way they filled into those two roles, they took it and ran with it and both thrived and there were some other guys. And I’m really excited about the opportunity that presents itself with the cap space.”
Sweeney did a commendable job in keeping his team competitive in tough circumstances. Now comes the critical phase of getting the Bruins over the top. And that next step is a doozy.
