Boston Bruins Arm Chair GM
[Music] [Music] welcome in everybody and uh welcome to a special free agency or pre free agency episode of Bruins tape to tape I’m Carol online and you may notice if you’re watching on YouTube you can already tell but I am joined today not my by my usual fabulous uh co-host Maria uh but by one of our favorite uh friends of the Pod Mo uh so welcome in MO Ando we are so glad Maria and I are so glad that you can come in and step in because Mar is very excitedly awaiting the arrival of her grandchild hopefully this evening so that’s why she’s not with us uh tonight so thank you for having me it’s always yeah we get to talk free agency and kind of do some speculating had this whole wonderful little plan we were gonna play a fun game we were gonna have a whole bunch of us on and then it’s just you and mimo so that’s okay plans got [ __ ] that’s all we’ll have fun we got out we’ll be fine so today is June 18th uh also just happens to be uh playoff game night and we’re doing this instead because we hate the Panthers so and not gonna lie I did kind of forget the game was on so whoops understandable understandable who even wants to watch that game I don’t I don’t care I’m very disappointed that this is the first year I’m probably not going to watch the presentation of the cup as you’ve heard it’s one of my favorite Traditions even if the Bruins aren’t there because I think it’s a wonderful tradition I don’t want to watch it I’ve never felt this way about watching a team win the cup so no and and I think Florida I think Florida does win there’s just I I Edmonton is good but their goalie is just I I don’t think their goalie is is as good as the Panthers offense or their Relentless attack their for check it’s I think it’s over tonight well and what do I always say talk about it what do I always say what wins cups go goalies thank you defense and goalies and as betiful as we all thought that Bob looked apparently that didn’t actually translate onto the ice for some strange reason so anyways we’re not here nope we don’t want to talk about it uh so what we are going to do this evening uh is do some speculating play a little uh armchair GM now I was personally hoping to just be a host because I am no capologist uh I am not creative when it comes to putting teams together uh I just pay enough attention uh by listening to a couple of League wide podcasts to hear about who’s available and who’s you know being talked about like that’s the extent of my knowledge so I’m very excited to have you here Mo because I feel like you at least kind of sound like you know what you’re talking about when it comes to the cap and and building teams um we’ll see so it’s gonna be fun so I did some last minute homework myself uh because I did not expect to have to put together a team this evening but it’s okay it’s fun it’s all make believe anyways it is it is so the first piece of news because there actually hasn’t really been any uh Bruins news yet because it’s still playoffs and not much really happens during that time uh but we’ve gotten news from I believe was it Ty Anderson uh sharing the news that Oscar Steen is heading out to test the market uh thoughts on that department I’m really sad you know me uh I mean I’m sad but I’m not and I’m not surprised at all I mean Oscar Steen since probably a couple years ago has been one of my favorite Bruins prospects um I don’t think as you’ve seen him play in the NHL that he really has that ability to be anything more than just a fourth BL grinder someone that can just really do be effective on the four check maybe put the odd goal in here and there but that’s probably about it I always kind of thought he could be like a poor man’s marshand if he had that ability to actually play with someone he’s got you know so but he’s 26 he doesn’t really have a shot he’s just he’s just one of those guys that doesn’t fit anymore so I just kind of I hope he sticks I’m I’m sure some team will sign him probably like Utah or Seattle or you know I I hate to say it but he would fit well on Florida and their forche and be a pretty decent like fourth line guy um but it’s stuck but it’s not he he doesn’t have a spot on this team for the Bruins and he doesn’t make sense to be in Providence being 26 27 so it’s just it sucks so yeah from what I remember the few times him coming up he had some good speed which I think was in his favor it’s certainly something that the Bruins have been lacking for a number of years although last season they started to really add and build on bringing in guys with some speed um but I think you’re right I think it’s not that he did anything wrong or that he explicitly underperformed I think this is one of those situations where Boston is doing him a favor by letting him go because he I think could certainly find himself on a team where he’ll get those minutes and he’ll and he’ll be at that level you know like you said he’s he’s too good to spend all of his time down in Providence right uh so you know maybe like you said out in Utah or Detroit or Columbus or someplace like that that’s kind of like not totally the complete rebuild phase although kind of I guess Utah is but they are ready to spend money so I don’t know what that means who knows that’s the wild card so it’s too bad I agree with you but it was maybe seem like Billy you know just someone that’s more like a grinder type mentality team that that could use a guy that’s just like fourth line kill the odd penalty here and there um so let say I wish him all the best he’s he’s at least a good player that that whoever signs them if someone does they’ll be happy with what they get as long as they don’t expect you know more than 10 points probably right exactly so besides that there’s obviously not been any other news coming out of Boston or really any other team we’ve seen a little bit um League wide a couple of extensions some interesting points that have been made one that I want to throw out there because I find it very fascinating I believe it was uh it was from an episode of 32 thoughts where they’ve resigned um the Rangers have resigned kokako uh for a an interesting deal I don’t know the details right off the top of my head but one that is potentially primed to be a trade uh enhancement uh further down the line um what’s your kind of take on those sorts of deals where it’s it’s almost like a not not in good faith deal because they’ve signed this contract with him and those terms make it really attractive uh for basically using him as a trade piece later on later on down the line that’s kind of interesting I never really thought about that um so this is going to be his third contract so they signed him to a one-year 2.4 mil deal he is what like 23 24 something like that I think this kind of buys out one of his AR 23 he was top five one or two yeah it was when the Rangers were backtack years like yep top picks yeah because one either he came first and laf reier came next or it was vice versa it was yeah I don’t remember but yeah he was second overall there we go um yeah and I guess I hadn’t heard that he might be trade bait but that would be interesting the terms of the deal that uh they signed I mean he’s an RFA so qualified the offer that he gave they gave him whatever implied this is again what I’ve heard but I think that’s always kind of interesting because not only if that’s true uh it’s kind of one of those not in good faith uh but also he doesn’t really have a choice because he’s because it’s one of those things where isn’t the about the time where most teams that actually want to sign their young studs actually sign them to like an eight-year deal or something they’re they’re trying to lock them up sooner um so only signing him to that one-year deal makes it kind of suspect where they don’t really quite trust him yet right um and they’ve got quite a bit of cap space I mean they’ve almost they’ve got about 9 million in cap space this year and they’ve got a whole bunch of free space next year so this just seems like like one of those kind of weird deals where they might not really trust him wasn’t that kind of the conversation I I don’t really follow the Rangers all that close I don’t really follow anybody outside of Boston but yeah I thought there was kind of some questions to his game I mean 19 points and 61 games is not very good and two points in 15 playoff games also not very good for a second overall pick so I can I can see what the Rangers are doing um and you know maybe a team like Seattle Utah those guys that are Blackhawks that are trying to rebuild might you know try to try to go after them but yeah it seems weird I don’t know what they’re doing he’s not a horrible player but he’s he seems feasible someone that you can kind of put in there as depth you know second third line yeah so I think everybody uh pin his name to the back of your brain come uh February 2025 we might be hearing his name again I don’t know we’ll see unless he has all of a sudden some kind of insane season but right yeah but it was weird I remember like wasn’t there something weird that this is a like a weird deal for someone in this kind of range for an RFA and like qualifying offers or something yeah so we we’ve been talking about you know again RFA UFA for our listeners who are maybe newer to hockey again in the NHL you have your restricted free agents and you have your unrestricted free agents um your restricted free agents are the younger players either they’ve not met a particular threshold in terms of number of years in the league so if you know they came in at 18 19 years of age um they have to have played a number of Seasons um and or if they are under I believe it’s 25 or 26 um yeah it’s it’s one of those it depends on a couple different yeah it depends on a few different kind of factors yeah a couple of combinations so typically you might see a player who comes into the league at age 18 um they might hit the restricted free agency once or twice in their time and then typically again once they hit about 26 or what have you um they get to enter free agency and then it’s kind of a free-for-all and they they get to drive the ship in terms of the direction that their career gets to go into so the Boston Bruins are looking at a number of um free agents this off season um as well as a couple of uh restrictive free agents including a pretty significant one that I think now I feel like we all we all feel like we would have heard news and an offer and a deal signed with Jeremy swen um but I thought you talking about no can you really quickly give us the timeline of when so again uh as a little refresher or primer when it comes to uh restrict free agents they’re they’re not really signing a deal per se like a like a contract deal signing you might see like what pasta signed or some of these other older players have signed they have to receive a qualifying offer from the team that essentially owns their rights and it’s basically uh we’re gonna keep you around this is what we’re gonna pay you they can challenge it and go to arbitration because that is what Jeremy Swan did last year with his qualifying offer but for the most part it’s a we’re going to keep you around kid and here’s a couple extra more bucks to stick around and we’ll chat again in a couple years when you’re UFA and that’s when you can really ask for the big bucks so there’s a timing thing too because free agency the unrestricted free agency begins July 1 a restricted free agent can become an unrestricted free agent if they do not receive a qualifying offer which is how we got Morgan geeki last year because he was an RFA in Seattle and Seattle said thanks but no thanks and so that allowed him to then essentially uh go to market we’ve got Jeremy Swan which I think is probably the biggest I would have to argue League wide the biggest RFA hanging out there right now so what is the timing in terms of when those qualifying offers have to be in and you know when someone can then go to market because this year I think it’s a little bit weird right with the timing and it’s a little weird so I was looking at puckpedia and I’m assuming that this is going to be updated information as of this year um so basically what they’re saying is um the qualifying offer must be provided to that player either um the Monday after the entry draft or June 25th so it’s whatever happens later um so the draft I do believe is June 28th 29th so it just so happens that the Monday after the draft is July 1st so Merry Christmas everything will happen July 1 um yeah that’s not stressful at all and and what I’m reading so basically a little bit more is uh the qualifying offer cannot actually be accepted before July 1st if a qualifying offer is not accepted it expires by July 15th unless extended in writing by the team um so we might not even find out if San is signed or what’s they they probably I think sign him to a deal there’s like a whole bunch of weird stuff that happens all around um I obviously I don’t think Swan’s gonna sign a qualifying offer but in order to well I think he’ll sign to a big nice fat contract and not a qualifying offer well yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah because that’s the other thing right if even if you’re an RFA they could go to him and say we’re we’re offering you terms we’re we’re offering you basically what could what would be a UFA contract out in the wild we can we can offer you that yeah I think probably what they’ll do is they’ll give him a qualifying offer and then they’ve got two weeks to basically then negotiate that contract um so that’s kind of what they did with Steen in saying we’re not going to extend that qualifying offer to you effective July 1 you are now an unrestricted free agent good luck go have fun yeah well he was gonna be a free an an unrestricted free agent regardless because of his age true he was that group sick I think it was a grp he that weird group he aged out yeah he’s got that weird [ __ ] um but I think it was effectively that type of aspect where it was known that the Bruins were not going to sign him like you said with geeki is Seattle did not offer that so he went to the free agency um so it’ll it’ll be interesting to see where now everything kind of happens on that same day um which which actually is a Monday so that work day is going to be awesome I know well and I would hope although you you can’t ever necessarily rely on an employer to be a decent person uh but I would hope I know right but I would hope that any of those rfas who and like we all know oh yeah agents are doing work and they’re doing all that stuff like nobody starts working on this on July 1 right no so I would I would hope that the majority of players who are currently rfas who will not be receiving qualifying offer would know before Monday because it just then so happens like it doesn’t always line up this way it’s actually kind of crappy for any rfas who don’t get a qualifying offer because they’re their agent and they they have to work like overtime to get a deal and make sure they still are employed you know so interesting to see we know the Bruins will do right by everybody I mean they have already shown they started to do that so it’s just none of the stuff will go public um I’m I’m sure this stuff going public with Steen and whatnot is is still with the blessing of the Bruins and management and whatnot and I wasn’t it during the like the end of the year press conference they even said they were open and honest and and going to communicate with everybody they already had like that first kind of conversation where they were leaning and what they wanted to do with everybody so if the Bruins appear from the outside to be a well r well structured organization where they actually have a strategy and so I’m I’m confident that at least internally everyone knows what they’re doing and I think just because we don’t know about it doesn’t mean the people that matter don’t know about it so probably shouldn’t know about it yeah it’s it’s definitely a PR thing that I think is good for everybody everybody benefits from that announcement that you know breaking news from TY Anderson because and that’s Boston Boston’s Rapport amongst the fans amongst other players grows because they are being seen as look we’re an honest employer we’re gonna be upfront we’re gonna be honest and we’re gonna give you time and that you know benefits Steen because it gives him and his agent time to start talking uh to other teams so that way he’s not left out in the cold you know come July 2nd and there’s no room for him uh Allah Bert last season yep you know the Bruins drafted Oscar in 2016 a lifetime ago so he’s been a bruin for eight years yeah damn that’s a good amount of time that’s a good amount of time yeah you know what they drafted him 18 wow so they they’re doing right by their by their players you gotta the best the best of the outcome that you probably don’t want which is you want to stay a bruin but it’s the best way it’s the best way to go out right so you can’t complain yep so no definitely I think we’re everybody who listens I think we’re all on the same page that it would be the it would be the most insane uh outcome to wake up on July first and not see Jeremy Swan signed I think you know we’re gonna talk about what what potentially the future makeup of this team is going to look like and there are a couple of things that uh I think we can all make you know the understanding uh Jeremy Swan uh will be a Boston Bruin I mean if he’s not holy cow but let’s just make that assumption for uh this evening um otherwise someone signed him to a huge offer sheet at like 12 million Lou well I’ll be curious to see what you what kind of offer you made for him uh because I was going crazy I’m like sure here $88 million who wants it um but the other RF yeah right please the other rfas we’ve got Brandon busy um and we’ve got Jer bqu uh bfist so those are the two uh who kind of have the least amount of Wiggle roomman options but there are quite a few ufas we’ve got of course the big one that we’ve all talked about Jake de Brusque uh Danton Heinen um we’ve got Pat maroon I don’t know why Jason Magna I’m like I he’s on the list but he did he even play I don’t know we won’t talk about him the last game of the year right all right we won’t talk about him that doesn’t count I forget I thought see that’s my point we we’ll just prend that he’s not there uh jvr Derek forber Matt gzck and Kevin and Kevin shaton Kirk so this is what we’re gonna do okay because I think again we’re on the same page I think we’re going to make the assumption that jvr he’s either going to retire or he’s going to do one more year someplace else he’s 35 um you know he’s hit that 1,000 game Mark quite frankly I think he should retire because he’s had a good career Uh Kevin shaton Kirk I think he might have another year in him but he’s it’s not going to be with the Boston Bruins he’s about um I forget the number 40 or 60 some odd games it’s it’s less than a season’s worth of games for him to get to a thousand and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s like let me sign a year somewhere uh he’s 35 but I don’t think he’s gonna be a bruin next year Derek forbert um who what’s that he’s super young Pat and perk is still young come on no look everybody on this team is officially younger than me so uh that only happened last year um Derek forber than me too yeah well we’re the same age Derek forber he’s an interesting one um you know I think we can all we can I think we’re both on the same page the assumption is he’s going to Market he’s 32 years old yes he’s a phenomenal penalty killer but he has been plagued with in injury um almost his entire time yeah he makes a lot of money but he’s been injury plagued I mean look let y I’ll be clear any guy who wants to throw himself in front of those pucks for the Boston Bruins has my full respect but I can’t have you break both both legs both hands and God knows what else every season so sorry I I think we’re both on the same page he’s getting Peak kind of rendered him useless yes you know I I you Peak forsberg same same guy same style same ability on defense um yeah so yeah I I think forbert will go somewhere and he’ll he’ll do fine he’ll do great yeah but yeah he’s yeah he’s he’s he’s not a brw anymore no no no um yeah that’s okay so the question marks we have are again bfist what are they do with him does Jake go to market does Danton go to market is there room or a job available for Pat maroon because one of the things I know you’ve heard us talk about and our listeners have heard me talk a lot about when you look at the Boston Bruins and you look at it as an office space everybody has a role everybody has a specific job right like just like what we talked about with Oscar Steen there were no vacancies for his particular line of work in on the team is there work available for Pat maroon um and our other one is of course Matt grizzli which almost feels like a hot take still but I think everybody is on the same page that I think for the first time in his career he’s going to be leaving New England um so we got a couple of people to talk about um who stays who goes so super quick I want to hear your hot take boquist stays or goes I think he stays we’ll go through our our lineups that did kind of forget about him um realistically I think he resigns I I thought boquist was very good the latter half of last year and the playoffs um I’m trying to remember I don’t think he was very good on face offs which is fine but he quick Mo okay sorry he’ll he’ll come back come back JD stays or goes and I got some interesting things some sidebar things to share we can talk about JD but JD stay or goes I he I think he goes dant Heinen he’ll come back come back back Pat maroon uh back um who was the last one that was it right uh rig maroon back yeah yeah yep yep so L’s gone well yeah we we don’t speak his name um so well what do you think boquist back or back I say yes I see a really good future with him I love what I saw fast again remember I’ve been saying this for a long time we need speed right JD okay so I’ve I’ve I’ve struggled with him I’ve struggled with him I know um I’ll tell you this and and this I’m going to put this out there because then it’s going to hold me to making sure that I actually uh finish this so uh last season I started to develop a Model A rubric for assigning grades to our various free agents and one of the uh more interesting statistics that I started to kind of recreate it’s a player usage it’s something that’s been out there for quite a long time um and it’s looking at players and how much they’re being used compared to players on their team and the players out in the wild so to speak and I made an interesting uh Discovery this evening as I was running uh this year’s stats through the model that JD got a big bump in terms of his usage not just compared to other forwards on the Boston Bruins but also compared to forwards across the league and that made that gave me pause because I thought well man he wasn’t doing anything but actually maybe and you kind of pointed this out maybe it wasn’t that he was doing less or not accomplishing as much but his exposure to you know with more minutes being more heavily used maybe it just kind of got washed out that I don’t know yeah it he’s a tough case right I don’t know his eye test is he does so many good things away from the puck away from the spreadsheet where you expect him to be a solid player he’s not a first line he’s not a Topline guy but is he a second line guy maybe but he’d be a really good third line Winger yeah and problem is is making five five and a half mil what you want and then if you add guys is him and coil the appropriate Dynamic where I don’t really think it is yeah so it’s tough where I don’t want him as my second line Winger to be that scoring threat because he’s not a scoring threat but he does so many things outside of that where if he was going to make four and a half maybe on a team on a third line I would I would be okay with that so it’s it’s all that kind of thing as to like who’s out there who’s who’s he playing with and then that whole kind of team Dynamic where unfortunately I just don’t know where he where he fits long term it’s yeah and I and I think it doesn’t help his past reputation in Boston um doesn’t help him in this situation because I think it makes it a lot harder to give him the benefit of the doubt so where he and then res sended it and now he’s happy and it’s he’s a tough guy yeah and yeah so I don’t know like I don’t want I I think at the end of the day and if Maria were here she’d be yelling at me saying this I think at the end of the day I I don’t want him to go somewhere else I think I am actually afraid of him going somewhere else and becoming what we expected him to be in right it’s but I don’t the way I’ve always framed it is is he a guy that you win a Stanley Cup because and I don’t know if he’s that guy that you win that Stanley Cup because yeah so if that’s the case then you have to learn when to walk away and I think the fact that there was no deal made before the end of the season tells me at this point it’s again it’s June 18th right I I don’t know I it makes he’s going to Market wasn’t it I I forget didn’t Don say there was an offer out to him from Boston that he didn’t agree to or something right so it was implied that right they they’d been communicating offers were made but there was still a distance and who knows what was was it term in terms of like how long his contract was going to be for or the dollar amount right and his problem is again he didn’t make like a crazy good case for big bucks last season um but you’re also right like it he still fills a role right as the playmaker and or is he the product of Bon where I I don’t know how you would know you would know better when it comes to stats right in Cory 4 and the Fenwick right but looking from 22 to 23 and 23 to 24 both his Cory 4 percentage and the Fenwick percentage dropped 10% he went from 58 to 48 right so he Tak few were shots but he had a jump so he played he had more time well he played 16 more games he played he had a lot more minutes but he had had almost 400 more corsy against events in those games which could be Bon right but that that would also make sense if he because he’s been out there more times you have to look at the percentage right like right wasn’t he against better competition too at it so I think that’s that’s conversation for another a whole other podcast we’re trying to convince ourselves that it’s totally the right decision and I think it’s that we don’t want to have made we don’t want to be making that choice but I think we all know either way yeah I think we’re almost like talking ourselves into it being okay that they resign him I know I think that’s exactly what we’re doing that’s exactly bad but real quick I think hen comes back I think they’ve already started those conversations right I mean that’s there and I think as long as maroon back holds up I think you’ll see him back for at least one more year that’s the one problem and the one kind of question mark is for me is he effectively didn’t play any regular season games because he came back in post like he played one game like that doesn’t give me anything to go off of so unless he’s willing to sign for chump change yeah I mean if ass sign for a million or or the league minimum why the hell not right like okay because I found him to be still effective uh and and Maria and I talked about this um in some of our playoff episodes where you know his just physical presence prevented some Shenanigans from happening on the ice like that’s fine he doesn’t have to go out there and clock somebody if him literally just physically being there prevents someone on the other team from trying to pull some BS cool great I don’t care I don’t need a boxing match I don’t need I like them but I don’t right he is exactly what I wanted haway to be that year before yeah which half the way wasn’t yep so exactly so before we take a quick look at your proposed uh free agency signings um we both picked uh someone who I think his name is only just starting to Bubble Up and he hasn’t been around a terribly long time so we’re going to talk a little bit about Martin NS so uh I think and you can throw in your two cents I think he is a desirable player for Boston um for a couple of different reasons uh first and foremost obviously because he is Czech and we know how uh don feels about uh hiring uh check players obviously um but he’s a right-winger um he’s pretty young he’s 25 and he’s currently um pretty cheap so I I think we would be seeing him as part of a trade deal so we’re live yeah so I wna I want to just show um a delightful little clip of him he so he currently plays for Carolina and last season because I had a natural hat trick in a game uh so if you’re watching on YouTube you get to watch it otherwise sorry you get to listen so we’re gonna play it real quick the one man speed machine in the neutral zone when he has the ability to rev it up a Onan entry on the power play and that creates this entry at five on five and then there’s no such thing as a bad shot at top speed and what the go tender did is he took his eyes off did gor have on the blocker side and when you do that or at times you turn your blocker prematurely it can hit the inside of the blocker and go in so I was really excited to see that first of all for a young guy um I mean anybody to get a natural hat-trick but for a young guy like that and then just watching like I I picked that little clip because I was watching his Zone entry and his control and his entry and into the zone and then just taking the shot right like just like the uh the sports announcer had said um you got to take those shots and how many times have we shouted from the rooftop to shoot the damn Puck and he had complete control over that puck as he entered into the zone and I think that that’s something that I certainly want to see a lot more of um just again that that he has like a lot of good control going in and so um hopefully that’s H something that he can bring to the team um but I think it comes as no surprise when we’ve talked about when I’ve heard his name floating out and you know prade uh I think we all know who we are kind of talking about uh when it comes to the t- word you want to say it Frederick no I know good old all Mark we’ve got to trade allmark to somebody I know it’s I hate it I hate that the most I hate it the most know I know trading East trading all Mark East hurts but but it’s not the same division it’s not the same no and you gotta you got to give up something to get something yeah that’s always how it’s been and if you’re going to get someone that can provide Topline goal scoring with pasta you need that more than a goalie you’re going to face three times a year yeah maybe five six times in the playoffs if you play them right so I I will take that chance to get someone that can play with zaka and pasta you know if they’re put them on the left or what they’re going to do so why don’t you walk us real quick uh the other person that we both ended up picking um was Lindholm so his name has certainly been uh thrown around again uh I highly recommend throwing into rotation at least one League wide podcast into your rotation um because there’s value there’s value in that and like that’s how I learn about these players because especially West Coast I mean forget about it um so for folks who maybe don’t remember uh who this guy is or why he’s being talked about um he was traded uh this season from Calgary and he ended up in Vancouver now Vancouver is probably in terms of uh the Canadian Market it seems like their Sports media is second only to Toronto in terms of insanity and so I’ve heard a lot about him and because Vancouver press is very uh interested in him and keep asking why haven’t you signed yet why haven’t you signed uh have you even heard uh the the interesting rumors about how there have been senior players uh in Vancouver reaching out to him and saying hey you should let’s keep the band together like they even the even his teammates are saying stick around stick around but it’s gotten to that point very much so like the conversation we literally just had about Jake de bruss not being res Ed there’s a reason there’s got to be a reason why Elias lolm hasn’t resigned in Vancouver and uh I believe it was Elliott fredman again in 32 thoughts kind of saying it’s it’s just not it’s not going to happen and that he’s he he could potentially be willing to take a lower salary than what is being offered by Vancouver to be somewhere else so it’ be interesting to see what kind of deal he does sign um and he’s a center uh and we’ve been talking about it for a thousand years uh about how Boston needs centers so you and I both had him um that’s kind of the hype around Elias lolm otherwise I mean he’s probably the biggest uh most prominent name out there for available centers because of the fact that he hasn’t signed um an extension right like y when Noah Hanah fin got traded to uh Vegas fairly quickly I mean not immediately but fairly quickly you know he signed that extension so it hasn’t happened and you have to make the Assumption Lyn Holmes gonna be hitting the market so with that being said why don’t you real quick run down your uh idea for your team let’s talk about your uh most realistic uh outcome uh so why don’t you run down uh who you signed any trades how much you’re gonna your terms and your cap hit yep so this one is the second one that I got a little crazy on that I thought was probably a little bit more realistic um so I I some of that’s gratuitous I can see Trent Frederick’s name in that tree so yeah I know um I still feel like allmark for Nas is not enough um and I still feel like Nas is the better player and the value for allmark is it’s subjective right there’s been a lot of Articles if you look at it no one really knows what a number one goalie is worth um so I still feel like the Bruins probably have to give up something else to acquire an HS I I don’t see it the other way around um so I I I don’t think the Bruins are going to give up any draft Capital there’s there’s no draft Capital to give up um and going through the list of people I I did not see anyone else out there I don’t think the Bruins are going to give up on geeki no I know I have a personal hate and distaste for Trent Frederick but I still feel like from a n basically just from a realistic view is Frederick is getting to that point where this is the last year of his deal he is going to get to that point where he’s going to start commanding a higher and higher salary and I just do not feel like his game and his role with the Bruins is anything better than a third line Winger or where I view him as as a fourth line Center where he is going to be worth the bang for his buck so that’s why I included Frederick with this deal as to almost sell high right yeah so you get Nas um you’re I I I view the the Bruins are going to sign San and busy um those are your two goalies moving forward um so you’ve got San at five years six million you got busy at two years basically 1.75 and then I think Nas is they’re going to try to sign him to a longer term deal if they do get him probably on that same range of like five and a half I forget where he’s at now he’s at like three I think he’s at three now um and I just view him as getting that pay bump he had quite a few points last season I know the year before he had like 70 I think he had 70 or something less or he had he had quite a bit so um then I view them going after Lind Hol probably around seven and a quarter maybe a little more that’s just where I put him at I think he’s on I think lindol was only at like four something right now his his deal right now is crazy cheap it is it is which is crazy yeah it’s like 4.85 or something so that’s where I’m at there um I think I think maroon comes back one year one um I think Heinen comes back on three years two and a half that seems like a very daeny deal um for this reason if when you get to the lineup I do believe and I do kind of want the Bruins to bring back shaton Kirk um at that oneye 175 I think he I think you’ve got shaton Kirk you’ve got Peak and you’ve got spoon as your bottom three um and shaton Kirk when he was in the lineup was able to run that power play pretty efficiently and when he was out of the lineup he was not um then one guy that always seems linked to the Bruins is uh manahan and I think that is one guy that will come on kind of a one deal I forget what he’s making now but I felt like three and a quarter he’s that guy that basically plays every position um and I think he’s that guy that would kind of work everywhere yeah so that is kind of where we’re at and I think that kind of gave me a wiggle room of like 1.2 mil um so there was some wiggle room there so I thought Monahan and H with Patra would be your good third line that kind of gives Patra the ability to kind of learn but also take some chances because you’ve got Heinen who’s pretty responsible and manahan as well they also kind of create that good penalty kill and then you’ve got dicki loo brezo maroon probably got boquist in there stick him in and out um and then kind of depending I saw NS as a rightwing here I’m kind of kept friendly in The Scouting Report he’s a left wi so you could probably move lindol with like Nas and then zaka is the center and a complete checkline of Nas zaka might be kind of fun to watch well we know how Monty loves to play Mad Scientist so I’m sure we would have had would have the opportunity to see any and all combinations yes but I think that is that could be potentially something that gets done obviously I don’t think Frederick will get traded this year um I think we’ll keep Frederick for you know monah handle you know not I don’t know if he’ll come but I I think that could be something that potentially happens depending where the the Bruins actually feel where Freddy’s game is and if if if there’s more that has to get given up right but I I think this team could be a little bit deeper um obviously hopefully a little bit more scoring um you know you’ve you’ve got lorai with maoy and lindol with Carlo or vice versa whatever it is it’s not a totally Powerhouse defensive core but it I think it’s still there to a point where you can you know get through the regular season and hopefully if everyone stays healthy you have the chance to actually go deep um and and again you you’ve got some wiggle room you’ve got 1.2 mil at the cap you know at the trade deadline so you can get some people you can figure out what you need and and go from there and I I think Sweeney is that type of GM that wants to keep cap space going into the year and that’s that’s what kind of ham ham strung him this year or he couldn’t do anything at the deadline which sucked yeah it did but at least everybody was in the same boat so I will share at least some of my uh ideas I will full disclosure um again because I fully expected to be a host of a fabulous game show that I was going to host this evening uh this was all done at about five o’clock today and uh I both didn’t pay attention how much I signed some of these guys for so please ignore some of these numbers uh and then I completely forgot about Pat maroon oh andin I forgot all about all of those guys so but we can either go through yours well I’ll show you what I got I’ll show you what I got okay and then we’ll save my crazy from yes because I also realized I realized when I was playing with the fun little Tool uh oncap friendly that I could not make an edit to my offer after I signed them but you could just like un them and resign them exactly so I interestingly enough I also used lenus allmark as a trade piece for Martin nichas um but you’re getting a lot Beck I like your deal better here’s the thing here’s the this is really interesting I placed a ton more value on the goal tending uh than you did and and I kind of was chuckling to myself when you said like nobody really knows how to value a a number one goalie right and I think that goalies in the NHL are consistently undervalued and underpaid now granted there aren’t very many that are exceptional right just like there aren’t many uh forwards skaters who are exceptional who are making like you know north of $10 million a year there are a few goalies who are like that and I think that Jeremy Swan this is an out I think this is an outrageous amount only because I think I would speculate and I could be entirely wrong so please don’t hold this against me because I did not actually look it up that this could be the single most that any gold hunter has ever been paid but quite frankly I would make the argument well why the hell not and I will say when um uh oh my God the Rangers go Ender his name all of a sudden Escapes Me Sherin when shurin makes his gets his signing he is going to set the bar for what an elite Ultra Ultra elite gold hunter is going to make and I think that Jeremy Swan is right there with him and so I think the Boston Bruins should offer him full terms seven and a half million dollars all right so before you go who do you think is the highest paid goalie by average right now as of April 24th 2024 but like active players I think he’s active well that doesn’t sound good if you’re saying I think he’s active oh but I know it’s what’s his name Rick DPO from the New York Islanders because they’re still paying off that insane no he’s not active but the money all right so Carrie Price is making 10 and a half mil yes sge bosski is at 10 yes and and then you’ve got vasileski at nine and a half so I actually have no problem with saying eight for eight for Jeremy Swan so he would be the sixth highest paid goalie even be% yeah at eight and a quarter and hel at eight and a half which makes sense yes which I think is probably where you’re gonna have to get them and why you’ll probably have to get rid of allmark and that’s exactly it um I say yes to uh extending just well extending he’s an RFA but for boist bring him back I think he deserves a little bit of a pay bum I think he showed a lot of promise and he was very excellent with the the the last line you know I think he’s he’s deserving um young too and he’s pretty young um Elias ly Holm I gave him a pay bump as well up to six because I think that if the Boston Bruins are really serious about bringing somebody who is a very good Center they have to throw money at him I think that’s just the facts um regardless and I think he’s the best one who is currently available so six um we’ve kind of talked a little bit about the idea of Jonathan marsho and I don’t know how realistic it actually will be um considering his age and how much he currently makes in Las Vegas however I gave him a three-year deal at six and a quarter because that would put I believe he’s 33 so that would put him at 36 and I think that’s a pretty generous IAL I had him on my other team for a 33y old yeah um and just for the hell of it I threw Bert on there because I think that would be a lot of fun uh because why not uh he would be getting a pay cut however he’d be getting five years so I feel like sometimes when you’re on the job hunt and a really great job comes along and if they’re offering you a little bit less money but you really love the job and you’ve got that stability for a number of years you’re willing to take a pay cut I think we’ve all been there and I think we’ve all done that corre and I think that Tyler bruzi is kind of in that position um and I said also for lenus alar again a first round pick because I do personally place goenda they’re almost always underpaid so and you’re looking at a 2025 so it’s prob if if Carolina does better than and you know that it would be bottom 10 yeah right so that would make sense yeah um and then of course you can ignore the fact that I’m only paying Martin n 775 because I think you’ll get paid a little bit more than I do think so I just couldn’t figure out how to edit my and oh well and I think buy will also make more than that as well yes he will here okay it didn’t all right whatever it did the first time I did this I accidentally paid him seven million and then the second time I had to redo this I accidentally paid him the league minimum so again ignore the numbers you’re fine um but these were kind of some of my lineup ideas you know uh I also didn’t put a ton of thought into the lineup nearly as much as you uh because I would certainly keep uh like Mary and coil together um because I think that they had that really good uh chemistry uh in that sense um but otherwise you and I are pretty much spoton in terms of at least the back half of um the back half of this team uh you know yep I didn’t really know what to do with some of our young guys I think that thinking about the three quot unquote rookies that the Bruins had last year they did well like you know don’t don’t get me wrong uh they they did considering how difficult it is uh for rookies to make it on a team especially a team like the Boston Bruins like an established team um you know they did all right the fact that they actually got games that that’s something to be proud of they aren’t you know what you’re talk yeah I would say surprisingly that lorai was the one who came out on top which he was the last one to come in if you recall because he he kind of like just didn’t make the cut because there was was quite literally no room for him right right and he’s the one who I think of the three very much so is going to be starting the year as Bruin yeah that’s how I see it I think Patra I would not be surprised if he starts in the miners um I I don’t Camp right I I don’t think that would be necessarily a bad thing or something that is anything that the Bruins fans need to worry about it’s I mean he’s like 2021 just it’s it’s okay and hegy right his shoulder I think his shoulder was kind of messed up the whole year so this was kind of a good thing um and beer I love beer but there’s always that thing in the back of my mind where I don’t know how much the Bruins love beer I don’t understand that Dynamic the man heals it on the faceoffs I don’t I don’t see the issue and that’s where maybe he’s trade bait I you hate to say it but he is one of those guys that could be a piece of a trade that goes um I guess it would depend on how their new CER Elias Lindholm does at the face off dot well if you look at his Scouting Report he’s quite good um he wins over 55% of his draws so I’ll take that thank you um so it’ll be interesting um did you want to go over my crazy so I for crazy and I gave it to you I also had requested to to our listeners that uh my contestants on my crazy game show here bring an absolutely wild unhinged proposal because why not let’s have some fun so my favorite team of all time I’m a little scared what what mess have you put the Boston Bruins in so to start the cap spaces we still at $900,000 in cap space you got us you got it in you I still have some cap space so we are tra so so we’re getting chck and I wanted forsberg as my backup goalie not busy so we are trading Beacher Freddy and all Mark to Ottawa and that’s some so the chck wants to go to Ottawa that’s crel I know I I don’t think this trade ever happens I don’t think allar is I didn’t even see this this is this is a live reaction I’m looking at your second trade holy crap well that all right so we’re getting so there’s that this is the trade that I’ve been seeing in I think it was Bleacher Report said where could zad go if he was on the trade block and Boston was one of those teams so I was like okay what would I give up well for shits and giggles let’s give up Patra and let’s give up lindol why lindol well we’re getting chck why Patra well you gotta give up something to get something so there’s that you’re on your now you have um if you look we’re signing other Center down below so we don’t need Mr coil anymore but I need a six defenseman so I am going to get Andreas England from LA and we’re gonna pick up a draft pick so we’re signing San just for chy Giggles one year six it’s probably gonna be one year whatever I needed something right my favorite players we’re signing Stam Coast to a three here nine and a quarter million deal we’re bringing back everybody’s favorite Heinen everybody’s favorite maroon like I said before we’re going to bring in good old manahan and we’re gonna bring in Patrick Kan at one year two and a quarter I’m laughing I literally have tears in my eyes like I’m no joke crying but if you go to um if you if you have the lineup I tell you this lineup’s pretty solid I don’t know if you saved it oh you know what I don’t know that I have have your crazy lineup all right so you’ve got zaka stamco pasta you’ve got marad zabad and Kan then Heinen manahan and lysel just because lysel why not let him play he’s gonna play with manahan and Heinen he can do whatever the hell he wants and then you’ve got loo geeki brezo and you got maroon then you’ve got your D you’ve got lorai ma Chen and Carlo and England and Peete and then you still got spoon i’ so I’ve got all my guys right there and you still got 900,000 in cap space for Mr Don to pay attention to here’s your your lineup there it is look how that that’s beautiful who doesn’t want Stam Co and pastan knock on the same team that’s quite literally the most unhinged lineup you’re mad scientist that’s well I was I was trying to think I’m like I think Coyle would fit in with LA so I figured that would make sense I don’t know how much lindol in New York makes sense I feel like New York’s probably got a whole bunch of defenseman already but they could flip him they could do something but they could probably use Patra as that replacement for zabad I think Patra has shown those flashes where he can be that solid Center over time he can grow I mean give him three four years he’ll probably become that solid not Bergeron but that berson type player um who kind of goes under the radar a little bit so and God damn it I want Stam Co on this team more than anything just so bad it would be so and I I don’t think I don’t know like the the the lightning don’t have any they don’t have any cap space so got nothing give me like they’re already over the cap so just give me stamco at nine and a quarter I don’t I don’t need lindol nope nope I don’t need either l home apparently apparently you don’t need either of them so so you want it crazy there’s some crazy I think it’s not gonna happen but it’s fun to talk about no that’s pretty insane um but I think thinking about how Don thinks and the players and the kinds of players that he likes on Boston I think nobody should be surprised Ed by the addition of another Czech and another swed yep so and and I think they fit in well with what Monty’s system is right that’s kind of where I view and the broader the broader Boston system right like we’ve talked about on the podcast before the way that the players play in the larger system in Boston and how that is even practiced in Providence so that there’s very little need for kind of transition um I think players who are the Swedish players and the Czech players I mean I don’t know what it is but it’s a style and a system that uh they adapt very well to um and Canadians Americans like that’s pretty much it there’s rarely ever a Russian steam I don’t know what think of that yeah and and that that the more I think about it that’s more the more reason why I talk myself into bringing chatton Kirk back is he was here last year he was good but I think he needs that second year to solidify the fact that he knows how to play the system he knows how to play with the people is he now used to that system and that would do him well where one of the guys that if they can afford him to bring would be like a Brady Shay you know something like that where I don’t think they need a top they don’t need a Top Line play with ma they’ve got lindol they’ve got lorai they’ve got somebody there but they need that floer right but they need that floer so that’s why I’m thinking like Brady Shay someone along those lines but I I still think he’s kind of making he’ll make too much but someone like that but the free agents aren’t really there unless you go by trade so it’s tough where I can see them bringing back shaton Cur saving that money and giving that back to San and giving him that extra million or signing Nas or whoever else they kind of bring in is you have to understand you know the sum of the players what what makes sense right like so it’s it’s that cap game and the Bruins do a great job of figuring out that cap game like it or not they they they think about it they they play with the numbers and it it’s going to be fun as hell to watch I’m excited the other thing that also the other thought that kind of crossed my mind as I’m thinking about what is the realistic number that Jeremy Swan could end up with um Carry price aside because yeah technically he’s not retired but he is for all intents and purposes he’s retired and so your top goal tenders your your highest paid goal tenders in the league are all Russian and they are also with teams that will shell out that kind of money for an elite Russian go tender like they are a different breed the the how they come out of Russia their training like they are worthy of said some right so you’d be looking at Jeremy Swan being potentially the highest paid American goal tender he’s going to surpass J got in salary if at minimum they need to be paid the same and I made this case this argument last year uh and this year he should be paid more um but the thing about the Boston Bruins and what I had said earlier about how oftentimes you’ll take a pay cut to go work at the place that you want to be Boston is notorious and I don’t mean it necessarily in a bad way but they’re very good at selling the culture which is you know not wrong uh the lifestyle what it means to be a bruin in exchange for paying maybe a little bit less they definitely get their top guys to take team Friendly Deals right like if you remember when pasta was getting his extension uh there were talks that from very well respected uh journalists across the league saying you know he he could probably swing 13 million easily he could flirt with 14 he’d be he’d be worse 14 and he took what 115 right I think so yeah this is kind of the same thing that everybody knows that Jeremy Swan wants to stay in Boston everybody knows that he wants to be there for his career and I think if it weren’t for all of those kind of intangibles of being in Boston if he was in New York uh I don’t know other teams that have money um I wouldn’t be surprised if someone threw 10 at him he’s not going to get that because it’s Boston you’ll be prying money out of the Jacob’s gold dead hands to actually pay someone a fair amount but it’s Boston and people want to play there and it’s not just you know it there’s so much more to a job like and they’re very good at leveraging those intangibles to get a guy for a little bit less money right well there’s there’s two other things too right um I forget what the second thing is but the first one is is it’s his first contract after his kind of initial deal so he’s still not doing right so he’s not doing like the Conor heluk deal where he’s making I mean he’s making 10 or eight and a half a year um you know you’ve got Sergey who’s making 10 who it probably was his third deal mhm so he still needs to in my mind almost still prove himself um where I could see him making seven between seven and eight I personally like it if he could make six just because then you’ve got more room but I I would not be surprised if you see eight years eight million and what is that 64 I I think that would be something that’s probably would make sense um but I would like 8ye seven I think you know just kind of draw it there I I would be quite happy with that um you know I mean Ilia is making eight and a quarter I don’t know if if Ilia how old he is on the Islanders but he seems like a comp I would say I I I would rather have Swan over soken at this point oh um yeah but I don’t I don’t really want to pay Swan more than soken yeah yeah um I’m trying to see how old Ilia is but here’s here’s an interesting and I still think he does need to prove it a little bit more yeah I mean the other thing though 2 Boston 25 25 maybe yeah 25 26 um right yeah he’s gotta be 24 maybe because he’s an RFA um I would say I can look it up as how fast my internet goes I would say a comparable uh not necessarily in terms of position but let’s say experience I’m looking at Charlie McAvoy um and the the Boston Bruins while yes they broker team Friendly Deals the guys that they recognize as franchise players they are very very good at identifying those players very early early on in their career and respect them and and and recognize that by then almost always offering term so like Charlie McAvoy yep it was the same thing he had two contracts of three years a piece and then he got his eight-year deal um so I think I mean even Carlo like Carlo got a decent deal right you know what six years 20 four so yeah I mean David poock is a little bit different um because he had a threee and then a sixy year and then his eight-year but I think he took a little bit longer to get there um as opposed to I saw Charlie McAvoy get there you know start to enter Elite status in his position um a little bit more on Pace that compared to Jeremy Swan the absolutely insane thing is the fact that Jeremy swayan and we very well may not have even come close to seeing how good he can be so you know comparing Wayman last year night and day yeah it’s yeah yeah it’s it’s insane he was good last year he good he was Unreal this year un un yeah unreal and quite frankly at at one point I was saying like do we need to be talking about him being a vant candidate this year because what I think the only was and I think the only detriment to him is the fact that he played half the games right like I think that he play more games is the question as good as much as you know the tandem the splitting the time is good for goalies because again we’ve talked about this on the Pod like you look at Connor heluk he had a significantly better year this year because he played fewer games um and I think that’s just becoming more and more the norm and recognizing like giving uh 60% or 70% to your starter is going to be you’re going to get a better return yeah if you do that so uh but unfortunately because he played half of them I think lenus just got lucky last year I think he blew the competition out of the water and I think it was a combination of like nobody expected so like expectations were low yep to a very extreme degree and so like I think lenus was deserving of that VZ but I also think he benefited from the situation and Swan didn’t have that and so but if he has a year next year like he did this year then yeah it’s only a matter of time before he gets yeah and I think people are starting to understand that it’s not the days of like Maran brur who’s playing 72 games a year right like come on no I mean I think 50 some games as long as you’re the number one goalie that’s playing at least 60 70% of the games in the regular season and you’re playing all of the games in the playoffs that’s what we need that’s why don’t three four starts in a row yeah three four starts in a row you know resting yep and then at it but yep yep yep so well I appreciate uh I appreciate you uh coming up with some of these very interesting lines um and indulging me uh this evening in Li of our usual programming um which is nothing because it’s and the Bruins AR flying 7 o’clock my time so isn’t the game on now probably but I don’t care because I’m not watching uh but um you want some news not Bruins related I would love news you have breaking news I according to nhl.com that Philip Heron has signed an eight-year 58 million contract with the Canucks defense had a career high 48 points this year where was he coming from with Vancouver so he has 7.25 the annual value and he’s 26 that’s a chunk of change I don’t think that gives the Bruins any type of kind of you know set the bar so I don’t really think the Bruins have a defenseman that we could use but that’s that’s kind of interesting that a 26y old defenseman now is worth about seven and a quarter which makes that Carlo deal look [ __ ] insane right now where he’s only making like four something I know which amazing so kudos to Don on that thing where I I thought Carlos’s career was over with all the concussions and the fact that he was not a very good defenseman but he slowly become one of my more favorite Bruins that I’m actually kind of glad they kept him and and resigned him so well so there you go defensemen tend to start to hit their stride around 27 28 and he’s 27 years old so there you go so I think that’s probably good with makoy right so he can kind of grow into that where I think some of us have been a little bit maybe disappointed that he hasn’t grown to be that kind of Point producer or more offensive type where I don’t think that’s him where I would rather see lorai be that guy and and Charlie be that kind of two-way more physical type thing so yeah we could talk about all that [ __ ] later it will come the day will come we will once we know once we know what’s happening oh it’s Christmas I’m so excited it’s third Christmas right uhuh it’s Christmas in July so it’s super early the beginning exactly exactly so just as some housekeeping for our listeners um Maria and I will be back on uh we’ll have a full length episode the week of free agency TBD I think we might have a special quick emergency recap on the first and then we might have a fuller length debrief possibly even on the second um and after that uh we might have some other surprises uh as the summer goes on we’ll be talking about uh maybe the prospects maybe not depends on if there’s anybody exciting worth talking about um but before you know it it’s going to be the end of August and we’re going to start seeing the teams come back together the Bruins just released their pre-season schedule which was really interesting um some of the usual uh play teams we’ve got um Washington and we’ve got the Rangers uh I believe did I see Philadelphia is in there y um but they are playing the LA Kings up in Quebec City I’m very jealous I would love to go uh far away do you think far you think the Bruin Stein bers are on to a one day deal and have them no never I hope he does you know he’s gonna be there so oh yeah so but the fact that they’ve released our preseason schedule means that they’re not far from releasing the regular season schedule and soon it’s gonna be October so can’t wait uh but stay tuned if there’s anything uh particularly exciting some huge trades or whatever um Maria and I will hop on and do a quick recap and chat about what’s happened because if you recall last year I think about a day or two before free agency is when we had uh some big trades happen for the Bruins so as soon as that Stanley Cup is handed out uh things are going to start moving and they’re going to start moving fast so stick with us we’ll try to to stay on and and maybe we’ll have a special episode who knows we’ll see we’ll still be weird in the Discord so just join you’ll get all the information you need yes so find us on all of our social media we’re on Twitter X whatever the hell it is uh mastedon um we’ve got our Discord uh even if you feel like you can’t keep up uh it’s usually a lot of fun to observe and the next thing you know you’re going to be part of the conversation um so don’t be shy join us there uh follow us watch us on YouTube all that good stuff uh and with that thank you Momo thank you and of course as always go bees [Music] [Music] testicles wallet what God damn it oh [ __ ] we’re keeping this Adrian that’s for you let’s go
Joining us this week for a special pre-Free Agency chat is friend of the pod Moe (one half of our favorite Too Many Men duo). We talk who should stay, go, and who to go after. With RFA offers due on the same day as the opening of the UFA season, and a significant increase in cap space, it’s going to be a very interesting July for the Boston Bruins.
Love a blooper? Stick around until the very end.
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📲Join our Discord: ➡️ https://discord.gg/AQfC73RbnS
📒Show Notes:📒
⚫Martin Nečas Highlights ➡️
🟡Who is Elias Lindholm? ➡️ https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/l/lindhel01.html
⚫Hronek signs deal with Canucks ➡️ https://www.nhl.com/news/filip-hronek-signs-8-year-contract-with-canucks
🟡Bruins say goodbye and good luck to Oskar Steen ➡️ https://x.com/_MikeSullivan/status/1803061872276521293
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