The End of the Goalie Hug
[Music] [Music] welcome in everyone I am uh Maria from Watertown one of the hosts of Bruins uh tape to tape and as we uh chatted about at our season ending episode we said that we would convene when there was uh news broken by our Boston Bruins and we do expect there to be an ample amount of news uh to be broken by the Bruins with um having to do some retooling in the off seon and now that the Stanley Cup finals are over and done with we should see a good amount of activity not only from the Bruins but by other teams in the league and I’m going to welcome in my ever so popular and knowledgeable co-host Caroline with a K we’re recording on a June 25th and just very quickly I know you and I may share similar sentiments with regard to the crowning of the Stanley Cup so normally we would be be bigger people and offer congratulations but I myself don’t feel like being a bigger person and offering congratulations I don’t know how you feel about that yeah I uh I don’t love it uh I as you know I have a longstanding personal tradition of always watching the presentation of the cup it’s one of my favorite things to see it’s a beautiful tradition uh and I did not watch it last night I I could not face seeing Matthew kachak uh raise the cup I did end up watching a little bit of the presentation this morning with Gary bman handing off the cup to barov because my daughter um really really wanted to see it so I said all right I’ll take one for the team I’ll watch him give it just a barov that’s it and so I did see that um but I will say and I know we’re gonna we’re about to dive right into it um how about those Boston Bruins announcing 13 minutes to eight their significant trade news it’s a kin to going to a wedding and telling people you’re pregnant it was it was a little bit on the bizarre side and I thought out of an abundance of maybe um courtesy to letting the game play out and see who the Stanley Cup champion was you might want to wait on this news but oh well I mean you know I know there’s no written rule I know there was some discussion about that and there is no written rule about it but yeah it was a little bit of a head a little bit of a head scratcher and maybe they wanted the announcement to come out formally no that there was a deal done before it was broken Yeah by others who should not be breaking the news I don’t I don’t know but I just thought it was yeah a little bit weird to say the least that was 100% not an accident um you you have you’re absolutely right there had to be a reason whether it was for some reason they would think that someone else was going to break the news although quite frankly literally every person in the hockey Sports media industry was watching and getting ready for the game um I mean I like to think that perhaps this was them slipping it in to spite I don’t know Florida a tiny bit that or they hit it because they didn’t want it I like that narrative but I also I I I I follow uh this PR uh Guru woman Molly m Pearson on social media and she’s brilliant and she uh talks about how you slip in things like on a Friday afternoon especially in the summer if you don’t want a ton of attention and who knows maybe they did it also because they didn’t want a ton of attention on it because and we’ll talk about it I don’t think what we’ve seen is the entire story so but we’ll talk about that minute yes and we’re gonna get to that because you know that’s the big news I’m sure most of you who listen to our pod who are hockey fans know what we’re referring to um with respect to the big news but there there are some there were some other pieces smaller pieces of news um by the Boston Bruins recently one of which is they signed Brandon busy to a one-year two-way contract at at league minimum same thing for Ian Mitchell one year 2A at league minimum and then we had a new coach added to the Bruins mix where they added uh Jay leech to the Boston Bruins coaching staff who I think if what I’m reading is accurate is going to focus on the defensive structure of the team which I mean I thought it was pretty well I should I should walk that back it’s it’s not the same defensive structure that we have been accustomed to we saw Snippets of it during the regular season but um for the most part that was an area of concern for the Boston Bruins where some of the defensive breakdowns that led to some really questionable decision making by not only the defenseman by but also by forwards who were tasked with defensive responsibility so um but I think the big tip off in terms of our big big news was the Brandon busy signing I I think that was a way of you know laying down the foundation to what we all suspected was coming rightfully likely needed to come in order for this team to start moving forward in finding some and filling some key roles that need to be filled and that is the trading of lenaar yep that was certainly uh not unexpected I think we all saw the writing on the wall I I would say it’s interesting that they traded within Division I know that there are a lot of folks who think you know you should never trade any position whatsoever within the division there are other folks who say well you can trade but not a goalie because goalies are the Difference Maker um and here we are the Boston Bruins sending Lena SAR to Ottawa so I thought that that was the only piece that I thought was really interesting because when the news broke that the GM from Ottawa was on the phone with Don Sweeney I thought surely they’re not going to do a deal with Ottawa like it’s a little too close to home um and who knows what who knows what else was going on who knows who else maybe gave a phone call you know we know that New Jersey was in the market for gending and they kind of settled their situation um I believe it was last week and their trade with Calgary for markstrom um so and and there was a little bit of chatter around Carolina so it was the only piece for me that was a surprise was the fact that it it ended up with Ottawa I just I didn’t think that that was actually G to be the team I don’t know and probably coming from that long-term traditional thinking of you just don’t right you know right as the old commercial used to say you don’t date within the division So within the division right right and you know it’s it’s I think there’s two ways of looking at it right because we you know we’ve all heard about Linus’s no trade clause and it was going to drop to 15 yep come July 1 yes yep so without disparaging the Ottawa senator’s franchise yeah I would thank that Ottawa would have been one of the teams on that no trade list yeah but yeah when reputation yeah right right well ownership there is not the most the most stable right right yeah we had our own critique for for that team last year now granted it was new ownership they don’t seem to really know what they’re doing um so you know that first year maybe we can be a little forgiving but so before we kind of go into some of the our opinions let’s real quick just run down what the what the trade was was so they um sending Bruins are sending lenus omark to Ottawa presumably to be their number one goalie um and in return the Bruins received a player by the name of Mark celik a age 25 um you know not not a game changer in my mind but someone who could likely develop into you know a solid fourth line player and he’s not making a ton of money no not making a ton of money the Bruins are also getting a number one ottawa’s number one draft pick in the 2024 2025 draft so for everyone who was biting their fingernails and aggravated over the fact that you know the Bruins were going to be without a first round draft pick for a period of time here you go you there’s it’s ottawa’s second draft pick in the first round in the first yeah I think it lands them around 24 25 which is better than I believe that was what David poock was drafted at back in the correct correct so you never know you never know but the the the the one return that is causing some AA amongst Bruin’s yes fans is the go tender from a Jonas coroso which I’m I’m having a hard time understanding what everyone’s all worked up about maybe you can help me understand so I get it he he’s he’s owed some money right and it’s the Bruins have him for an additional three years on his current contract which is what 4 million I believe he so he current so what he has left is what he has he’s got three years withon million aav cap hit Y retaining 25% of that and I know his numbers haven’t looked good but you know that can be a combination of a bunch of different things you know Ottawa has been in like maybe a rebuild build state for how many years now they have very young unseasoned unproven not a lot of experienced players which you know doesn’t lend itself to an ideal set of C cumstances sometimes for a go yep yeah I think you know I’m I’m not GNA lie I will be transparent I think my initial reaction was really I and even before this particular trade his name had come up I’m sure in either an article that I’d read online or in a podcast that I was listening to he’s an interesting one um because so he signed a free agent a free agency deal uh in Ottawa last year he voluntarily went to Ottawa last year um after having spent um the 2223 season playing for essentially three teams granted he was down in the AHL for a single game he did um 11 games in La um and then he did the remaining uh set of games that he played uh which were 28 in Columbus which colus oddly enough he was in Columbus prior to that I’m I’m thinking and correct me if I’m wrong I’m now thinking this on the fly so I could be entirely wrong but I think was he involved in that weird uh Jonathan Quick flip when he went from uh LA to Columbus and then quick almost immediately got flipped and and quick went to Las Vegas and is that how uho ended up back in Columbus I don’t know I’m just think that’s coming to my mind and I could be entirely wrong yeah yeah yeah no I’m sure you’re right because your mind is a hell of a lot younger than mine because he went from the 2122 season playing for Columbus the following year he played for a little bit for LA and then went back to Columbus um but anyways so he he had a he had pretty decent stats out in La um granted it was only 11 games but he had a 2.13 goals against average 92 safe percentage um and he did okay in Columbus um in 2223 he had almost a 92 safe percentage although his goals against average kind of tipped over the three-goal mark which you don’t really love to see um and I think for him you know he I think was a victim of a situation you know we’ve complained multiple times on this podcast about what we see when we watch the Ottawa Senators play um and I think he was just kind of set up to fail um in that situation you know he’s not um he’s not a super young guy but he’s not an older veteran just yet I think he’s maybe he’s 30 he’s 30 so you know he’s kind of in this weird spot it’s right around the time when goalies are starting to to hit their stride in terms of their capability and everything but and I can’t believe I’m about to say this because if me five years ago heard me say this today I’d be like what is wrong with you I have learned over the last five years watching this team Bruins front office specifically you know Don Sweeney and the players that he brings in I have to trust the process and I can’t believe I’m saying this because no because there was a time where right you couldn’t but a perfect example of the reason why I’m going to trust the process is Lena solark he is the evidence to me to trust that process because first of all before lenus came to Boston I had no idea who he was really he played for buffalo um and we knew he saw a ton of rubber yeah he didn’t have a good team in front of him right and he wasn’t anything spectacular right they bring him to Boston because they see something in him that you know whoever it is maybe it’s goalie Bob who has that magical eyesight when it comes to these goenda Almar to go from a career where let’s see I’m I’m I’m looking him up his last couple of years right now but to go from a career in Buffalo to within two years winning the VZ is is pretty amazing if you think about it right um so there’s got to be something there there has to be a reason why there the the Bruins wanted this guy um there just has to be so I’m GNA have to trust the process and the other thing is I don’t think we’ve seen everything I think and and I don’t know why like I don’t have any special knowledge or or anything but in trusting the process I’m understanding that just because we saw this particular trade happen last night doesn’t mean that that’s the whole story because we’ve got still what’s today Tuesday we’ve still got the better part of a week before free agency happens and that’s a long time it’s a very very busy week for the NHL um because they’ve got their uh Hockey Hall of Fame uh made their announcement today the Board of Governors is meeting you’ve got your out deadline you’ve got the draft you have well two days of the draft and then you’ve got your RFA and UFA day next Monday so I think we’ve only seen a tiny bit of what’s happening and yes initially I felt that the senators were the ones who got to walk away with a win and the Bruins walked away with an with a loss but I wouldn’t be surprised based on what I’ve seen with even all Mark’s development that that the Bruins walk away actually the winners because what we don’t know is how good is lenus without uh goalie Bob training because we know he’s a pretty key piece and how good is lenus when he doesn’t have that defensive structure in front of him even one that’s what weren’t we’re not calling broken but needs a little bit of a tuneup and a little bit of a tweaking because we no longer have you know defensive forward like Patrice and so on um they were still better than Ottawa so well and how how is that going to impact him because he’s presumably lenus is going to Ottawa to be the guy to be the number one goalie and so his workload yeah is going to jump dramatically and how will that play out for him in terms of you know all of the variables that you just talked about right the yeah you know not the same defensive structure maybe not the same coaching not being over to look over at the bench and know that you know his friend Jeremy Swan is there that he only has to handle half the workload so yeah you know I’m this this was the first chest piece that John Sweeney needed to move in order to get to the CR to a potential crowning moment which is to fill a big void that this team still has yeah and and to me me just my opinion it’s a priority yes to go and get a true centerman playmaker that at a minimum can play with pasta yes that is to me a significant priority in this off seon and you know this is something we all knew needed to happen fans and and some you know of our local Sports Talk Show pundants demanding that the Bruins trade lenus Omar they should have traded him in the offseason last year they should have traded them at the deadline you know what it’s very easy to be able to say could have would have should right but you have no trade Clauses you have the lack of a market the cap space everybody was in the same position and guess what people we all know as fans that the Bruins needed to Tri trade one of these goalies guess who else knew the rest of the fraking league and the GMS uhuh that are responsible for managing their teams and if you think that another GM is gonna go to Don Sweeney and say yeah tell me what you want you can have whatever you want just give meus you’re all crazy yep yeah yeah so it’s I’m excited for this coming week I think there’s going to be some really interesting things that happen um are we gonna miss Lis are we grateful of we are of course of course we’re all gonna miss the hug we’re so we’re we’re mourning the hug as much as we are the loss of the gender it’s it’s San’s time yes he showed that he’s capable to be to be that guy you’ve got to sign this kid because you can’t risk having him take you back to arbitration because you would potentially lose big yeah and you got yourself a little bit extra money freed up to add to the cap space that you already have to either sign some of the free agents that you currently have sitting on your roster or go out and get yourself some other some other players at this point in time and you know we’re we’re going to do our full deep Di five free agency podcast I believe next week yep I think by I would assume in one week I mean we’re gonna know on Monday the fates of Matt grizzli Kevin shaton Kirk jvr and Jake we’re gonna know all four on Monday no question in my mind there’s no way that that it’s going to take even a day uh I don’t know what time I want to say it like noon I don’t know why it sticks into my mind as noon but uh at 121 we’re going to know their Futures and you know in in the previous pod um when Mo was on the show and we were talking about you know some of these other players um Jake debrusk is is the really big question mark and I almost said this on the Pod last time uh and I didn’t say CU I was like well that’s a little cliche but then it just kept coming up and so I’m just going to say it that he’s one of those players where uh I might not necessarily think he’s the right one but I don’t want anyone else to have him because I’m afraid that there is still something there that well we’ve seen it and we’ve seen seen it yeah we just haven’t seen it consistently enough and we we we’ve discussed this my views on Jake are how long must we wait yes because the streakiness yeah and and to me I thought that this year knowing you were going into a year where this is a prove it right prove it year and I’m not sure that he proved it not to me anyways maybe to others but he didn’t prove it to me yeah well and I think it’s one it could possibly also be one of those situations where the brw ruins Andor the fan base is asking him to fulfill a role that maybe he’s not naturally inclined and he’s more inclined to this other role um and I and I say that and because I think I was more so convinced that I want him to stay in Boston not for like crazy money like don’t don’t think that I’m saying like this man deserves deserves an insane pay raise by any means necessarily but I think I would rather have him on my team than not um because I recently um published a blog post I did a little bit of a deep dive in some of his um statistics you did well done well done and player usage in this idea of you know looking at uh how how many minutes a player plays in the year compared to his teammates and compared to the other players in the league and I was honestly surprised but he had a pretty significant uptick in the minutes that he played and so and he was playing a lot of really really tough minutes he was playing against uh a higher level of competition and the conversation kind of came out of this in the Discord when I presented my finances I was I was stunned I was like wow I didn’t realize how much time he played and H how hard the competition was when he was playing and maybe it’s just one of those situations now actually where it’s sort of an illusion that it seems like he didn’t do as much or didn’t do as well but in reality because he played so much more and he played against a stronger competition it kind of washes out and doesn’t seem like it was as impactful or as effective but I believe uh off the top of my head you know he was uh top player in like top five in Rush attempts across the league um you know his uh he still exceeded expectations when it came to predicted goals based on how much he was being used um he was he was doing a lot better I think than we realized it just didn’t look as impactful because he was out there that much more right if you’re only out there for 10 minutes and you score 10 goals it’s gonna be amazing if you’re out there for a 100 minutes and you score 10 goals it’s gonna look like you suck but you still scored 10 goals that’s not a bad thing right and I think that’s what we saw and I think a lot of his efforts and the things that he did and contributed to the team got washed out by the fact that he played so much more like I’m talking 200 more minutes than he did the previous year like that’s a lot of time and and to and to your point they gave him more responsibility you know he he had time on the penalty kill he had time on the power play yeah yeah and I’m gonna have a button there but to me I expected him to be that 20 plus gold score her right and he didn’t meet that expectation now I believe as as you believe and your statistics point out that the Bruins see value in him 100% And I they they see value in him it’s just a question of money what the numbers are like what the Bruins value him at and perhaps what Jake and his agent yeah value him at and that’s where I think there might be a little bit of a disconnect yeah I hope the first piece of news we see early next week is Jeremy Swan’s contract extension like just get that done just get that done and maybe it’s you know maybe there’s an agreement in principle it’s not in writing yet and um you know because this is why you did this with lenus presumably was yes I think they they probably financially like logistically could not have a contract signed with Lena still there I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the deal right financially um you know I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing but the RFA sheets are due on the same day as UFA free agency this year and so the is ticking on uh on on San like I believe they have to have they their their offer is due on Monday to him uh so we’ll see we’ll see I’m gonna put my guess out there I’m gonna say I think I said it last week but this is gonna be my formal guess I’m G to go eight for eight whoa that’s a big number yeah yeah that’s a big number that that scares me a little bit that scares me a little bit I know he’s young I know he’s young um but the money and the term when it comes to goalies makes me I mean any eight-year term makes me a little fair fair fair fair a little uncomfortable a little uncomfortable but particularly so so with with Goal tenders so um that that will be interesting to see what number he comes in as you know I it sounds a little high to me but we’ll see what what the Bruins think um the only thing I I’m I feel more confident about the dollar amount than the years um in looking at how the Bruins handle Charlie McAvoy um I see them potentially following how they you know dealt with him um prior to his big big contract extension a couple years ago so I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave him terms like that for maybe a tiny bit less um and if that’s the case then his first UFA contract extension assuming all goes well will be a massive goenda contract I think he he’s he’s he’s going to earn a lot of money and I think the Bruins are reliable enough to say we want to invest in our young players and this is our future and we’re putting our franchise in his hands and they do that from time to time they’ve done that um so I don’t think that that’s out of character but so interesting I I just looked at you know because I was curious when you threw out the 8 Million number so I just looked up highest paid goalies in the league currently um yeah we talked about this in our last pod while you were busy your [Applause] grandmother yes yes yes congratulations to my son daughter-in-law our first our first our first grandchild a beautiful little baby girl Juliet Mary so yay um Hoy wasn’t at oh God are you kidding me as soon as that little girl walks she’s GNA be fitted for skates phenomenal phenomenal but um So based on your 8 million eight years so right right now um Sergey bosski is making 10 million Jeremy’s better than him Andre vasileski is at nine and a half million yep he’s a little better last year not so much but yeah the next one on the list is uh Connor heluk at8 and a half million so maybe your 8 million isn’t too far off the I think they’re on yeah yeah yep the big one and like again this is kind of going off on a tangent where sturen interestingly enough he’s only at he’s not even at six million I know but he’s I believe about either this year or next year about to hit free agency and he’s gonna he’s gonna set he’s gonna set the bar because he is he’s gonna yeah he’s gonna probably go into uh Carri price territory so your number is likely very much in line with the top goalies or the top paid goalies yep um in in in the league so I’m putting it out there all right all right I give you a flow is when you’re right we’ll find out in less than a week we will we’ll have a lot more to talk about but I think we wanted to just kind of summarize what happened with lenus um the the experts and when I refer to experts I’m not talking about you or I I’m talking about people like you know Andrew rayar and you know people at ESPN or NHL Network who are giving Don Sweeney credit for this this trade yeah right everybody wants to win every deal that’s not how the real world Works people and sometimes you have to look at what your plan ahead is and if this is a means and we all knew that this was the potential means to get to the next step which is signing San and for those for everybody who hated the goalie rotation guess what you should all be doing a happy dance because there will be likely no more goalie rotation moving forward yeah with the Boston Bruins for the foreseeable future right yep yeah I think this is a perfect example of buying a fixer uper house and turning it into something that’s truly amazing and like I said I can’t believe I’m saying this I am trusting the process that the team that Don Sweeney is building is only going to get better even if we might not necessarily see the return immediately like today um we got to trust it so we’ll see I’m excited for next week I’m excited for next excited for next week um we’ll see what what the next Domino um well I don’t want to say domino to fall because this is all about you know positive approaches for the groins yeah so you know we’ll see what the next move what the next move it’s a chame right it’s a chest Game Y right and if if the ultimate result is you know when training camp opens in September that we have a you know we have Jeremy Swan for the foreseeable future as your number one guy you have a proven at least one proven Center to start the season and maybe hopefully even a second Center y so yeah yeah awesome well until next week everybody keep their eyes and ears open because it’s going to be wild fun time of the year it’s gonna be a fun time of the year so yeah we’ll be back uh in a week to kind of debrief what happens on the first but as always go Bruins go Bruins stay cool everyone [Music] oh [Music]
Big news this week for Bruins nation: the (somewhat) expected trade of Linus Ullmark to make cap space for a new crop of players finally took place on Monday, June 24th. The Bruins walk away with Joonas Korpisalo (G), Mark Kastelic (C), and the Sen’s second first round pick in Friday’s draft.
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📒Show Notes:📒
🟡The case for Jake DeBrusk ➡️ https://checkthisdata.substack.com/p/is-there-a-case-to-be-made-for-jake
⚫Bruins extend RFA Ian Mitchell ➡️ https://nesn.com/2024/06/bruins-sign-defenseman-to-one-year-two-way-contract-extension/
🟡Bruins extend RFA Brandon Bussi ➡️ https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-bruins/2024/06/24/boston-bruins-goalie-offseason-brandon-bussi-jeremy-swayman-linus-ullmark/
⚫Linus Ullmark traded to Ottawa ➡️ https://nesn.com/2024/06/how-espn-graded-bruins-senators-linus-ullmark-trade/
🟡Jay Leach joins the Bruins coaching staff➡️ https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nhl/catching-up-with-former-seattle-kraken-player-assistant-coach/ar-BB1oKppU
