Montgomery’s Projected Bruins Top Six + Expectations for Jim | Bruins Beat

6 Comments

1. KalELBama311 1 year ago

   This year will be 100% different then last year. I see us limping into playoffs as a wild card

2. Mark Sibley 1 year ago

   Zacha Marchand Pasta DeBrusk Coyle JVR

3. David Baron 1 year ago

   You can spin this however you like — and I like both Coyle and Zacha as players, but at the moment, this at least APPEARS to be a reach for both of them. And at the end of the year — or maybe at the trade deadline, I believe the B's will still be in the market for at least a 1C (and still without much ammo to get one).

4. robert forte 1 year ago

   Pavel Zacha is not a Top 6 center. He didn't play that role for Boston last year and he had a 6 year audition as a Top 6 center in NJ. How did that 6 year audition go? Not good

   Zacha landed on the Hockey News 2019 Top 10 Draft Busts of the last decade for a reason. He stunk in NJ and never came close to proving he belongs in a Top 6 center role. It's what saw him get traded out of NJ, it's why NJ fans celebrated when he was traded to Boston and it's why he landed on that Hockey News 2019 Draft Busts list

   Why did he have success in Boston last year? Pretty easy to answer. Zacha played at wing 90% of the time where he wasn't asked to be a primary scorer, he wasn't asked to be a leader and he wasn't asked to take on all of the defensive responsibilities of the center position

   And he had success. Coincidence? It sure doesn't seem like it. Zacha is a lousy career 46% on face-offs for his career. When he was moved to 1c to replace an injured Bergeron vs. Florida last year in the Post Season he scored a whopping ZERO goals while going a putrid 43% at the face off dot

   Zacha is a good player & he's PROVEN he can be an effective Top 6 wing. He's also proven in NJ and Boston in spades that he's also not a Top 6 center

   As for Charlie Coyle, he's been tried in a Top 6 role repeatedly and each and every time that experiment has ended in Coyle quickly being moved back down to a Bottom 6 role as a checking line 3c

   Does everyone already forget that they just recently tried Coyle in a Top 6 role when two years ago the Bruins tried him at 2C to replace Krejci. How'd that work out?

   Not good and they quickly sent Coyle back down to the 3c position where he is best suited

   The fact that two guys who have PROVEN they are not Top 6 centers in the league are your 1c and 2c, that's clearly a recipe for disaster, especially considering that both Coyle and Zacha are wildy inconsistent when it comes to scoring and the fact Zacha is crap on face offs which isn't something you need or want out of any of your centers, let alone your Top 6 ones

   James Van Riemsdyk or Trent Friggin Frederic being in any team's Top 6 would be and is a joke. There really isn't anything else to be said about that.

   Any long term injury to Marchand or Pasta the Bruins will be porked at forward.

   If Coyle or Zacha fail at Top 6 center roles or either get injured, they have no one to replace those two either and the drop off will be massive

   The Bruins Bottom 6 has nothing but a bunch old vets who long stopped producing at a good NHL level or AHL tweeners that have had limited or no success in the NHL

   Even the defense is questionable. Proof? 4 of their 7 d-men are Forbor, Grzelyck, an allergic to defense Kevin Shattencrap and super bust Zboril. If McAvoy gets injured even for a couple of weeks the Bruins would be super porked

   What's in Providence? Not much. Fabian Lysell has done nothing but trend downward since being drafted and he's not ready for full time NHL duty

   Mason Lohrei is also not ready for full time NHL duty and I hate to break it to you he is a lousy skater which will always prevent him from being an elite D-Man in the NHL

   After that…

   Merkulov- Only NHL asset is his shot. His not big, he's not fast, he's not an elite play maker.

   Harrison- Lousy skater. Already got moved to wing because of it. NHL shot and size but he's not a center and he'll be a limited player in the NHL due to his below average skating and below average play making skills

   Beecher- Allergic to offense his entire hockey life. Ceiling is nothing more than that of a 4th line, PK specialist

   Farinacci- At his ceiling he'd be a two way, checking line center. He's not a top 6 option. There is nothing in his offensive game that comes off as "elite". He's also a player that has little chance of having much, or any, impact in Boston this year as he likely we spend all of his time in Providence this upcoming season and for good reason

   Other than those 5 (Lsyell, Merkulov, Harrison, Farinacci and Beecher) there really isn't much else in Providence at forward beyond bottom of the roster, AHL tweener pieces such as McLaughlin, Steen, Toporowski and Kunter

   On defense after Lohrei, the Bruins have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Not just in Providence but in their entire crap farm system. The Bruins 100% have the NHL"s worst defensive depth at the prospect level of any team and it's not close

   They do not have a single d-man outside of Lohrei that projects as a Top 4 D-man. The defensive prospects they do have beyond Lohrei all fall under the categories of "projects", "long shots," "bottom of the roster #6-#8s" or "never will Bs"

   Thow-ins in the Taylor Hall Salary dump in Ian Mitchell Alex Regula along with Arizona cast off Reilly Walsh instantly became the Bruins best d-prospects after Lohrei. If that doesn't tell you how "crap" Sweeney's drafting has been, what else possibly could?

   The Bruins have the NHL's worst prospect pool

   No 1st round draft pick again until 2025, no 2nd round draft pick again until 2026 and they're not drafting until the 4th round in 2024

   What the above two bullet points means is that the Bruins have ZERO ASSETS to improve

   Everything went right for the Bruins last year. Don't expect that good luck to continue, especially with a much less talented roster that has limited depth and no way to improve

   Zacha being a 60-70 point guy at 1C when he's never been even a remotely good Top 6 center at any point in his career. Give me a break Evan. Talk about "HOMER" talk

   Coyle, again, has been nothing but a failure as a Top 6 player and that's an experiment that has been tried and failed multiple times already.

   Frederic shot TWICE his career shooting% last year playing with good line-mates. He has hands of stone, is wildly inconsistent, he can't create offense for others and he's 100% going to take a step back and score his normal 5-8 goals over 82 games. Trent Frederic as a "featured" guy in the Bruins lineup. Give me an F.N. break

   The number one player Bruins fans will be calling for to be taken out of the lineup will be Trent Frederic. He's playing with stiffs this year, not Coyle and Hall and there is ZERO chance he repeats shooting TWICE his career shooting% again. ZERO CHANCE

   They had a good "regular season" run under Don Sweeney these past 8 years but it's over Bruins fans

   Due to Don Sweeney's crap drafting and developing and pissing away too many draft picks attempting to fix his bad UFA contacts and drafting mistakes, shit has caught up to them. And they didn't even win anything as 7 of the past 8 years they have failed to win more than even 1 playoff round.

   -NHL's worst Farm System
   -NHL's worst Draft Capital Situation
   -Cap Prison
   -No 1C anywhere to be found and no assets to acquire one
   -No assets to improve this season or beyond (see the no draft capital/crap farm system things)

   But to no surprise the Bruins ball washing media is calling for every Bruin still left on the team to have a career year, excel in all these elevated roles and that they'll be a playoff team

   Some things change, some things stay the same I suppose
   🤣🤣🤣🤣

5. KMF 1 year ago

   JVR top 6 potential for top 3…man maybe 5-10 years ago. I hope he finds the fountain of youth!

6. trevoratkins22 1 year ago

   Would be nice to give Frederic a look on the 2nd line. He played great last year.