The Boston Bruins kicked off their 2022-23 campaign without Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy. Both of whom were recovering from off-season surgery. Many predicted a decline in team production due not only to their absence but also for sporting a roster aged a year and not much sexier than a year prior, lest we forget the long but often one-sided seven game opening round playoff series loss at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes that spring.
Despite media and sports radio manufactured hurdles, Boston launched out of the gate. Enjoying so much success that by the time you were cutting turkey, there was nothing left to question.
So isn’t it ironic that it’s a calendar year later, and the Bruins, on the eve of their centennial season, find themselves right back where they started. A less than satisfactory opening round playoff loss to the Florida Panthers. Key pieces in Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci retiring from hockey and a forward depth chart that is all but unrecognizable. There are plenty of reasons to assume Boston will slip into that sticky middle ground separating genuine playoff contenders from the draft lottery hopefuls.
This is expected when two franchise pillars retire, Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno are traded away, and Connor Clifton and Tomas Nosek depart via free agency. But such is life in the salary cap era.
To remedy the losses Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney made a slew of savvy free agent signings, called in two veterans for professional tryouts, and inked a key college free agent center in John Farinacci.
Now, it would appear Sweeney and company have opted to grind out a path to the postseason. After all, there is no replacing Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. But in their wake is a strong, defensively structured team with perhaps the best goaltending duo in the NHL.
Offensively, they’ll lean on Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, Pavel Zacha, and Jake DeBrusk. But James Van Riemsdyk, Charlie Coyle, and newcomer Morgan Geekie are dark horses to make major contributions. On a wretched Philadelphia Flyers team ‘JVR’ was about a half-a-point per game player in 2022-23. Similarly, Charlie Coyle produced his highest point total (45) since 2016-17 (56) despite starting an overwhelming number of his shifts in the defensive zone, a trend surely to change this coming year. Not to be outdone is Morgan Geekie, who produced back-to-back career highs in goals, assists, and points in his two seasons as a member of the Seattle Kraken.
That is nothing to say of Milan Lucic, Jesper Boqvist, and Trent Frederic, all of whom are expected to round out Boston’s bottom-six forward group.
What is most fascinating are the aforementioned forwards who are competing on professional tryouts, or a ‘PTO’ for short. Alex Chiasson and Danton Heinen are familiar faces in Boston hockey circles. Chiasson played his collegiate hockey for Boston University, and since Sweeney loves his local NCAA players has been linked to the Bruins for years. Heinen, obviously, was drafted and developed in the Bruins system and even played for Jim Montgomery while at the University of Denver.
Both players are low-risk signings and are due nothing financially beyond Boston’s upcoming training camp if they fail to make the final roster. But, if nothing else, add a layer of competition with spots up for grabs.
Boston will be calling for all hands on deck to produce the level of offense required to earn a playoff bid in 2024. Despite your preconceived notions about the state of the Bruins, this team does, in fact, have the pieces to compete in their division. The parallels to a year ago are quite evident, so here’s to hoping for a similar result.
