Taylor Hall Is Sent To Chicago So Boston Can Get Some Salary Cap Relief Before Free Agency Starts

 

    With very little money left available under the salary cap, the Bruins needed to make some moves to clear some space that they hopefully can use on key free agents like winger Tyler Bertuzzi. Boston got what is sure to be a very busy week started this afternoon-with the NHL Awards show, the NHL Draft and NHL free agency all happening-by trading left wing Taylor Hall along with the rights to impending unrestricted free agent left wing Nick Foligno to the Blackhawks. In exchange, the B's received restricted free agent defensemen Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula who I had never heard of before now and truthfully, you have no clue who they are either. This was a good old fashioned salary dump plain and simple and hey maybe one of those guys gives Boston some quality depth in Providence (AHL) which they have lacked for years.

    After playing in Black and Gold for parts of three seasons, it is safe to say that Hall's time here was not all that memorable hence why it is fine to say goodbye to him at this juncture. There is a reason why Chicago will be the former No. 1 overall pick in 2010's sixth NHL club. He perhaps surprisingly proved to be a team-first guy with the Bruins but clearly, wins for the most part have not been a big aspect of his career and save for his random one-off Hart Trophy (NHL MVP) season in 2017-18 with the Devils, he has never really lived up to the hype and the eye-popping skills that show up from time to time. In 158 career regular season games with Boston, Hall had 44 goals, 67 assists and he was plus-37 with 12 power play goals. Those are perfectly respectable numbers but in what should be the prime of his career at age 31, he was relegated to the third line last season with the Bruins which is just not good enough no matter how you spin it. If he had showed more consistency, there is no doubt that they would have kept him since his cap hit for the next two years is only six million dollars for each season. 

    Ironically, Hall was one of Boston's few players that really showed up in their very depressing first round exit vs. Florida a few months ago where they lost in seven games after leading the series 3-1. Taylor had eight points (5 goals, 3 assists) against the Panthers and 17 overall (10 goals, 7 assists) in 25 career playoff games for the Spoked B. Foligno was obviously just a throw in to this deal but he might actually bring a little something to the rebuilding Blackhawks as well if they can sign him. He looked washed up in his first season as a Bruin but bounced back last year with twice as many points (26) on 10 goals and 16 assists. The former Blue Jackets captain is a great leader-at least that is what NESN's "Behind The B" has led us to believe-and if he is still interested in playing, he should be helpful for whatever time he spends in Chicago which will soon have Canadian phenom center Connor Bedard with the No. 1 overall pick on Wednesday. 

    One last gut punch for the 2022-23 Bruins occurred tonight in Nashville at the NHL Awards as Boston came away with not one, not two but three major awards as expected. Center Patrice Bergeron extended his league record by winning a sixth Selke Trophy while goaltender Linus Ullmark won his first Vezina Trophy and head coach Jim Montgomery captured the Jack Adams Award in his first year in charge of Boston. Whatever became of their former head coach Bruce Cassidy anyway? Only the Bruins could pull off that nearly impossible feat and yet not advance out of the first round in that particular postseason. Ugh, they will never have a more loaded team than that as Ullmark and right wing David Pastrnak (runner-up to Connor McDavid for the Hart Trophy) were both named to the NHL's First Team while defenseman Hampus Lindholm (remember him?) was on the NHL's Second Team. No matter who is on the roster next season, Boston will still be one of the favorites to win their first Stanley Cup since 2011 but the PTSD caused from last season is sure to last for a very long time with true Bruins fans. 

UPDATE 6/27/23: This morning, Chicago signed Foligno to a one-year deal worth $4 million dollars. It turns out that being Bedard's babysitter is not such a bad life as you try to hang on in the NHL.

It Finally Happened: The Bruins Signed David Pastrnak To An Eight-Year Contract Extension

 

    It took way too long to get it done but nobody will remember that factoid now that the B's and their franchise right winger David Pastrnak agreed to a long awaited contract extension on Thursday. Pasta-who is well on his way to a career best regular season-inked an eight-year deal through the 2030-31 campaign with an annual NHL cap hit of $11.25 million (making him the highest paid Bruin in team history and the highest paid right wing in league history). All in all, it was another fantastic day for the Bruins (48-8-5) who also traded for Red Wings left wing Tyler Bertuzzi this morning (a move that had to be made with winger Taylor Hall going on long term IR and winger Nick Foligno also going on IR this afternoon) then pummeled the Sabres (31-25-4) 7-1 this evening at TD Garden to reach 100 points faster than any other club in NHL history. Is it playoff time yet? 

    David is still only 26-years-old so theoretically just hitting the prime of his playing ability after being drafted late in the 2014 NHL Draft (25th overall) and competing all nine seasons of his career with the B's. He leads the runaway best team in the league in goals (43), assists (40) and points (83). It is his third career 40-goal season and the first 50 piece looks well within reach (it would be Boston's first since Cam Neely in 1993). For his career, he is in the rarified air of averaging more than a point per game with 283 goals and 304 assists in 571 games. 

    Like any great player, Pasta will ultimately be defined by what he does in the postseason and how many Stanley Cups he wins. People understandably get on him for some memorable no shows in the playoffs but 74 points (30 goals and 44 assists) in 70 career playoff games doesn't sound so bad, does it? The future for the B's is almost as bright as this current dream run of a regular season. Now they have Pastrnak, star defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm along with versatile forward Pavel Zacha signed to long term deals which paired with either Linus Ullmark or Jeremy Swayman in net means that this team isn't going anywhere for awhile. 

    Boston GM Don Sweeney is having a hell of a few weeks with another sneaky good trade that didn't force him to lose anyone from his NHL roster. Bertuzzi was obtained for a 2024 first-round pick (top-10 protected) and a 2025 fourth-round pick. Detroit will also retain 50 percent of Bertuzzi's salary. He is a 28-year-old left wing with three 20-goal seasons on his NHL resume including a career-high 30 goals and 32 assists last year. Playing for the Red Wings since he broke into the league in 2016-17 sadly meant that he has yet to play in a single NHL playoff game. Barring injury, that will change next month as he figures to be in the lineup for the Bruins once the playoffs begin.

Don't Ask Me Why But The B's Rewarded GM Don Sweeney With A Multi-Year Contract Extension

 

    Ever since former Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy was unceremoniously fired two weeks ago on a Monday night in mid-June, it's been a rather strange period of time for the black and gold. Last week, it was reported that B's captain Patrice Bergeron would be returning for another season with the club but thus far, nothing has been neither confirmed nor denied about that key piece of news. The team still doesn't have a new head coach yet with the leading candidates apparently being former BU and Rangers head coach David Quinn and former Providence Bruins and current Seattle Kraken assistant Jay Leach. Meh. Remind me again why exactly that Cassidy was fired? Today, things took another predictable but still gross turn as Boston signed its average GM Don Sweeney to a multi-year contract extension. 

    Don't get me wrong, Sweeney is a smart guy (did you know that he went to Harvard?!) and he clearly works hard at his very demanding job but his draft record is nothing short of appalling. Granted it is an inexact science and you will always miss out on countless players who develop into stars but Sweeney's swings and misses have been notorious, none more so than when he had three first round picks in 2015 and right wing Jake DeBrusk is the only one that has done anything at the NHL level. So what does he do well? His free agent signings are usually nothing impressive, leaving some decent trades to be his calling card. I will say that he has done pretty well with some of those like getting center Charlie Coyle from Minnesota and defenseman Hampus Lindholm (we hope!) from Anaheim but nothing that has set the world on fire or brought another Stanley Cup to the Bruins. 

    The fact that Sweeney is still here (where he has been working since 2015) while Cassidy has already moved on to Las Vegas is maddening. President Cam Neely is also still getting paid by the Bruins' absentee owner Jeremy "Mr. Burns" Jacobs for whatever he does (nobody is really sure what Cam is in charge of day-to-day). Don seems to be obsessed with players and coaches with ties to New England, meaning that they either are from this area or went to a local D1 hockey school like BC or BU. Hiring Quinn or even Leach who also played for the Providence Bruins and went to Providence College (go Friars!) would be another sign that he lacks the creativity and open mindedness to get the Bruins out of their current middler status in the NHL. The draft is next weekend and free agency begins in a few weeks so I'd love to believe that Sweeney should feel the pressure to drastically improve Boston's roster but unfortunately, today's news means that it'll probably be more of the same for the B's. They are just good enough to make the playoffs (all that the Jacobs family really cares about, their precious playoff crowds) but not in the same area code as the teams in the Stanley Cup Final this season-Colorado and Tampa Bay. 

Boston Holds Serve & Forces Game 7 (Saturday) Thanks To A 5-2 Win In Game 6 At TD Garden

 

    One of the weirdest playoff series in recent NHL history will fittingly conclude with a Game 7 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Boston scored first for the first time in the series and never looked back as they cruised to a 5-2 victory tonight at a fired up TD Garden to even the first round series at three games apiece. If you are keeping score, the home team is 6-0 in the series with Game 7 set for Saturday afternoon (4:30, NESN) back at PNC Center. At this point, it is hard to explain how these two teams have played so differently at home versus on the road for these six contests which have been mostly blowouts (the closest margin of defeat was Game 3 a 4-2 triumph by the B's). 

    After missing Games 3-5, Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm returned from a concussion (we think) and had a game-high 24:48 time on ice. Five different B's scored goals and rookie goaltender Jeremy Swayman (23 saves) posted his third win of the series. After a scoreless first period, Boston let their home fans exhale with a goal early in the second period then a key insurance tally late in the frame. Boston's star left wing Brad Marchand opened the scoring with a wicked snap shot 46 seconds into the second. His team-leading fourth goal of the postseason was assisted by BU's Charlie Coyle and Quinnipiac's Connor Clifton. Weymouth's own Coyle doubled the Bruins' lead at 18:04 as the center put in a rebound (his 2nd goal of the playoffs) from right wing David Pastrnak (dropped to the second line) and Marchand on the power play.

    The Hurricanes briefly made it tight as right wing Andrei Svechnikov cut it to 2-1 Bruins with a nasty top shelf wrist shot at 3:24 of the third period. Center Seth Jarvis had the lone assist on Svechnikov's second goal of the series. Boston's depth guys put this one to bed though as center Erik Haula scored the key goal that boosted the Bruins' lead back to two (3-1). He tipped in defenseman Charlie McAvoy's slap pass for his first goal of the playoffs at 7:08. The wheels started to come off for Carolina's goaltender Antti Raanta as he allowed a soft wrister from the blue line by B's defenseman Derek Forbort to elude him and increase Boston's lead to 4-1. Forbort's first goal since November was assisted by left wing Tomas Nosek at 10:43. Five minutes later, Bruins center Curtis Lazar (who has played a sneaky good series) added an empty-netter for his first goal of the postseason. Left wing Nick Foligno and Nosek recorded the helpers on Lazar's well deserved strike. In garbage time, Svechnikov notched a power play goal which came after Carolina's power play had started 0-for-5 in Game 6. 

    So what's going to happen in Game 7, who the hell knows? You figure that we are long overdue for some overtime or at least a one-goal game. Other than that, you have to assume that Boston will make it a little more competitive than their disastrous first three outings in Raleigh in this series (where they were outscored 15-4). I'll take Swayman over Raanta along with the Bruins' big game experience over the Hurricanes' history of choking against them in recent years. Also, if you are looking for another factor that should favor the road team (for once in this wacky series): all the pressure will be on Carolina who you'll remember led this series 2-0 and then 3-2. On paper at least, Saturday promises to be an awesome day for the NHL as there are three Game 7s (also Lightning-Maple Leafs and Oilers-Kings) which should help juice what has felt like a pretty forgettable first round up until this critical juncture.

Two Days Before The Trade Deadline, Bruins Help Their Defense By Trading For Hampus Lindholm

 

    After an uninspiring start to the 2021-22 regular season, the Bruins (38-19-5) have played some great hockey particularly in the last few months. With the NHL Trade Deadline fast approaching on Monday afternoon (3 pm EST), GM Don Sweeney was a little ahead of the rush as he made a significant move this evening: he traded three draft picks (2022 first-round, 2023 second-round and 2023 second-round) along with defensemen Urho Vaakanainen and John Moore to Anaheim (27-26-11) for defensemen Hampus Lindholm and minor leaguer Kodie Curran. To sweeten the deal, the Ducks will also retain 50% of Lindholm's salary. He is a free agent after this season so plenty hinges on whether Sweeney can retain him with a long-term deal (they are rumored to be working on an 8-year extension with an average annual value of $6.5 million) otherwise this move will be mostly a waste (except if the Bruins win the Stanley Cup this summer).

    Other than head coach Bruce Cassidy, the Bruins player that figures to benefit the most from this move (assuming that they are paired together) is their franchise defenseman Charlie McAvoy. Ever since Zdeno Chara left in free agency two seasons ago, McAvoy has yet to find a consistent defensive partner that can keep up with him on both ends of the ice. At age 28 and already in his ninth full season in the NHL, Lindholm profiles as just that type of guy that can be a top defenseman on a good team. He was the sixth overall pick by Anaheim in 2012 and if he played either not on the West Coast or for a better club, he would likely be more of a household name. 

    The Swede is that coveted left-shot defenseman and puck mover with prototypical size (6-foot-4 and 216 pounds). He probably won't win a Norris Trophy at this point and he won't be the top scoring defensemen in the league but he is on a tier just below those highest levels. His numbers won't wow you this season but keep in mind that the Ducks are basically a .500 team that isn't going to the playoffs: five goals, 17 assists, plus/minus of zero, 42 penalty minutes and four power play points (1 goal) in 61 games. His career-highs are 13 goals (in 2017-18), 27 assists (in 2014-15) and plus-29 in his rookie season (2012-13). For his career, he has 57 goals, 165 assists, 57 power play points (12 goals) and he is plus-74 in 582 regular season games. In 55 career playoff games, he has four goals, 17 assists, five power play points (1 goal) and he is plus-11.

    As for what they gave up, I really don't believe that it's that much. Vaakanainen was a first-round pick in 2017 (18th overall) but he's barely made an impact at the NHL level thus far, playing in just 31 games (only 15 this season that has been affected by injuries). Moore is a journeyman and the draft picks don't bother me that much considering how poorly Sweeney has drafted for most of his time in charge here. This is a win now move which is nice to see for an older team that is still led by Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand while also hopefully building something for the future when those guys will be long gone and the team is led by McAvoy and possibly goaltender Jeremy Swayman who has firmly taken over as the No. 1 goalie for the B's. Lindholm's Bruins debut could come on Monday (7, NESN) when they visit lowly Montreal (17-36-9) at the Bell Centre.

UPDATE 3/20/22: Before he has even played a single game for the B's, this afternoon Lindholm signed that reported eight-year extension with the average annual value of $6.5 million per year). Wow!