It has been a difficult off-season for the Boston Bruins. While they did miss the playoffs, with a record 96 points for teams not to make the postseason, there are qualifying considerations.
For example, the Bruins’ 96 points would have been enough for them to make the playoffs during the last two full seasons of NHL play.
In 2013-14 their 96 points would have been good enough to place third in their division while in 2011-12 their record would have made them the division winner and the second seed in the Eastern Conference. In fact, the club only missed the playoffs this year by three points (counting the tie-breaker). 
On top of it all, the team was severely hampered by injury; especially on the blueline, making it doubly-tough on the Bruins who rely so much on their defenders.
The injuries read like a grocery list and affected every defenseman on the club with the exception of Dennis Seidenberg. Restricted free agent (RFA) Dougie Hamilton missed the last ten games of the year. Team captain Zdeno Chara missed seven weeks (19 games) with a torn posterior cruciate ligament injury in his left knee. On top of that, Chara appeared limited by a non-displaced tibia fracture in the same leg coming down the stretch. RFA Adam McQuaid broke his thumb during the season and also missed 19 games. Kevan Miller never appeared after February 16th with a right shoulder injury.
Fortunately the Bruins blueline had some depth and players such as Matt Bartkowski, Joe Morrow and Zach Trotman played in multiple games, albeit at levels not as high as the players they replaced.
Staying with the theme, the Bruins also suffered on their front lines; David Krejci was out for 35 games and trade deadline acquiree Brett Connolly was injured in practice before suiting up for a game.
On the flip side of the injuries-and the part which probably caused Peter Chiarelli his job as the GM, was the fact the club seemed oddly detached for most, if not all of the year. Perhaps the fact the club won a recent Stanley Cup and the 2013-14 President’s Trophy set too high a bar, but some players did not appear to be “fully invested”. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what was wrong, but observers just knew it wasn’t the same.
When you also consider the salary cap mismanagement; which cost the club heart and soul defender Johnny Boychuk (valued by the Islanders enough to earn a 7 year-$42 million extension) and probably had some factor into moving Tyler Seguin and the team’s recent draft struggles. It is understandable why the Bruins organization shifted the reigns to Don Sweeney.
The club does need to reduce their salary investment for the fourth line and have inked some free agents with that thought in mind. College free agents Noel Acciari, Austin Czarnik and Frank Vatrano were added and the club turned to Europe to bring in Anton Blidh (2013 draftee) and Joonas Kemppainen to try to ease some of the financial pressure on the team.
Most importantly the team needs to come to terms with Hamilton, Connolly, Carl Soderberg, Ryan Spooner, McQuaid and Bartkowski. It is likely one or more of those players may have to depart to allow the Bruins to comply with the cap. Either that or some veteran will be out, potentially in a deal to move up in the draft. The likely candidate for such a scenario would be Milan Lucic. A Lucic trade would be a very hard sell in Boston. On top of it all, backup goaltender Niklas Svedberg bailed leaving a hole at the #2 goaltender position.
The cap situation is truly astonishing. The organizational strategy was—obviously—to lock up younger players for term. However the financial commitment has not matched the return on investment.
While we all know that recently retained coach Claude Julien likes to evenly dole out ice time to his forwards which keeps the numbers down, allowing for that the team still isn’t getting full value.
Krejci, who is expected to score, holds $7.25 M of cap space for less than point-per-game performance. Lucic counts against the cap for $6M and potted 18 goals, the Bruins were thinking more along the line of 30 goals for that amount of cash. Reilly Smith, who had a strong 2013-14, used that leverage to ring up $3.425M for 13 goals. In his case, the B’s were expecting 20-25 scores.
There is some thought in my mind a true punishment for Chiarelli would be to make him see the salary cap boondoggle through. However, when realizing they could release him and obtain a second round pick, it was wise to move on.
This is truly a turning point for this club and what happens now is likely to affect the team for half a decade. Sweeney’s task is monumental and frankly if he pulls it off he should be GM for life. On the surface, Sweeney certainly seems prepared for the salary cap task as he graduated from Harvard with a degree in Economics. Sweeney is aware of the issue as he stated there is a difference between compliance of the cap and managing the cap.
The club also has a draft and development issue, some drafts, such as the 2007, 2008 and 2009 drafts are almost completely without value added, 2011 is questionable and drafts following that year are going to need time to fully assess. 2014 draftee David Pastrnak did play with the team for a significant amount of time, but my observation is, had the other Bruins been producing as they should, Pastrnak would have spent the entire year in Providence (AHL).
Finally, the club at the NHL level needs to be fixed. There seemed to be a different attitude about the club this year. In previous seasons, the Bruins were known to play with a will to impose on other clubs. This season the team seemed to allow itself to get off the so-called “heavy” game they were known for.
While it may seem simple to decree the Bruins need to return to their style of year’s past, the global NHL environment needs to be carefully examined.
The Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup last season mainly due to their “heavy” play (not to mention Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick) and were the poster boys for physical play. But where did that team wind up this year? With 95 points and out of the playoffs. Is “heavy” hockey a trend that has passed?
Sweeney has to decide if he will go full bore back to the 2013-14 model of the Bruins (and hope his players are willing to pay the price) or he will need to generate a hybrid between that style and the swift skating clubs that have success this year.
Therefore going into the draft the Bruins have to look at their total environment. While the team did miss the playoffs, they weren’t far off. They don’t have to draft a player who will play immediately. Actually, due to the cap, they probably don’t expect or want that to happen.
Of course, everyone wants to draft the best player possible and this club will truly do so without considering team needs for the 2015-16 season and maybe even the 2016-17 season.
I won’t rule out a trade up in this draft to get an identified player, then again, the Bruins might just sit where they are and hope a player unexpectedly slides to them.
In the case of the Pro Hockey News draft, a player sliding down is exactly what occurred. After considering such talents as Brock Boeser and Nick Merkley, the Bruins will select Finnish winger Mikko Rantanen with the 14th overall selection in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.
The 6-3, 211 pound winger played professionally last season with TPS of the Finnish League. Rantanen played on the club’s first line and registered nine goals and 19 assists over the course of 56 outings.
Some observers place Rantanen at the top of the European-based skaters and others described him as the best player on the Finnish World Juniors club. Typically 19 and 20-year old players dominate the tournament, so to be thought of so highly as an 18-year old is tell of greater talent.
“With the 14th pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, the Boston Bruins select, from Mikko Rantanen.”
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