The Boston Bruins were dispatched from the NHL post season this past campaign in the first round by the Ottawa Senators. The Bruins were outmatched and an overtime win by the Senators in Game 6 was enough to send the Bruins to the sidelines.
And the Bruins’ faithful are getting agitated.
The faithful may be even more irate if the Bruins trade away, as rumored, David Pastrnak before the season starts.
Pastrnak, 21, had 34 goals and 70 points in 75 games this past season.
The problem is that contract talks have bogged down between the winger and Boston.
Late on Monday, 14 August, a social media release from an NHL analyst suggested that the Bruins were about to trade Pastrnak.
“I’m just waiting, leaving it all to my agent (J.P. Barry) to communicate with them,” Pastrnak said on NHL.com, “I’m focusing on getting better and I’m trying not to think about that stuff. I just let it go and something will happen.”
Ranked 10th in the NHL last season in goals, Pastrnak is likely a big winner as an unrestricted free agent next season so the Bruins want to lock him up now at a discount.
Given current contract values this off season, Pastrnak would be comfortably in the $6 million annual average.
On the flip side, the enigma that is Ryan Spooner and the saga between himself and the Bruins ended with a one-year deal.
Spooner had 11 goals and 39 points last season for Boston and was scheduled for arbitration before finally settling on a contract.
“I don’t think a player wants to sit through that. It’s not a pleasant thing to sit through,” Spooner said on NHL.com. “I don’t think the team wants to carry that out either because it’s kind of not a pleasant thing to go through. So we just kind of found the common ground.”
Spooner, 25, will make $2.825 for the year. That is compared to the current Pastrnak contract that pays him less than $1 million for 34 goals and 70 points.
“For me I’m going to spin [the one-year contract] into a positive and say that I’m going to take that as a challenge to have a good year and show that I can be the player that they want me to be,” Spooner said. “And then on the [other] side too, it kind of just shows that they need to see a little bit more out of me as a player. We’ve talked and they’ve said there’s many things I do great, there’s a lot of things I do to help out the team. There’s a lot of things that I can also bring to the table that I need to work on. So it’s kind of where I’m at right now.”
Boston signed goalies Zane McIntyre and Malcom Subban to two-year, two-way deals to back up Tuukka Rask.
The Bruins also signed “show me” contracts with Kenny Agostino (one-year, one-way contract worth $875,000), Paul Postma (one-year, one-way contract worth $725,000)Â and Jordan Szwarz (one-year, two-way contract worth $650,000).
The Bruins have been relatively quiet this off season and made no major signings as is evident.
Bruins general manager, Don Sweeney, sees the process as a competition within the organization and system for open positions and challenged positions.
“We’ve been fairly committed to allowing our young prospects to try and grow and take some opportunity,” Sweeney said on NHL.com. “Now we’ve got competition, internal competition, set up. I do believe there will be a couple players … that will challenge, particularly up front.
“On the back end, probably not as much, which has led me to continue to look outside. … But I think the most exciting part is the internal competition piece that we’ve set a plan in motion, and I think there are players that will step forward and grab the opportunity.”
A shift in philosophy of keeping talent instead of trading or letting go through free agency would seem to make sense. Sweeney made noise when he came into the GM post that he wanted to stop bleeding talent. Signing Pastrnak would solve that glaring issue.
And if they end up trading Pastrnak who do they get for him?
You must be logged in to post a comment.