Left wing Taylor Hall, who signed to play with the Blackhawks, is one of the key players gone from a Bruins team that won 65 games in the regular season. Lynne Sladky/Associated Press
Don’t look now, Bruins fans, but the waters of the Atlantic Division are getting deeper by the day.
Anyone who was paying attention during the Bruins historic 65-win regular season knew it was a high-wire act performed without a net. The forever-stagnant salary cap was clearly going to bite them in the 2023-24 season and it has indeed taken a big chunk out, with Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi, Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway and Connor Clifton out the door. A couple have gone to the Bruins direct divisional competition – all of have stayed in the Eastern Conference. Whether Patrice Bergeron and/or David Krejci will return is still in doubt.
The latest Atlantic Division team to improve itself was the Detroit Red Wings, who on Sunday landed game-breaker Alex DeBrincat, the 25-year-old two-time 41-goal scorer, from the Ottawa Senators. DeBrincat, who signed a four-year extension at a reasonable $7.87 million, joins a promising corps of Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider.
GM Steve Yzerman may have overpaid for the likes of center J.T. Compher (five years at $5.1 million), defenseman Justin Holl (three years at $3.4 million) and, on shorter term, Shayne Ghostisbehere (one-year at $4.125 million), but the Wings were one of the few teams who could have afforded to be generous. After all that shopping, they still have approximately $8 million in cap space.
The moves don’t suddenly put the Wings over the top. The goaltending – Ville Husso and newly-signed veteran James Reimer – is still suspect. But they are in better position to fight for a wild-card spot than they were last year.
The same goes for the Buffalo Sabres. It feels like they’re ready to return to the playoffs for the first times since 2011 after missing the playoffs by two points last year. They’ve got a bona fide superstar in Tage Thompson, and a solid support cast up front with Alex Tuch and Dylan Cozens. On the back end, Rasmus Dahlin should be getting Norris consideration for years to come while 2021 first overall pick Owen Power looks like the real deal. Meanwhile, former Northeastern standout goalie Devon Levi could go a long way toward getting the Sabres’ 3.62 goals against average down to a respectable number.
And the Sabres’ addition of Clifton may not be a move that creates reverberations around the league, but he’s a guy who can amp up the compete level for a team, even if they paid a little too much for a third pairing D-man (three years at $3.333 million).
While Ottawa had to give up DeBrincat, the team still promises to remain those pesky Sens, who scored two wins against the Bruins last year. In the DeBrincat deal, they got back Dominik Kubalik, who scored 30 goals as member of the Blackhawks a few years ago and notched 20-25-45 totals last season. They should be getting back Josh Norris, who missed all but eight games last season with a shoulder injury after potting 35 goals in 66 games in 2021-22. The signing of Joonas Korpisalo should stabilize things in net for them as well.
Among what has been traditionally the power of the division, Toronto made its splash by getting Bertuzzi on a one-year deal and signing intimidator Ryan Reaves to help with the Leafs’ ever-questionable esprit de corps. And, oh, what the heck, they added wild-card defenseman John Klingberg for good measure. They still have goalie and cap issues to figure out, but they’ll score a lot of goals again.
That doesn’t mean the Bruins can’t compete for a playoff spot. It’s not crazy to think that 34-year-old James van Riemsdyk could have a bounce-back season after leaving the mess in Philadelphia. Milan Lucic will bring a different kind of buzz to the Garden. And Kevin Shattenkirk is a smart player who can still create in the offensive zone. And the outlook would look rosier if Bergeron decides to come back, whose addition or subtraction could made the difference on whether the season extends beyond the April 16 regular season finale.
Meanwhile, some other top Atlantic teams have taken a few lumps of their own. Tampa Bay lost Alex Killorn (Anaheim) and character player Pat Maroon (Minnesota), both of whom won two Cups with the Bolts. Florida lost Radko Gudas (signed by Anaheim) from a defense corps that didn’t have a ton of jam to begin with. And you never know what kind of a toll a march to the Stanley Cup finals will have on a team.
So, no, the playoffs aren’t out of the question for the Bruins, who still have a 60-goal scorer in David Pastrnak, two very good defensemen in Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm and, as of the moment, the Jennings Trophy-winning duo of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.
But they will have to survive an 82-game battle royal to get there.
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