Let’s call the 2023-24 Bruins season what it is — a bridge year.
Whether or not Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci return — and that doesn’t feel likely — this season connects the gap between the loaded and expensive roster of 2022-23 and the next era of Bruins hockey that could include several free agents when the salary cap improves and GM Don Sweeney has more money to spend a year from now.
But bridge years aren’t as bad as they sound. They’re better than rebuilds and this year doesn’t have to be a disaster. Sweeney didn’t commit a lot of money to anybody and more importantly, he didn’t commit years to Milan Lucic, James van Riemsdyk and Kevin Shattenkirk. All three will be free agents after a year from now.
There’s a few ways this could go.
In the best case scenario, the three newly arriving veterans are energized by new surroundings — and Lucic already seems to be — and motivated by trying to prove they deserve a contract somewhere in 2024-25 and emerge as useful pieces at reasonable prices. They mesh well with the talented returning core led by David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Brad Marchand etc. Sweeney makes a move or two at the deadline and the Bruins are a tough out in the playoffs.
Or Lucic and van Riemsdyk become the latest aging power forwards that Sweeney signs well after their sell-by date has passed and the Bruins struggle up front, while Shattenkirk looks like a shell of his former self and becomes a regular healthy scratch and the Bruins miss the playoffs.
But even in that case, if they deal Derek Forbort, Matt Grzelcyk and maybe even Jake DeBrusk or Linus Ullmark at the trade deadline and get some younger pieces or draft capital to augment the returning players down the road, there’s still something to be gained.
That’d be tough to go through for Marchand, the likely captain if Bergeron doesn’t come back. At 35, he doesn’t have many years left, but for the rest of the franchise, it’s not bad.
In either scenario, the Bruins are still well-positioned to make moves going into 2024-25 when DeBrusk (who they might choose to keep), Forbort, Grzelcyk, Jason Megna, Jakub Zboril and A.J. Greer as well as Lucic, van Riemsdyk and Shattenkirk all come off the books.
For now, Sweeney took a shot at staying respectable in the present. The franchise’s core of Pastrnak, McAvoy, Marchand, DeBrusk, Charlie Coyle, Hampus Lindholm and maybe Pavel Zacha, are too good not to make a good faith try to be a playoff team. He created a roster that if Bergeron and Krejci are leaning toward returning, they won’t feel like they are wasting their time in a rebuild.
At the same time, Sweeney did it without limiting the future. He said Saturday he dearly wished he could have extended Tyler Bertuzzi. He could get another chance next year when Bertuzzi, who just signed a one-year deal becomes a free agent again.
“We know we’re a competitive group and we want to remain a competitive group and with an eye towards the future,” Sweeney said. “We didn’t really encumber ourselves too badly from a standpoint of contracts. … As we pointed out, we feel good about the competitiveness of our group.”
On top of that, if the Bruins give Fabien Lysell, Mason Lohri, Georgi Merkulov or Johnny Beecher a chance to make their NHL debuts next year, they’ll be playing alongside reliable NHL veterans and leaders worth emulating.
“You put March and Pasta, Coyle and Zacha and Lindholm, McAvoy and the goaltending situation and the other guys,” Sweeney said. “That’s the next core for the Boston Bruins and we’re excited about that.”
LYSELL WAS was noticeably absent when the Bruins began their development camp at Warrior Ice Arena on Monday.
The Bruins’ top prospect — who was drafted by Boston in the first round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft — suffered a concussion in May during the AHL playoffs between the Providence Bruins and Hartford Wolfpack.
Adam Clendening laid a high, late hit on Lysell in Game 3 that earned him a three-game suspension.
The Bruins aren’t rushing Lysell back to the ice and are making sure he’s 100% before joining the team for development camp, though it’s unclear if he’ll do so this week.
“He had a concussion at the end of the year, so we’re just taking it slow, right now” Bruins head of player development Adam McQuaid told reporters Monday. “Still kind of working through some things. Not ruled out for the week, but also taking it slow.”
McQuaid dealt with concussions throughout the course of his 10-year NHL career before officially announcing his retirement in 2017.
It remains to be seen whether Lysell will make the Bruins’ roster out of training camp.
Lysell’s production went down while competing in the World Juniors for Sweden, finishing the tournament without a point in seven games. He never quite regrouped despite beginning the 2022-23 AHL season by amassing 19 points in Providence’s first 20 games.
His first pro season was ended by a concussion, but the Bruins aren’t taking any risks when it comes to his development as he’s expected to be play a big role in the future for the organization.
LUKE TOPOROWSKI signed a two-year contract with the Boston Bruins. According to reports, the Bettendorf, Iowa, native inked an entry-level deal for $870,000. His salary is comprised of $95,000 in signing bonuses and $775,000 in base salary.
The opportunity for the 5-foot-11, 180-pound left winger came about after a solid season with the Providence Bruins of the AHL. With Boston’s top affiliate, he posted 29 points in 47 games for the Bruins, who finished the season with a 44-18-8-2 record and a league-best 98 points. Toporowski scored 15 goals and dished off 14 assists.
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