Bruins '21 OFFSEASON Thread

Yep, great deal. Thought he might cost a little more than that.

Probably means he'll be protected in expansion draft. Not definite, as he'd have to have been protected or exposed even if he didn't sign (as an RFA), but if you weren't going to protect him, you likely don't give him this deal, which makes him more attractive as an option, imo. 

Heartbreaking news this morning as David Pastrnak announced that his newborn son, Viggo, passed away.

Rest in peace little Viggo. Hearts and prayers go out to mom and dad.

about a week away until seattles expansion draft - can someone convince me why debrusk shouldn't be dangled? i dont hate his game but he carries a decent sized cap hit that we can really use for a 3rd line lw that would better suit the team. yeah it feels like losing him for nothing, but debrusk just feels like a change of scenery guy

Kind of hard to see right at the moment but "potential" would be the word. He has shown plenty and also let us down recently. He could need a change of scenery but the B's IMO have a good environment and leadership group that could be the answer. I think he is tough enough to get it if you know what I mean. 

this is where my heads at- if lauzon is unprotected but not debrusk, then we probably lose lauzon. debrusk might be better right now but costs about 4x as much and he’s not 4x more valuable especially with our troubles trying to find someone who’s not a lifeless corpse to play defense.

Meanwhile, some big names (and they may only be that at this point) were added to the FA Market as the Wild bought out both Ryan Suter and Zach Parise.

Not sure I have much interest in Parise unless a) he's going to come really cheap and b) Boston has moves for both Ritchie (expansion loss) and DeBrusk (trade). Feel like he's a 3rd liner at best right now.

Suter, on the other hand, could interest me as a top 4 LHD to go with either McAvoy or Carlo. He's old but still has something left (even if it's not the .7 points per game from 2 years ago). Again, would want him on the cheaper side but he may not need much since he'll still be getting paid by Minnesota.

Waiting for details but Joe McDonald is reporting that Boston and Carlo have a agreed to a deal.

6 yrs with a 4.1/Yr Cap Hit for Carlo

That's certainly a very valid reason to expose DeBrusk. Of course, that would mean acknowledging that Ritchie must not have much value, if no one thinks the teams that would take JDB would take Ritchie.

The thing with protecting all the young D-men for me becomes a question of how many of them we really need to keep anyway. After the 3 we'll protect, I think it's certain we'll acquire one other vet, and I'd bet on two (one may be a cheap type). And we're almost certainly stuck with John Moore. So, how many young guys will play a role. With Lauzon, Clifton (who could be considered a vet at this point), Zboril, Vaakanainen (my personal fav) and Ahcan, it's fair to wonder if losing one of them would really be a big deal.

The ultimate question is whether we think DeBrusk would bring more in a trade than, say, Lauzon. The team needs to figure that out and I'm sure they've been gauging such.

I think the motivation for "protecting" (not that any of the D would go on the protected list but putting JD on the list of players available to Seattle GREATLY reduces the likelihood that 1 is taken) is to get value for them. That value could be in your lineup OR by using them in a trade. Letting 1 go in the expansion draft provides you no return value.

As for JD vs. Ritchie, I'm not so sure it's "no value" on Ritchie. It's just a case of who has more? A young cost-controlled D, a 3.6M F who has been a 2nd liner until this past year or an RFA 3rd liner who's never been much more than that and probably never will. Bruins are gonna lose a good (valuable) player to Seattle. Just trying to minimize it.