Bruins '22 Offseason Thread

Repost from last page of season thread:

Are Neely and Sweeney the guys? I don't know, do you:

I'm asking myself some questions today about the past dozen or so Bruins years where Neely and Sweeney have been running the ship.

I'm asking myself:

Was Taylor Hall the answer?

Was the package for Seguin at all good?

Was Coyle the right acquisition?

David Backes was clearly NOT, and hamstrung the team financially for years.

Letting Krug go? No quarterback on the powerplay?

It SEEMS like they're good at running a good program in Providence. Great at identifying possible AAAA players to make a really good AHL team.

Was the 2015 draft their fault?

Final question in light of the above: Are they any good at evaluating talent?

Maybe it was not poor talent evaluation, but poor coaching evaluation?

I honestly don't know, but there's a real apathy and lethargy with this team that surfaces again and again. Something hasn't been right, what is it? (this isn't the final game, or the final series, this is a resurfacing problem, over and over again with the core of this team.)

Right, it's the having the horses thing I'm talking about, more specifically, can the leadership even identify the horses?  They seemed to think every veteran was going to miraculously resurrect their career here.  Where's the Theo magic, or the Chaim Bloom Magic?  Is that even a thing in the NHL?  All questions...

Also agreed regarding Bergeron.  Without him it looks like it's time to blow it up.  However, do you honestly trust these guys to draft well enough to rebuild?  McAvoy is their only hit in a decade?  Time to bring in new leadership is my guess.

Feels like it could have been better though, and like an all business do well in up economies scenario--i mean, With Bergeron here, Marchand, core, they weren't going to do worse, i.e. it's very hard to mess that up.  I'm not saying the management made them collapse in the final games of the Stanley cups, but they have not identified talent well consistently.  They put pieces around the core that were worse than JAGs in most cases, negative WAR types (whatever the hockey term is for it).  Feels like Bergie and Marchand won despite poor management.  I wanted 3-5 cups from this core, not barely one.

It would have been nice to win another Cup during these Bergy, Marchand years but it didn't happen. Whether you want to blame Tukka for not standing on his head as many do, not me. Or management for failing to build a better, deeper team. Or the fact that either via injuries or now age Bergy hasn't been a force in the playoffs like you need your best player to be. Suffice it to say that it was a combination of all those factors over the last 10 seasons.

I would have loved to see Krieji on this team centering Pasta and Hall, that might have made a difference. But hey give Carolina credit, they are a very good team and played a very good series.

As far as blowing it up as some have mentioned. The Hampus Lindholm signing now gives the B's a top  Dman to go along with McAvoy that is top 5 in the league as a combination. Swaymen looks like he is a legit #1 that could be a top 5 goalie and they have made some nice moves this Spring in signing some very good college players and the pipeline is not empty. Are they a true contender moving forward, no I don't think so but a shrewd trade or some luck in drafting and I don't think they are that far away. At least not as far away as I thought before the Linholm signing and the other signings made over the last few months. Plus Lysell is a good lottery chip that could be a star, his speed plays well in todays NHL.

1st move of the offseason as Boston has extended Jake Zboril.

If he could ever stay healthy, he's a reasonable bottom pair LHD (big IF, of course).

1.137 Cap hit. Further cements the need to move some LHD money (again, Grz/Forbort/Reilly).

Well, it just might be Reilly that's traded. Grz announcing he played with a dislocated shoulder and it needs surgery. Expects to miss the start of next season.

EDIT - Of course, it could also mean nobody gets traded and B's just use LTIR. Still wouldn't surprise if Reilly is traded and Ahcan is given a shot on the 2nd pair.

Just watched clips of the interview with Pasta. Outside of hoping he signs a big extension to stay with Boston long term, I hope he and his girlfriend find healing. So easy to forget what the human being(s) went through as we watch the athlete perform.

I think Cassidy is better at his job than Neely/Sweeney are at their jobs

aside from hitting on McAvoy, and not doing something completely boneheaded--trading Marchand or Bergeron in their early prime--what has Sweeney done on the pros side of the pros/cons sheet?  

I’d say Sweeney is a very middle of the road GM and Cassidy is a pretty good coach. Just my opinion.

Thanks for the list.

In fairness, Swayman should be on my list as well, at least for now and hopefully into the future.

--Taylor Hall does not look like a win to me.  20 goals a year for 6 mill feels overpaid to me.  Combined with disappearing in the playoffs, generally speaking (-11 in the playoffs for his career).  Everyone keeps hoping for lightning in the jar with him magically coming back, but I don't see it.  He is what he is, and that's overpaid.  Coyle is what he is, and that's overpaid.  Sweeney is part of that dreaming on old potentials crowd that never pans out.  Sunk Cost, move on please.
--Lysell looks good so far in amateur, let's see if it translates.
--Below market deals, ok, again, in fairness, he did accomplish that, but then he used what financial flexibility that could have gotten him HORRIBLY.  Signs Backes to big money and too many years.  
--Let's see how Lindholm holds up, he's showing injury prone tendencies, which is perhaps why he was let go.
--Haula looks like a possible good acquisition, but last offseason tips negative with Nosek and Foligno signings.  Some spaghetti stuck, but high cost to see one stick, two JAGs.
--I still think Ullmark was a heroic failure overall due to limited financial flexibility last off-season.  Vladar/Swayman might very well have worked, but we'll never know.

Sweeney seems like a veterans are safe sort of guy with a bad ability to create a meaningful player development structure.  It just seems to me that upside with him is so limited, rolling the dice on a younger skilled talent evaluator seems like it would be a MUCH stronger play right now. I honestly think he's enough below average you move on.  Not 10th percentile--which as you suggest might be the noise out there--but firmly 30th percentile type who you can almost certainly do better than. 

Yeah I think it’s needs to be seconded how preposterous the notion that they should have tried to compete for a cup with Swayman/Vladar is


Would have been an unfathomably bad decision