On the Boston Bruins …
Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald: Bruins GM Don Sweeney isn’t saying which free agents he’d like to bring back and which won’t be returning to the Bruins next season.
“We can afford the salary the guys are at, but some of them had very good years and you’d expect that to change. I’ve had discussions periodically with some of those players and will have with their representatives going forward, but I don’t have clarity on any of the players that are in the UFA status. We’re going to seek clarity, and we’ve got some players that we think internally that can continue to push and carve out roles, and we’ll see how we piece the jigsaw puzzle together.”
Riley Nash is one player who’ll be looking for a raise. He could earn triple his bargain $900,000 salary from this past year.
It sounded like would like to bring back backup goaltender Anton Khudobin, but he’ll be looking for raise from his $1.2 million salary.
Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports: The Bruins future looks good, and they’ll continue to look to add.
“We’re certainly going to explore everything. We’ve got meetings that we’re going to go through from a coaching standpoint, pro meetings coming up,” said Sweeney. “So we’re going to put everything on the table and continue to explore any of the areas that we think we can improve our hockey club. It’s also exploring bringing back some of the guys that we felt were really good fits for our club, and some of them are pending UFAs. From adding more young players or continuing to add younger players, the players themselves generally dictate whether or not they’re ready,
“It’s a matter of whether we can blend things together as we felt we needed to add for a playoff push. You know you probably can’t win just with completing a lineup riddle with younger guys that have never been through a Game 7 or situations . So, we’re cognizant of it, and we’ll explore every avenue, whether that’s a trade or whatever it may be.”
One of the things at the top of the Bruins priority list should be a left-sided defenseman. Zdeno Chara will be 42-years old. Torey Krug has dealt with injuries the past two seasons.
They need to find someone that is capable of playing 20-plus minutes a game. Finding someone like that could cost them Krug.
Options could be Oscar Klefbom and Darnell Nurse (EDM), Jonas Brodin (MIN) and Noah Hanifin (CAR).
Another area of need is someone like Rick Nash, but one that performs better in the playoffs. They have plenty of young guys with speed, but they need a big-bodied guy with net-front presence to play on the second line with David Krejci.
Pending free agent James van Riemsdyk would be good fit, but he’d be costly.
The Bruins could also look for someone more physical to play on their fourth line – someone like Ryan Reaves.
A third-line center could be another area the Bruins look for this offseason.