Bruins Need To Just Say No To Pierre-Luc Dubois

There will be roster changes coming, but investing in the 24-year-old center is way too high risk at an intersection point for the B's franchise

There will be wild and mad rumors flying around the Boston Bruins this offseason.

Let’s face it: That’s going to happen when a team has less than $5 million in salary cap space and just 16 NHL players under contract for next season, with that number growing to 17 players if you count 25-year-old Oskar Steen on a one-way contract for $800,000 for the 2023-24 NHL season.

Bottom line is that the Boston Bruins are not going to be the same regular season record-breaking group next year and some players will be on the move as Don Sweeney brings in different forwards and retools the center position depending on what the future holds for 37-year-old Patrice Bergeron and 37-year-old David Krejci.

Don Sweeney said as much at the end-of-the-season press conference after Boston’s disappointing first round playoff exit.

“Our goal [last season] was to put the absolute best roster we could put together and try and take a real legitimate run and we failed, no question,” said Sweeney. “So we have to pay that forward a little bit. That might mean we're instituting younger players, that might mean roster changes, which we would like to make. That might mean I might be able to sign, as you referenced, one of those three [rental] players or other unrestricted players.

“We have to address the two RFAs in [Trent] Frederic and [Jeremy] Swayman, which we will do. And roster changes are likely coming. You know, we're not going to be the same team, but our mandate internally, collectively as a group, is we have a really strong core of guys that hopefully as Jim [Montgomery] was talking about, will continue to grow, will take leadership responsibility moving forward regardless of whether or not Patrice and David walk back through the door because they need to.”

So let’s go through some of the changes that could be coming, shall we?