What Will The Boston Bruins Look Like At The Center Position After Bergeron's Retirement?
Salary cap challenges and a lack of center prospects in the Bruins development pipeline leave the B's with few options outside the NHL trade market
So what exactly happens in the short-term future now that B’s captain Patrice Bergeron has officially retired, and David Krejci isn’t expected to begin the 2023-24 season as a member of the Boston Bruins?
There’s no denying that the Boston Bruins are in for a radical change at the center position that was mostly expected, even if it was hoped there might be a change of mind from Bergeron when directly faced with retirement.
The lineup down the middle is a massive question mark for the Black and Gold with both their top-6 centers moving on, and it’s something the Boston Bruins have been acutely aware of for the last few seasons. Some of the issue was addressed last season while trading with the New Jersey Devils for Pavel Zacha, a deal that preceded the 26-year-old pivot popping for a career-high 21 goals and 57 points in Boston while studying up on the details of the center position from Bergeron and Krejci.
Zacha is expected to be part of Boston’s long-term solution down the middle, even if faceoffs and other areas of his game aren’t quite Bergeron-esque at this point. The good news is that Zacha showed the willingness and capability to play a cerebral 200-foot game while boasting a dangerous shot when he could get it on net.
Coyle is also coming off a strong overall season with 16 goals and 45 points while both Coyle and Zacha played all 82 games like the big-bodied, in-their-prime centers that they are at this point in their NHL careers.
The question is just how good they can be while supported with star wingers like Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk around them. Can they be good enough to play solid 2-way hockey, facilitate and allow their wingers to drive their lines a bit more than happened in the past?
It remains to be seen if Zacha and Charlie Coyle can be adequate top-6 NHL centers on a consistent basis, but the good news is they played that way during the first-round playoff series vs. Florida after Bergeron and Krejci went down with injuries.
The hope is that might have been a window into what this season could look like with them leading a group of centers that could also include Morgan Geekie, Patrick Brown, Marc McLaughlin or maybe even Trent Frederic. The reality, though, feels like Zacha and Coyle would be best served as the respective second and third line centers on a deep, strong NHL team with playoff expectations. It’s also very clear to Bruins management that there isn’t a readily available selection of in-house candidates among their young prospects to profile as a possible top-6 center in the making either.
“We had some handcuffs on us [with the salary cap] so we did what we could do,” said Cam Neely. “We know that [center] is a position organizationally that we need to improve upon.
“We recognize that our center position was getting older the last couple of years. It’s challenging when you’re competing every year and giving up draft capital, it’s hard to find those players in the later rounds. It’s something that we have to focus on and it’s something that we have focused on.”
Will they go outside the organization to possibly find a frontline center?
“We’ll do whatever we can to bolster that position,” said Neely.
Former second round pick Matthew Poitras has some long-term promise, but he’s 19 years old and didn’t much look like he was anything close to NHL ready while skating at Bruins Development Camp last month. The 5-foot-11, 170-pound Poitras looked like a smart, crafty playmaker among his peers at the prospect camp, but in all likelihood, he’s going to spend this coming season in the OHL playing for the Guelph Storm before showing exactly what he can do as a pro.
That begs the question whether the Boston Bruins will be in the market for an outside trade to bring in a true No. 1 center with names like Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele and Calgary’s Elias Lindholm commonly brought up as lead candidates in hockey trades.
Both would require significant salary cap upheaval for the Boston Bruins along with valued assets required to get a frontline center for next season, but Lindholm’s $4.85 million cap hit in the final year of his deal makes him an attractive two-way center option.
Scheifele is a notch above $6 million for the coming season and had 42 goals last season, so he’d clearly be a big-time offensive acquisition. But the jury is very much out on how much of a two-way player he could be for Boston potentially stepping into Bergeron’s vacated spot.
And that’s if the B’s even had the kind of draft pick or player/prospect capital to get something done.
So it’s reasonable to believe the Bruins might just go into the season with the status quo at the center position after signing James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Shattenkirk, Morgan Geekie, Patrick Brown and Milan Lucic on July 1 after trading away Taylor Hall.
And then if/when the center position becomes an issue during the regular season, the Bruins can then put some focus on fortifying that position ahead of the NHL trade deadline, something Don Sweeney has done a good job each and every season landing significant players like Taylor Hall, Hampus Lindholm and last season Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway at the trade deadline.
That kind of plan certainly isn’t going to dazzle anybody looking for fireworks at the center spot to replace Bergeron, but it might be the most pragmatic approach for a team that really needs some good, long-term planning to improve themselves down the middle after losing two legendary centers.
Now on to the PWH Morning Skate Links:
*The Ottawa Senators get a good piece with Vladimir Tarasenko signing a one-year deal with the Sens for next season. (Ottawa Sun)
*Here’s the full Patrice Bergeron press conference from earlier this week if you missed it at that point.
*Logan Cooley will add to the talent level in Arizona for the Coyotes next season, even if it feels like the back end that’s going to need some assistance. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
*The Rink Shrinks are back with more youth hockey questions and some thoughts about Patrice Bergeron retiring from the NHL. (Rink Shrinks)
*Can Wils Hoglander be a top-6 forward for the Vancouver Canucks in this upcoming hockey season? (Canucks Army)
*The Boston Bruins and Jeremy Swayman are quite a bit apart in their salary arbitration hearing with the B’s at $2 million, and Swayman looking for $4.8 million for next season. The guess here is that it gets split down the middle and Swayman is looking at a $3.5 million contract for next season. (98.5 the Sports Hub)
*For something completely different: We are now banning ketchup being delivered with food orders in New York City? Who do they think they are, Fenway Park? (New York Post)