Sweeney thinks deep
GM seeks to plug big holes in lineup
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has hired his first coach, Bruce Cassidy. The team that is starting to bear his fingerprints finally took a step forward after two seasons of a downward spiral.
But Sweeney’s job has only just begun.
As it stands right now, the Bruins are not a Stanley Cup contender. As promising as the club’s prospect pool may be, they’ve got a giant hole in the middle of their lineup and, between now and September, it will be up to Sweeney to figure out how to best plug it.
“I go back to what our pro scout Adam Creighton said to everybody at the table at the trade deadline. He said, ‘We need to be a deeper, more talented team.’ That’s the bottom line,” Sweeney said at his year-end press conference yesterday. “And the onus is on right here, in this chair.”
With Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, the Bruins have a top line, no matter who is on the right wing, whether it’s David Backes, David Pastrnak, a prospect in the system or a free agent pickup down the road. They should have no problem culling an effective fourth line with Riley Nash, Noel Acciari, Sean Kuraly, Matt Beleskey and Tim Schaller as candidates.
But in between, who knows? Ryan Spooner, the erstwhile third-line center, struggled down the stretch and was scratched in the final two games of the playoffs, which doesn’t exactly look like a promising sign for him. David Krejci can still be an effective second-line center, as his late-season pairing with Pastrnak showed, but if he’s not going to be playing with top-six wingers, which he didn’t for much of the season, it is a waste of his $7.25 million cap hit.
“The middle part of our lineup, the consistency and scoring depth, whether it’s second or third (line), wherever those pieces fall into place, that’s an area we need to continue to get better at,” Sweeney said. “I believe our top line is one of the best lines in the league. David Krejci should be commended for coming off surgery and playing 82 games but probably got off to a slower start than he would have liked, and we missed him in the playoffs. A lot of teams in the league would look at our centers and say, ‘That’s pretty good depth there.’ ”
Sweeney also mentioned the “transitional puck play” as well as looking at the backup goaltender spot.
As is his way, Sweeney remained noncommittal on personnel decisions. But he’s got a big one coming up on Spooner. He will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights this summer. With his numbers, a third party could hand him a $3 million deal.
Spooner’s future with the team?
“To be determined,” Sweeney said. “We’ll look at our roster and what our options are. He has options as well as an RFA. We’ll have discussions with his representatives and see where there’s a fit. Ryan struggled down the stretch. He had a little bump when Bruce first took over and the familiarity probably helped. Offensively it tailed off.
“Ryan’s a talented player. He’s had a lot of success. Our power play is better when he plays as well as he’s capable of playing, and he could really be a good complement to our group.”
With the franchise-altering trades of Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic, Sweeney started a youth movement. Next September, players like Jake DeBrusk, Zach Senyshyn, Danton Heinen, Peter Cehlarik, Jeremy Lauzon, Jakob Zboril, Rob O’Gara and Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson should be banging on the door for NHL jobs.
But Sweeney didn’t rule out looking outside the organization for help, making it clear that nothing will be given based on pedigree.
“We’re going to look at everything. I don’t think putting a young player in the lineup for the sake of just playing young players is the right thing to do. They have to be good players, they have to deserve the opportunity, they have to take advantage of the opportunity, they have to push another player out of a job,” Sweeney said. “You get to be a team that’s deep enough to have an internal competition and those players can just push other players out of the way because they’re ready.
“I think we’re moving in that direction. I’m going to go see some players this weekend (with Providence) and see how they do. But we’ll be looking at everything, inside and outside.”