‘Patient’ B’s hit market
Sweeney a fan of current prospects
With the official start of free agency happening at high noon today, you would not have expected Bruins general manager Don Sweeney to put all his cards on the table when he met reporters yesterday.
But while Sweeney said he’s still exploring his options both on the trade market and in free agency, he certainly sounded like a man who would be content to fill the holes on his roster with some of the high-end prospects he’s been stockpiling in his two years as GM.
“I’m in a patient mode,” said Sweeney at Warrior Ice Arena. “We’ve positioned ourselves with the strength of our prospects and have a commitment to our prospects and we feel excited about that.”
Sweeney said he hasn’t had lot of conversations with unrestricted free agents during the open discussion period, but his area of focus has been left defensemen. We know that he’s been in on Trevor Daley, but it appears the two-time Stanley Cup winner is headed from Pittsburgh to Detroit. Vancouver is rumored to be the frontrunner for Michael Del Zotto. Marco Scandella, a potential trade target whose contract (three years left at $4 million annually) the B’s never loved, was moved to divisional rival Buffalo yesterday.
While Sweeney said he’s comfortable with sitting tight with his prospects and hoping they have a hit similar to Brandon Carlo last season, he conceded that the prices and term some of the free agents are looking for is coloring that thinking as well.
“There’s no question it’s a factor,” said Sweeney. “It speaks to the dynamic moving forward and where we currently sit. We’d like to maintain flexibility with the mindset that the younger players that we’ve committed from the draft and development process will bear (fruit). Now there’s — I wouldn’t call it an anxiety — but there’s a bit of an unknown there versus a player that has done it before. But the league has gone in that direction. I’ve said all along we needed to be a deeper, more talented team and we remain committed to it.”
Though Sweeney didn’t say exactly what he was looking for on the market, ideally he could get a veteran left defenseman on a oneyear deal who could possibly hold the space for one of the young kids coming up. And if one of the kids — Robbie O’Gara and Matt Grzelcyk have a year of pro hockey under their belts while Jakob Zboril (a first-round pick from 2016) and Jeremy Lauzon (secound-round pick in 2015) are top prospects — happens to be better, then so be it.
Those type of secondary free agents usually don’t get signed on Day 1 but later in the summer. Who could that be? Old friend Mark Stuart? Johnny Oduya? Another old friend Matt Hunwick? We’ll see.
As it stands now, the right-handed Kevan Miller would have to play his off side and perhaps be paired with Charlie McAvoy.
“That’s a coach’s decision, though I’ve had a lot of conversations with Bruce (Cassidy). He’s certainly played him over there and started with him playing with Charlie in the playoffs. He’s capable of it,” said Sweeney. “Would we like to continue to explore or have one of our lefties step up? Yes. We have been exploring.”
The B’s are in a decent salary cap situation right now — approximately $14.5 million under the cap — but that can change quickly. Both Carlo and McAvoy will be up after next year while some of their forward hopefuls — Jake DeBrusk, Anders Bjork, Zach Senyshyn — would be up the following season. And if they’re as good as the B’s hope they are, they’ll be expensive.
“We’re very cognizant of our younger players that will arrive, maybe colliding, at once,” said Sweeney. “We’ve put ourselves in a cap situation that has some flexibility and I want to maintain that.”