The NHL Trade Deadline came and went, and this time Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney held onto his chips, electing to stand down while the significant action went on elsewhere around the league.
Linus Ullmark was reportedly sought by the Los Angeles Kings, but a trade failed to come to fruition. While it was reported that Ullmark’s 16-team, no-trade clause in his contract is dominated by western markets, Sweeney touts the value of Ullmark’s role as an equal partner to Jeremy Swayman.
“I’m very happy that we stand pat there,” said Sweeney. “If we were going to do that and weaken our hockey club in that area, it would have to compensate somewhere else.”
Apparently, nothing was worth making the move. Ullmark, by the way, has one more year remaining on his deal. Not-so-wild guess here: Until Swayman is extended, UIlmark isn’t going anywhere.
So Ullmark and Jake DeBrusk stay put. So does Matt Grzelcyk. Given the trades that did go down around the NHL, Boston’s inaction speaks to Sweeney’s belief in the team he assembled last summer.
“We felt comfortable the way our team, last three games, has played,” said Sweeney, addressing a media gathering that was also televised by NESN. “They’ve certainly taken a better direction. Credit to the staff for sort of getting their attention again and the players responding.
“Last night’s game (an emotionally fueled, 4-1 win over Toronto) probably indicates where playoff hockey is probably going to take a turn to. We tried to address the depth of our club and probably in particular areas. We also needed to give the group a push.”
The Bruins acquired two players who may play for them in these playoffs, veteran winger Patrick Maroon and right defenseman Andrew Peeke.
Maroon, who will turn 36 on April 23 (during the first round of the playoffs), is a 6-foot-3, 234-pound left winger who helped his hometown St. Louis Blues break Boston’s hearts in the 2019 Stanley Cup, then went to Tampa Bay and won the Cup with the Lightning. Most recently, Maroon played for Minnesota but not since January. He is out of action following disk surgery and therefore went straight onto Boston’s Long Term Injured Reserve list, joining Matt Poitras, Derek Forbort and Milan Lucic. Maroon is back on the ice skating, so he is the only LTIR player whose season isn’t necessarily over.
The price: AHL LW Luke Toporowski and, if Maroon appears in a playoff game for Boston, a 2026 sixth-round draft choice.
The easiest way to view the Maroon fit: When Nick Foligno was leveraged out by Boston’s salary-cap situation last summer, the Bruins turned to Lucic. That situation obviously was canceled by Lucic’s off-ice problems, so Maroon is another stab at bringing a rugged, influential, veteran presence to that depth forward position, and like the other two guys, it happens to be at left wing. His addition is primarily for supplemental leadership with an aligning hockey-widget component.
Peeke, soon to turn 26 (March 17), was taken by Columbus 34th overall in the 2016 NHL Draft. The price: a third-round pick in the 2027 draft and Jakub Zboril, the left-shot defenseman chosen 13th overall by the Bruins in 2015. Never the same since his ACL injury, Zboril was buried in the AHL and had reportedly requested waivers several weeks ago in hopes of an NHL team plucking him off the wire.
Although the rangy (6-3, 210) right-shooting Peeke is considerably more Brandon Carlo than Charlie McAvoy in style points, one wonders if Peeke was on Boston’s radar had McAvoy been nabbed in that 2016 draft before Boston’s first turn came up at 14. His career had gone sideways (in synch with the Blue Jackets). He had stayed with the NHL club (he would not have passed waivers) but has only played 23 games this season, averaging 15:37.
Sweeney made a point of Peeke’s busy Thursday night (17:59 TOI, +1) against the Edmonton Oilers and, while citing time needed for a hockey-systems adjustment, believes the big defenseman can offer depth to the right side of the ice, obvious size and reach on the penalty kill (something the Bruins need – see below) and, perhaps most notably, Peeke is not a rental. He has two more years remaining on a deal paying $2.75M AAV. Then he’s UFA.
What that means for next year is less of an opportunity for sometimes-NHLer Ian Mitchell, who platooned early in the season with Kevin Shattenkirk before it became a choice of Shattenkirk on the right side behind McAvoy and Carlo versus sliding over the left-shooting Parker Wotherspoon.
Sweeney reported that Forbort, a left-shot PK specialist in the post-Chara world, had been playing through two significant injuries, one that will require surgery and the other possibly requiring surgery. “It got to a point where it was not feasible for him to continue to play,” said Sweeney. Forbort’s season is “more than likely” over, he said. Forbort, 32, is without a contract for next season.
Anchored by Hampus Lindholm (nearing a return to the lineup), the future of the Bruins left side is looking more and more like Mason Lohrei, who was brilliant last night against Toronto, and Wotherspoon, who has been extended on his first, career, one-way contract (one year, $800,000, then he’s a 2025 UFA). Matt Grzelcyk’s is, on one hand, a Bruin for the rest of this season, but playing on an expiring contract paying $3.67M per, it would take a massive pay cut on a new deal to keep him in Boston next season.
I feel like we’ve seen this movie before: In his season-ending presser, Sweeney will say he is not closing the door on Grzelcyk’s return but has other things to tend to and plans to cycle back. By then, Grzelcyk has likely found a new landing spot in the NHL. He’s too good of a puckmover for that not to happen. The Bruins will blow kisses and mean it. Grizz has been a terrific competitor for the Bruins.
The last elephant in the kitchen is Jake DeBrusk, who stays put despite his own UFA status.
“We clearly value Jake, the game last night was a great indication of how he can impact a game,” said Sweeney, who indicated that contract talks will begin again. “We like him as a player, we didn’t feel comfortable making a … change (thinking) that we would be better off without Jake.”
Widely rumored to be in pursuit of a centerman, the Bruins stayed with their committee, of which Charlie Coyle is obviously chairman. There had been report of a three-way deal brewing that would have sent DeBrusk packing and made Elias Lindholm (yes, the center Vancouver acquired from Calgary) a Bruin. Obviously, it did not happen.
Sweeney, true to form, turned down opportunities to say if anything that didn’t happen was ever close.
What does it all mean? It means that Bruins management doesn’t look at this hockey team the way I do.
Even without Noah Hanifin, the Bruins have a roster architecture that is buildable and eventually championship capable. They’re on the right post-Bergeron/Krejci track, but three strong efforts so far this week is not a proper sample upon which to evaluate their playoff potential.
Emotionally driven hockey can cause bad teams to play the odd great game, so a good team whose record is significantly skewed by an early-season run should not put too much stock into a good week.
To their captain’s credit, Brad Marchand, asked after the win over Toronto if this gives the Bruins confidence in the desired outcome should they meet in the playoffs, did not hesitate to say no. What happens now, he said, will mean nothing when the postseason puck is dropped.
That is how players have to see it, and they do. If they don’t, Marchand will see that they do. They will start from scratch and earn everything they get.
The mentality with this Boston Bruins team is in a solid place.
The question on this page is whether this kind of effort can be sustained when they’re simply are not enough players to whom the roughhouse hockey of the spring comes naturally.
The Bruins, to a man, are not soft, but – and this was my concern – that they would forgo an opportunity to get more rugged on the forecheck and on McAvoy’s left side and only nibble around the edges of their framework.
Credit to Sweeney and company for dancing with the girl they brung, but if the playoffs are getting nasty and one goalie is sitting on the bench and opponents are running over the other one between the pipes and, at the other end of the rink, the Bruins are exacting no cumulative, seven-game wear and tear upon the opponents’ defensemen, then a series victory becomes unlikely, even – or maybe we should say especially – if it’s Toronto.
Rink Rap with Mick Colageo 