Boston Bruins Showing Poor Asset Management
Earlier today the Boston Bruins chose to extend qualifying offers to several players on their rosters and informed other players that they will be heading off to try their luck in free agency.
The Boston Bruins extended offers to Torey Krug, Colin Miller, Joe Morrow, Alex Khokhlachev, Brian Ferlin and Chris Castro.
Torey Krug is the biggest no-brainer here. Krug proved he could play top-four minutes last season, putting up 44 points for the Black and Gold. Colin Miller should be ready to pick up some minutes as a middle or bottom pair defenseman. Morrow, Ferlin, and Castro will be battling for roster spots at training camp. Finally, the Bruins are going to hold on to Khokhlachev’s rights so they can try to move him if he has a good season in the KHL.
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The Bruins chose not to extend qualifying offers to the following players. Brett Connolly, Landon Ferraro and Ben Sexton. The Bruins have a lot of people competing for very few spots in Boston this fall. The B’s just didn’t think Ferraro or Sexton would be competitive enough, and likely didn’t want to offer them two-way contacts.
Brett Connolly’s dismissal from Boston should come as no surprise. He had put only 27 points (9 goals) in 76 games while wearing the Black and Gold. That he spent a majority of that time paired with Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron (a player who makes everyone else look better) only makes his lack of production more puzzling.
Brett Connolly is a microcosm of the Bruins organizations troubles in the last few years. Granted, Connolly came on board when Peter Chiarelli was still in charge. The B’s gave up a 2015 and 2016 second-round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning to get the former first round draft pick. In the end, Tampa certainly ended up with the better end of that deal.
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Now Connolly will be leaving the organization. While the 24-year old Connolly certainly did not do enough to warrant a resigning, his departure casts a light on some of the bad decisions made by the Bruins front office these last few years.
Sadly, Don Sweeney has repeated some of the mistakes made by his predecessor. One of his first moves was to acquire Zac Rinaldo, a player that had spent more time off the ice or suspended than on it. Rinaldo ended up earning the Bruins a piece of infamy in the record books by being the first member of the Bruins organization to be suspended by the NHL and the AHL at the same time(while putting up just three points while doing it).
Sweeney’s rookie season had several other questionable calls. Sweeney then gave up this years’ third-round pick, next years’ fifth-round pick, and a prospect to bring over John-Michael Liles. He also gave up this years’ fourth-round pick, and next years’ second-round pick for Lee Stempniak. Both Liles and Stempniak together only helped generate 16 points for the Bruins. While Liles did help to partially stabilize the Bruins blue line, it seemed too little, too late as the Bruins missed their second straight postseason.
If Don Sweeney would like to avoid a very rough and brief tenure as the Bruins general manager, he needs to avoid making these kinds of errors. Sweeney shouldn’t be attempting to bring back Milan Lucic or try to grab Steven Stamkos. Those are the kind of moves that Chiarelli did when he snagged players like Jaromir Jagr and Jarome Iginla. The salary cap isn’t expected to go anywhere, and the B’s will need to be responsible.
To be fair Sweeney has made a few solid moves. Charlie McAvoy has the potential to be an amazing long-term defenseman in Boston. He told to the Blues to ship out when they asked for both first round draft picks and David Pastrnak in exchange for Kevin Shattenkirk. Hopefully, Sweeney can learn from Chiarelli’s errors and show better asset management of the team.