Boston Bruins Stacking Up The Centers

The Boston Bruins came out firing on all cylinders in the first day of free agency. They attempted to address their biggest weakness, finding a top-four defenseman. The Bruins weren’t successful in that regard. The only defenseman the Black and Gold signed was John-Michael Liles to a one-year, $2 million dollar contract.

What the Bruins did do was stack the deck in the center position. The Bruins were able to woo away St. Louis Blues captain David Backes, and that certain was a big signing for Boston.

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“Obviously the Bruins are very excited about several additions that we added to our roster and organization,” said Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney to the media during his conference call with them on Friday. “We went out to identify a primary target in David Backes as a center, right wing candidate.”

Maybe the Bruins are going to use one of the best centers in the NHL on the wing.  While Backes is a versatile player, he’s certainly more of a natural center.  While the Bruins may start him on the wing in October, they’ll likely put him as a center in quite a few games this center.

The Boston Bruins also signed center Riley Nash on Friday.  Nash was a cheap depth signing ($900,000/yr). He’s a decent fourth-line center that can work well on special teams.

This now gives the Bruins five full-time NHL people who can play center. Backes, David Krejci, Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Spooner, and now Nash. The Bruins also have a few two-way players that were coming up in Providence as well.

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So, why so many centers?

There is a lot of talk about moving David Krejci. It’s possible, but highly unlikely.  Krejci certainly didn’t seem to be at 100-percent last season. In spite of that, he was tied for second in overall scoring with 63 points.

Perhaps the Bruins are still trying to assemble an appropriate package deal in order to get themselves a defenseman. Noel Acciari found himself on the Bruins fourth line as a center last season, but he’s still acclimatizing to the NHL. He could be bundled with one of the goaltenders the Bruins have coming up as part of a deal to bring a reliable top-four blueliner to Boston.

That seems to be the route he’s heading at the moment.

While many of the fans may disagree, Don Sweeney has been correcting the mistakes of his freshman season as general manager. There haven’t been any Zac Rinaldo type signings, there haven’t been any insane draft picks, and he’s actually strengthened the Bruins in the forward and goaltending positions.