With 2015 coming to a close, the Boston Bruins are looking pretty good. The team was expected to struggle throughout the season after losing key pieces in the offseason, such as Carl Soderberg, Dougie Hamilton, Milan Lucic, and Reilly Smith. With the team losing three games, all at home, to open the season, the Bruins were certainly living up to all the wrong expectations.
Fast-forward a few months, and the Bruins are primed to take over the Atlantic Division lead at some point in the near future. The Bruins’ offense, defense, goaltending, power play, and penalty killing, are all playing at an impressive level, and the team will look to propel their success into the new year.
After closing out 2015 with a 7-3 against the Ottawa Senators, the future looks very bright for the Bruins, and here are some things that everybody can look forward to in 2016
Next: 2016 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic
Winter Classic
Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
On January 1st, the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens will look to start off the new year with an absolute bang. The two rivaled franchises are set to leave it all on the ice as they face off in the highly anticipated 2016 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic game at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. The game has been highly anticipated for months, and the game will provide more than bragging rights for the victorious hockey club.
Live Feed class=inline-text id=inline-text-32 trades the Boston Bruins must make to secure the Stanley Cup /
The Atlantic Division standings currently have the Florida Panthers sitting in first place with 46 points, the Montreal Canadiens sitting in second place with 45 points, and the Boston Bruins sitting in third place with 44 points. The Boston Bruins hold the season-series lead over the Panthers following their 3-1 win on December 12th, meaning the winner of this contest will move into first place in the division. The game comes roughly at the half-point of the 2015-16 season, and sitting in first place around that time is obviously the goal of every single hockey team in the NHL.
The Montreal Canadiens will be without their franchise goaltender and the reigning Vezina, and Hart Trophy winner, Carey Price, as well as their first line right winger in Brendan Gallagher. With those two key injuries clearly affecting the Montreal Canadiens, it’s fortunate for them that the Bruins will also be without some very key players.
It is impossible to make a list of best offensive players currently on the Boston Bruins without mentioning David Krejci and Brad Marchand right at the top of the list. Those players also bring efficient play on the power play, penalty kill, on the back-check, and in Krejci’s case, in the face-off circle. With both players set to miss the Winter Classic — David Krejci with an upper-body injury, and Brad Marchand with a three game suspension for his hit on Senator’s forward Mark Borowiecki — there will be no excuses by either team once the puck drops.
The Boston Bruins have been without forward David Pastrnak since October 31st. The second-year Czech forward is finished his recovery process from a foot injury, and is currently playing in Helsinki, Finland at the World Junior Championships as a member of the Czech Republic national team. In the tournament, Pastrnak currently has one goal and one assist in his two games played, and his conditioning is looking better with each shift that he takes.
With a suspension to Brad Marchand and an injury to David Pastrnak taking away two of the Boston Bruins better forwards for the foreseeable future, the return of David Pastrnak has never been more important than it is now. Once the World Junior Championships are completed, David Pastrnak is likely to rejoin his Boston Bruins teammates rather than returning to Providence, giving fans of the Boston Bruins something to look forward to almost immediately once the New Year starts.
Next: A Playoff Opportunity
Possibly Returning To The Playoffs
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The Boston Bruins missed the playoffs following the 2014-15 season, something that hadn’t happened in eight years. With the disappointing end to the season came change, and with change, came a new hope.
The Boston Bruins started their offseason changes early, with then-general manager Peter Chiarelli being relieved of his duties. Don Sweeney stepped in, and the transactions that followed were numerous, and in many cases, painful to watch.
The Boston Bruins traded away the rights to center Carl Soderberg, a player they were expected to lose in the offseason due to his expected raise in salary. Additionally, the team traded away their young, and promising defenseman in Dougie Hamilton when contract negotiations went sour. It wasn’t the first time that Bruins’ management made a trade involving a young and potential cornerstone franchise piece, and it may not even be the last. Following that trade, the Bruins moved long-time fan-favorite, and eight year veteran, Milan Lucic. The team also traded away Reilly Smith, one of the three remaining pieces on the Bruins that came as a part of the trade that sent Tyler Seguin to Dallas.
These subtractions were hard to swallow for many Bruins’ fans who immediately began criticizing the judgement of Don Sweeney. The return that Don Sweeney received as a part of those transactions, however, proved to be decent, and effective at this point in the season.
In return for Dougie Hamilton, the Bruins clearly didn’t get the return that fans of the team wanted. It’s fair to be upset about the return, but it’s also important to keep an open mind, especially when considering the fact that the Bruins selected three very talented players in Zachary Senyshyn, 15th overall, Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, 45th overall, and Jeremy Lauzon, 52nd overall, with the draft picks they received for Hamilton.
Time was running out for the Boston Bruins, and in a perfect world, they would have traded Hamilton for more than what they did, but in a few years, the trade could look like a steal based on how each of their three prospects pan-out.
As for the Milan Lucic trade, and a subsequent trade of Martin Jones, the Bruins gathered: The 13th overall draft pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, which ended up being highly-touted defensive prospect, Jakub Zboril. San Jose’s first round draft pick in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, as well as forward prospect Sean Kuraly, and Colin Miller. For those keeping score, that’s two first round draft picks, a top defensive prospect in Colin Miller, as well as a college forward prospect in Sean Kuraly, for an expiring contract of a player that had been regressing in a Bruins’ uniform for some time.
Don Sweeney wasn’t finished there, as he traded away talented, but inconsistent forward Reilly Smith as well as the contract of Marc Savard for Massachusetts-native Jimmy Hayes. He made a questionable trade when he sent a third round draft pick to Philadelphia for questionable forward Zac Rinaldo, and he completed his changes when he signed left winger Matt Beleskey to a five year contract.
The changes have positioned the Boston Bruins into a top-three spot in the Atlantic Division, and the potential to move into first place is getting closer with each game that the Bruins play.
Next: Cap Space Opening Up
Retained Salary From The Milan Lucic Trade Coming Off The Books
Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
The Boston Bruins were able to garner an incredible return for the expiring contract of Milan Lucic, but it didn’t come without a cost.
When the Boston Bruins traded Milan Lucic to the Los Angeles Kings, they received Martin Jones, the 13th overall draft pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, as well as defenseman Colin Miller. To receive such high compensation for an expiring contract, the Bruins had to help Los Angeles as they attempted to stack their team for a push to the post-season in the 2015-16 season. The Bruins are currently paying $2,750,000 of Milan Lucic‘s $6,000,000 cap hit, which limited some of the transactions they had room to make for the rest of the offseason, as well as for the season itself.
Fortunately for the Boston Bruins, the salary cap that was retained as a part of the Milan Lucic deal will officially be off the books following the season, and it will be much needed as the Bruins will have a lot of players looking for new contracts.
Following the 2015-16 season, the following players will be without a contract, and while the Bruins will undoubtedly make transactions, and while they are unlikely to sign each of the players, the more cap space the team has, the better:
With so many players looking for new contracts, and a much needed defensive upgrade needed in Boston, the cap space saved from the Milan Lucic trade coming off of the books will certainly help the team in the long-run.
Follow Brandon Share-Cohen on Twitter @BShareCohen to discuss all things Bruins and sports
