Boston Bruins: How have they avoided the dreaded rebuild?
Unlike so many of their rivals, the Boston Bruins haven’t exactly endured any substantial rebuilding in the past ten seasons.
Whilst the Boston Bruins did indeed miss out on making the play-offs in two of those ten most recent seasons, you can’t over-look the fact that they missed out on wild card spots both years by two and three points; not exactly the margins we’ve seen other ‘rebuilding’ teams miss by.
The past few years have seen teams like the Ottawa Senators, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs, just to name some of the Eastern Conference names, openly inform their fan bases that ‘there is pain coming’ and they need to stick behind their team despite the fact they’ll be undergoing major overhauls.
In that time frame, the Boston Bruins have remained consistently competitive and despite not picking in the top ten of the draft since 2011, taking Dougie Hamilton at ninth overall with a pick acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs, they have continued to promote young players into the line-up and seen positive returns from them.
It’s not even as if there hasn’t been turnover of very good players. In that ten year stretch, the Boston Bruins have seen the likes of Loui Eriksson, Milan Lucic, Carl Soderberg and Ryan Spooner depart; that’s purely looking at their two most recent seasons not making the play-offs.
Countless other players that could offer some value have also departed; Brett Connolly, Adam McQuaid and Ryan Donato spring to mind among many.
Perhaps it’s in the player recruitment; the Boston Bruins have managed to draft wisely (for the most part) that whole time and whether intentional or not, make great use of the collegiate system as a developmental pipeline for their youngsters.
Whether this is at the prompting of Boston Bruins coaching staff or purely a trend away from the major junior hockey system in Canada, we don’t know, but it’s definitely been key in the Bruins’ lack of a rebuild.
Collegiate system has helped the Boston Bruins thrive
When you look around the Boston Bruins line-up in their most recent game, Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final; it’s intriguing to see that only Patrice Bergeron, Jake Debrusk, Brandon Carlo, John Moore and Brad Marchand played their post-draft hockey within the Canadian major junior hockey landscape.
The rest of that side either honed their skills in overseas competitions, often playing against men at a younger age than their Canadian counterparts, or plied their trade in the American collegiate system. Perhaps it’s quite telling too that even among the most recent draft class, all of the North American born draft picks will be headed to NCAA schools this Fall.
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The key reason so many teams have undergone rebuilds is that they are the result of either poor drafting year-on-year or their management groups hedged their bets trading away early-round picks in search of that rental player that could push them over the line.
Whilst the Boston Bruins haven’t been immune in that time-frame to trading away first, second or third round picks, they’ve done so knowing there was talent working it’s way through school.
Look around the roster and the likes of Charlie McAvoy, who is likely to become the franchise’s number-one defenseman sooner rather than later, Danton Heinen, who although often maligned provides vital versatility up and down the line-up and Torey Krug, who has now consistently performed on the blue-line for six seasons.
They’re all the result of spending considerable time learning the game, whilst also broadening their minds at University. Instead of it being hockey 24/7 as it can be in some Canadian markets, the distraction of schoolwork no doubt played a role in rounding them out.
Krug and Heinen also spent time with the Providence Bruins before making the Boston Bruins roster; the pathway to making the main roster is clear-cut. Just look at Connor Clifton; nobody expected the late pick to graduate from Quinnipac Univeristy onto an NHL roster, no least be playing in this past season’s Stanley Cup Final.
Perhaps it’s the fact that they’re surrounded by such a talented core group that these players can graduate from University hockey to NHL hockey so comfortably.
The Boston Bruins core group has been consistent
The core group of players for the Boston Bruins across the past ten years has barely changed, it may have aged, may have slowed down a little but as a group it’s still as impressive as ever. This has always held true of any team seeing prolonged success.
Change too much from the core group and you’re left with an entirely different outlook. Now, the Boston Bruins are helped by the fact that players in their core are likely underpaid in all fairness.
Deals were inked before players became the point-producers they have no become. Look no further than the deal that Brad Marchand is on and it’s safe to say that he’s the best value one hundred point player in the league.
At just $6.125 million per season, nobody in the league, aside from those on entry-level deals comes close. Patrice Bergeron is another key example; he’s been with the Boston Bruins this whole time and brings something as the first-line center that you don’t typically get as cheaply as $6.875 million per season.
Across the board there’s examples of this; David Pastrnak at $6.666 million per season on the right wing, David Krejci even at a more expensive $7.25 million still ranks as a cheap second-line center option when you start looking around the look at his production compared to others.
The consistency of having this core there when new guys join the fray has been vital to preventing any sort of full-scale rebuild. Likewise, the cheapness of their contracts has allowed the team to prevent the need. Other teams have rebuilt due to trapping themselves with all variety of immovable deal.
Whilst the Boston Bruins aren’t immune to immovable deals or bad contracts, the core being available so cheaply has saved them.
That and the experience of these guys; add in the other two names that make up that core group; Tuukka Rask and Zdeno Chara and you have seasons’ worth of knowledge and players that have been all the way to the Stanley Cup Final and actually won it.
Charlie McAvoy likely wouldn’t be half the player he’s growing into without being partnered with Zdeno Chara and also being safe in the knowledge that Rask could bail him out if he stuffed up.
Three comparable contracts for Brandon Carlo to ponder. dark. Next
All in all, the Boston Bruins have been incredibly wise these last ten years and continue to look smart in their approach to drafting and training new players. Safe to say we can’t see a rebuild happening here any time soon!