The Boston Bruins have inked Alex Petrovic to a professional try-out contract. However, in doing so, I’d argue that they’re overlooking internal options on defense.
Now, you could make a strong case that the Boston Bruins management team are not overlooking their own drafted and developed guys at all, but rather attempting to stoke their fires by bringing added competition into the upcoming training camp.
A combination of that and requiring some contingency should there not be new deals for Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy by that time. By contingency, we’re talking a player with more than a half-season of NHL experience; a comparative veteran instead of a rookie.
It’s fair to see it both ways; that the likes of Boston Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney are both protecting the team from potentially unsigned RFA deals, protecting the youngsters from being thrown in the deep end and also extended a branch to a player that has rightfully or wrongfully found himself on the proverbial NHL scrapheap at just 27 years old.
Taking nothing away from Alex Petrovic; he proved himself a perfectly capable third-pairing defenseman with the Florida Panthers and then found himself massively over-his-head when he initially arrived with the Edmonton Oilers – he plays his role as a fifth or sixth guy.
Unfortunately, you can use that exact same statement to justify why he shouldn’t be offered any sort of full-time deal, unless of course you can ship out either John Moore or Kevan Miller and secure him for a league-minimum salary.
Internally, the Boston Bruins have options that they should be turning to and offering reward for their hard work working through the ranks of the Boston Bruins organisation.