3 former Bruins players we're glad are gone, 2 we wish never left
By Scott Roche
Bruins fans should be glad Matt Grzelcyk is gone
The second left-shot defenseman to leave in free agency this summer was Matt Grzelcyk, who has only played for the Bruins after they drafted him and he had a successful college career down the road from the TD Garden at Boston University.
The Massachusetts native has been one of the Black and Gold's better puck-moving defensemen, but a combination of injuries and falling out of Jim Montgomery's playoff lineup the last two spring's, the writing was on the wall that Grzelcyk's time in Boston was up.
This past season saw him play in 63 regular season games, but for the second consecutive postseason, he was a healthy scratch for most of the Bruins' 13 games. The 5-foot-10, 176-pound Grzelcyk spent all eight of his seasons wearing the Spoked-B and played in 445 games with 25 goals and 110 assists.
He had a tremendous 2022-23 season in Boston's record-setting campaign when he had four goals and 22 assists with a crazy plus/minus of plus-46. Like Forbort, the emergence of Lohrei played a role in Sweeney moving on from him, as well as the signing of Zadorov. He signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins early in free agency.