Boston Bruins

David Pastrnak dealt with shoulder injury against Panthers; What Bruins free agents said about future plans

"It's definitely painful to not be able to give your 100% and play my game for the series, especially after the year I had."

David Pastrnak still scored five goals against Florida despite dealing with a shoulder injury. Barry Chin / Globe Staff

By Conor Ryan

May 2, 2023

5 minutes to read

Most NHL players would be happy with lighting the lamp five times over seven postseason outings.

Of course, David Pastrnak isn’t like most NHL players.

And even though the Bruins star winger landed punches against both Alex Lyon and Sergei Bobrovsky during Boston’s first-round exit against the Panthers, he believes he fell well short of the lofty standards he set for himself during a 61-goal season.

Some of that sentiment was due to the physical toll found in playoff hockey. Pastrnak acknowledged during the team’s breakup day on Tuesday afternoon that he was dealt a shoulder injury during the first shift of Game 1 against Florida.

“This sport you can’t be healthy every time,” Pastrnak said at Warrior Ice Arena. “But it’s definitely painful to not be able to give your 100% and play my game for the series, especially after the year I had and I’ve been healthy and I know what I can do when I’m healthy. It sucks.”

Pastrnak will have plenty of chances to assuage the pain currently present in Boston’s dressing room. After inking an eight-year deal with Boston back in March, Pastrnak will be the focal point of Boston’s offense through at least 2030.

Of course, it remains to be seen just how lofty Boston’s Cup aspirations are in the years ahead, especially if both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci hang up their skates.

But after having their record-setting season dashed by a team 43 points below them in the standings, Pastrnak admitted that just punching one’s ticket to the postseason should offer enough motivation for future Bruins squads.

“For me, I’m always a believer — like you guys know that every time I show up here in September, my goal for a team is to make the playoffs because it doesn’t matter where you end up with the standings,” Pastrnak said. “It is the playoffs. You just have to get there. Anything can happen after that.

“ And I’ve always believed in it and I always will. And this series is a perfect example again of it. … Definitely don’t get me wrong, it was an outstanding season. The group we had, the memories we’ve been through. I think we deserve better. But this is the life and sport of hockey. It’s going to hurt.”

Bruins free agents look ahead

Bergeron and Krejci’s future plans stand as the most consequential decisions ahead of a potentially transformative offseason for the Bruins.

But Don Sweeney and his staff have plenty of other free-agent calls to assess this summer, and with limited cap room to work with.

Along with Bergeron and Krejci, Boston has six more unrestricted free agents on its NHL roster in Tyler Bertuzzi, Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, Nick Foligno, Connor Clifton, and Tomas Nosek.

Jeremy Swayman, Trent Frederic, and Jakub Lauko are also set for pay raises as restricted free agents.

But with over $4 million in bonus overages from Bergeron and Krejci’s bargain-bin deals set to land on next year’s books, the Bruins don’t have plenty of fiscal wiggle room to work with.

The top priorities beyond Bergeron and Krejci are likely Bertuzzi and Orlov — two key cogs that Boston relinquished plenty of draft capital for at the trade deadline.

Bertuzzi thrived in his first foray into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The scrappy winger scored five goals and posted 10 points in seven games against the Panthers, and sparked instant chemistry with Pastrnak.

However, that impressive (albeit small) sample size during playoff action likely signals a significant deal for Bertuzzi this offseason. Boston might need to shed a contract or two in order to accommodate him moving forward.

“I haven’t really thought about it honestly too much,” Bertuzzi said of his offseason decision. “It’s kind of been a whirlwind here two days after. So I’ll talk with some family and we’ll go from there.”

Orlov solidified Boston’s D corps during his short stint in Boston, but could also be looking to cash in at this stage of his career.

“It basically feels like it’s my last contract,” Orlov said. “I’m going to be 32. We’ll see.”

A player like Swayman has significantly less leverage as an RFA, although his sterling play in a backup role likely signals a solid pay bump.

As for what the 24-year-old netminder is prioritizing in his next deal?

“I’d like to be playing hockey and ideally in a Bruins sweater,” the native Alaskan noted.

Here’s what other pending free agents said of their future in Boston:

Garnet Hathaway: “I actually haven’t met with them yet, I just got here not too long ago. I’ll give more light to the situation as I go through those meetings, call my agent in the coming week. There’s no rush right now. I think we were all caught off guard, so that decision hasn’t really been put in front of everyone.”

Tomas Nosek: “Like, I want to stay here, it’s my number one priority. We love Boston, my family, love Boston and if there’s a chance I sign here, I want to stay here, but it’s not up to me, right now, and we’ll see what’s going to happen.”

Nick Foligno: “No, I think that’s probably the most emotional part too, not really knowing what’s going to happen here. I think it’s no secret, I love it here. I’ve bonded with these guys, and we’ve gone through a lot, and I’ve felt like I’ve given what I can to this group, and I hope to come back and finish what we’ve started. That’s my biggest thing, I don’t know, I can’t control what Sweens, and Cam and the staff decide, I think the feeling’s mutual, just got to try to figure out something, but we’ll see how that goes. Obviously, I would prefer to come back, especially with the way things ended and what I foresee for this group, there’s still a lot of great players, and it’s hard to see because there’s going to be change, but you hope to be part of it and rectify what went wrong this year.”

Connor Clifton: I love it here. Me and Sweens [Don Sweeney] had a good talk this morning in our meeting. We’ll see what happens in the next couple of weeks. … We kind of talked about the past couple years, especially this year. He was proud of the regular season I had. Obviously, I think we both wished the postseason, for me, went a little better. He obviously has a lot of work to do, he said. He hopes I’m part of what we’re building for the future.”

Bergeron named Selke Finalist

In an annual tradition at this point, Patrice Bergeron was named as a finalist for the Frank J. Selke Trophy — awarded to the best defensive forward in the NHL.

This stands as the 12th consecutive season that Bergeron has been named a finalist for the award, with the 37-year-old forward capturing it a record five times (2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2022).

During Bergeron’s 882:22 of 5v5 ice time this season, the Bruins outscored opponents, 46-18. He led the NHL with 1,043 faceoff wins and also led the league with a 61.1 faceoff win percentage (min. 1,000 faceoffs).

It remains to be seen if Bergeron’s body can take another grueling 82-game campaign in 2023-23. But his defensive prowess hasn’t eroded despite logging close to two decades in the NHL.