Sans fireworks, Don Sweeney and Bruins look to spark hope with roster in front of them
"I like where our team is at how competitive they are. Let's see where we stack up.”
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COMMENTARY
At this juncture of the NHL calendar, Don Sweeney has developed a reputation for providing the fireworks.
Just as the bars around Southie become inundated past the second weekend of March, the Bruins tend to stuff the transaction-wire logs whenever the calendar mercifully flips past February.
In an effort to put several promising rosters over the top, Sweeney and the Bruins have relinquished long-term assets in search of short-term rewards — a sacrifice welcomed if a skater draped in black-and-gold hoists hockey’s most coveted prize in June.
Every spring ushered in a new wave of reinforcements to Boston: Rick Nash, Charlie Coyle, Marcus Johansson, Ondrej Kase, Nick Ritchie, Taylor Hall, Hampus Lindholm, Dmitry Orlov, Tyler Bertuzzi.
But after years spent raiding their draft cupboard and prospect pool in search of explosive new talent, the bill was finally set to come due for Boston in 2024.
And with minimal cap space available and the Bruins short on coveted assets, Sweeney and his staff had to trade in their deadline stockpile of Roman Candles and M80s for a bag of pop snappers and sparklers.
“We’ve been a little challenged in the fact that we have been aggressive in years with draft capital, and whether or not we wanted to move younger players that have actually come onto our team this year and added to the depth of our club and the success of our club … You see a lot of players that, at this time of the year, they move on and go on,” Sweeney noted. “We were pinched a little in that regard, and we knew that going in, but we wanted to make sure we gave a push to our group now.”
Ultimately, the Bruins opted for more marginal upgrades on Friday ahead of the NHL’s 3 p.m. trade deadline — relinquishing AHL forward Luke Toporowski, Jakub Zboril, a conditional 2026 sixth-round draft pick and a 2027 third-round pick for fourth-line bruiser Pat Maroon and right-shot blueliner Andrew Peeke.
Even with the 35-year-old Maroon currently on the mend from back surgery, the three-time Cup champion is a proven commodity — capable of landing welts with his 6-foot-3, 234-pound frame and dragging his teammates into the fight that awaits.
“He’s gone on to lift the thing we all chase three times and still has game, still has a real strong voice and presence in the locker room and all the things that he was back then,” Sweeney said of Maroon, who bested Boston as a member of the 2019 St. Louis Blues.
Peeke stands as more of a gamble, given his less-than-stellar production over the last few seasons on an admittedly porous Blue Jackets defense.
The initial optics of that deal don’t exactly favor Boston, given Peeke’s contract (two more years at $2.75 million per season), his limited reps in Columbus, and the risk of potential overpay when factoring in that 2027 third-round selection.
But Peeke has a tantalizing skillset, with the 6-foot-3, right-shot D often at his best when clearing out the netfront and serving as a puck magnet during taxing shifts.
With Derek Forbort likely ruled out the rest of the season and Kevin Shattenkirk a pending UFA, Peeke stands as added insurance for a Bruins team banking on higher returns with a change of scenery.
“I think it’ll be an adjustment coming into a new structure and the systems that we play … But we’re excited about going to work with him as a bigger body in the right side that I think is hard to find,” Sweeney said of Peeke. “It’s not a rental, you know, we have that that player moving forward. He’s young, and we’ll have to make sure we continue to sharpen up his game. He’s excited.”
Maroon and Peeke’s arrival may not nab many headlines, as would be the case had Boston paid a premium for a coveted trade target like Noah Hanifin or Elias Lindholm.
But it seemingly wasn’t for a lack of effort on the part of the Bruins, who still sit in the second place in the Eastern Conference with a 37-13-15 record.
Even with limited tantalizing trade chips on their roster, the Bruins reportedly conducted their due diligence in an effort to add impact talent before Friday’s deadline.
Even after he was shipped from Calgary to Vancouver, Lindholm remained a target for a Bruins team still in search of a proven top-six pivot — with a potential three-team swap featuring the Canucks and Penguins snuffed out after Pittsburgh shipped Jake Guentzel to the Hurricanes for pennies on the dollar.
A reported intervention on the part of Linus Ullmark thanks to his 16-team, no-trade list might have curtailed another blockbuster move on Friday afternoon — one that would have potentially splintered the best goalie duo in hockey in an effort to add an impact player at a more pressing area of the lineup.
But it takes two (or three — or four, when no-trade lists get involved) to tango when it comes to pushing a deal across the finish line at this time of year.
And with Boston unable to swing for the fences in what was initially crafted as a transitional season for this reworked roster, the Bruins were forced to work with the limitations in place — most of which were of their own doing after years of win-now maneuvers.
“I think we’ve been pretty honest and forthright. You know from day one of the season that we’d be a work in progress and see what we could accomplish as a group and grow as a group,” Sweeney said. “And we’re a real competitive team. We want to continue to do that. You don’t want to see people walk out the door that was helping him win, get to the point that he was he wanted us to add and try and find some areas that he felt were areas that we could improve upon.
“And I know I probably didn’t check all those off you know, in a perfect world I would have liked to but again, you’re not always going to you know, accomplish every one of your goals that you set out but it doesn’t stop you from trying.”
A more muted deadline might stand as a tough pill to swallow for some Bruins fans, especially after more bombastic rumors surrounding Lindholm and Ullmark began to sprout up over the last week.
But the 2023-24 Bruins are far from a roster left adrift with six weeks to go before the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Are they the same juggernaut that rewrote the record books last season? Nope. (And frankly, look what that got them last April).
But the 2023-24 Bruins still feature a roster engineered to be a tough out come the playoffs — especially if its intact goalie rotation can thrive under those bright lights.
Make no mistake, this squad is still marred with several flaws. Several third-period collapses could lead to heartbreaking results next month, while no-show performances from key cogs up front could put the weight of a long playoff run on the shoulders of players like David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand.
In other words, the 2023-24 Bruins are exactly what we thought they were going into this season.
A team littered with question marks, no doubt. But one that still has as good a shot as any in the playoffs.
And in a sport like hockey, that’s reason enough to stay the course and spark hope however you’re able to light it.
“Some teams, like we did last year, really, really push hard and go all in,” Sweeney said. “But once the games begin, you just never know who ends up winning. You always have favorites. But I like where our team is at how competitive they are. Let’s see where we stack up.”
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