Bruins Roster Questions: Placeholders or Pieces for the Future? | Ep. 146

0:00 Speaker 1: Can you start a podcast with me?

0:02 Speaker 2: Please?

0:03 Speaker 1: I need something to do. All Jack sending out a triple bocking to say, today.

0:20 Speaker 2: Here's a chance pop all right down?

0:21 Speaker 1: The goalie scars, oh my one a move by the rookie to on one plaster not moving in setting Joe on his own oil dances in podcast Wait at home right away corner pasterst what is that for? Most?

0:50 Speaker 2: Welcome in, everyone to another episode of Ruins Tape to tape. I will be your host today. I am Maria from Watertown. We are recording today's episode on Monday, June eighth, after what has been a very steamy weekend here in my region. I want to welcome in my lovely co host Caroline with a kay. How are you.

1:13 Speaker 1: I'm good. I'm enjoying this beautiful weather today. It is a bluebird day. It rained finally last night, so the air is not completely choking me when I go outside with all that pollen pau is disgusting.

1:30 Speaker 2: And we're here talking hockey, so I'm happy. It's summer and here we are. So as our listeners know, we have been doing some player profiles over the course of this summer. Today we are going to focus on three members of the Boston Bruins, specifically Hannah Janeau to Michael Asimont and Henry Jokihi. We are going to be providing you with our assessments of their contribution to the team, whether or not we see them as part of the solution moving forward for the Boston Bruins. But before we take our deep dive into that, there has been a little bit of news over the last week or so, and some of it pretty significant that I think we do want to touch upon.

2:21 Speaker 2: This news came out I believe it was Sunday, might have been late Saturday, former Bruins Milan luccicic announcing that he is retiring and Melon was a significant contributor to the Bruins two thousand and eleven Stanley Cup championship. Things likely didn't pan out in a way that even Nylon or the Boston Bruins fan base might have expected. For your thoughts on Melon.

2:50 Speaker 1: And yeah, it's we're getting closer and closer to being fully removed from that twenty eleven Ruins team A long time.

3:01 Speaker 2: Do the math.

3:01 Speaker 1: It's been a long time, and it's bittersweet because we've seen a lot of hockey since then, And as I know you're gonna talk a little bit when we get to Stanley Cup discussion, it's probably going to be a little while still before we get to see that kind of run again.

3:20 Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, and he was deemed to be a quote unquote power forward. Yes, that's also he was going to be targeted as someone who was going to be the younger, newer model of Cam. Mean, now things didn't quite pan out that way for Melan. He was never fleet of foot so to speak. There were many times where it seemed like he was skating with cement in his skates. But there's no arguing that he was a significant factor in the Bruins winning a Stanley Cup in twenty and eleven, and also a significant factor in that historical comeback against the Toronto Maple Leafs where the Bruins were down by if I remember correctly, three goals with less than a handful of minutes left to go and he got the ball rolling.

4:14 Speaker 2: It was him who just energized everyone on the team, everyone in the TV garden. I believe it was Mother's Day game if I'm not mistaken. So credit to him for his contributions to the Boston Bruins and for a decent career in the NHL.

4:33 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a tough game and he played for a very long time and he.

4:36 Speaker 2: Played hard minutes. I will never forget. One of the most iconic moments too for Melon was I believe it was either a Toronto maple leaf or a Montreal Canadian that he sent crashing into the glass at the rink and the glass shattered. Not only did he shatter the player, he shattered the glass as well.

4:57 Speaker 1: Yes, that is iconic.

4:59 Speaker 2: The next piece of news that came across our wires was the fact that Dylan Larkin has apparently or is apparently asking for a trade out of Detroit. And I've read a little bit about this over the weekend, and it seems that maybe he, Dylan Larkin and his agent and Steve Arsman may not be seeing eye to eye. And we know Steve Wiseman is. He's cutthroat.

5:27 Speaker 1: He is. We've had some interesting conversation with friend of the Pod, Anna, who is our resident Columbus Blue Jackets slash expert in the discord. We are not the only ones who immediately thought, oh we could use a number one center. That would be really great. However, after a brief enjoyment of that fantasy world, we all remembered we have to be defensive first. That is the priority in the off season, and so it's unlikely.

6:02 Speaker 2: I think we're doing lark In a disservice because I think he does have some of that potential in him. Now. The issue for Dylan Larkin is this has been a progressive rebuild for the Detroit Red Wings for quite some time. This is the very concerns that I have with David Pasternach and how long he's going to have an appetite to keep doing a rebuild when these guys want to win a Stanley Cup and Larkin is the captain, is also loging a lot of minutes. There's also a lot of young guys. My bigger concern is he's getting paid a boatload of money by the Detroit Red Wings and he's not a UFA until twenty thirty one, where he's going to be like thirty four years old, and Iserman is going to want a freakin' hall.

6:49 Speaker 2: He is going to want a treasure chust in return for Dylan Markin.

6:54 Speaker 1: Oh, for sure, his AAV isn't terrible. We've talked and seen rumors in the discord about who's the guy from Dallas Jason Robertson, he's going to be asking for fourteen million dollars. Larkin is only at eight point seven AAV, which is in the grand scheme of things, not too bad. But like you said, Iserman has the cards here. People knows that the price rite a lot of teams and the value of what he offers as a player. And to quote again friend of the pod Anna, I'm sorry to break your hearts, but I would be genuinely stunned if he was traded to the Bruins.

7:37 Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense from an organizational perspective. And she offered her professional opinion in that these are some of the places that she thinks he would go, and I think they're actually these are pretty good. These are good ideas. Certainly Minnesota to go play with Quinn Hughes and Minnesota is a playoff team that definitely is in need of a center. And they played together USA Hockey Toronto because that's his childhood team. Although we've seen what happens when that little boy in his Toronto maple leef bedspread there.

8:13 Speaker 2: Things don't the fairy tale doesn't end well there, although it's right end well for Mitch Marner, but we'll talk about that. Yeah.

8:21 Speaker 1: And then Carolina because their style of hockey fits his perfectly and they're obviously a contender.

8:27 Speaker 2: But the big question is what of value of these teams. Steve Barsonman's going to want to get something of significant value in return. So if you look up and down now, I don't know short of what our core is for the Boston Bruins, of value that the Red Wings might want. Are you potentially going to give up James Hagens for Dylan Larkin. No, So I agree with Anna between the money and what the expected return, I don't think the Bruins could fit into that equation.

9:01 Speaker 1: No, and I do think that they should stay the course and focus on that right shot d more than anything moving forward. We especially have a roster right now that you would certainly call a bunch of jags, and I think the roster is comprised of a lot of guys who are placeholders in the sense that they're guys who are replacement level in all the metrics, and they're just holding a seat warm until Boston can kind of figure out either. Do we have somebody that we can develop and bring up. Can we trade, can we sign for something a little bit better?

9:42 Speaker 1: But each of those spots is earmarked. And as much as it would be lovely to have Dylan Larkin, he's just we don't really have a clear path to have him on the Boston Bruins based on need and availability of who we could give up.

9:58 Speaker 2: But let's call a space of spade too. That's a lot of that's a lot of coin. That is a lot of money to have tied up when you have more than one need if you want to get to the level of play that we're currently seeing right now, which we'll talk about in a little bit. The next piece of news that we want to talk about is the NHL has started its award presentations and we've had a few that have been announced over the last week or so. One I think surprised you based on the comments in the discord, was John Cooper winning Coach of the Year.

10:33 Speaker 2: I thought maybe Lindy Ruffet. I agreed with you. I thought maybe Linda.

10:37 Speaker 1: I didn't say who I thought it was you. I didn't even know that John Cooper.

10:41 Speaker 2: Was yeah, John Cooper, but I thought it was you.

10:46 Speaker 1: My bad whatever it is. I agree with them, that's not because it really should be who came in and made an impact, who saw the Buffalo Sabers getting as far.

10:57 Speaker 2: And I know that these awards are based on regular season accomplishments, but still we saw them make such a gigantic turnaround. This is on par with my opinion of what happened with the Vesna. And I'm not saying that Jeremy Swayman should have won it because I'm a Bruins fan.

11:21 Speaker 1: Soroken I think could have also easily been the winner. I have a problem with the idea that it was Vasilevsky because one, I think the days of peak Vassi are done and gone. And secondly, how hard can it be to be the best goalie when you're on a team that is consistently one of the best teams in the league coached by consistently one of the best coaches, compared to the Islanders and the Bruins, where those goalies had to do a hell of a lot more work.

11:56 Speaker 2: So, speaking of Vassilevski, the NHL is doing some fun stuff with the presentation of these awards. So Vasilevski's was left in his vehicle and by police officers and it looked like police officers were actually searching Vassilevski's vehicle, so I thought that was a little bit funny. Conor McDavid received his award for I think it was the Ted Lindsay for Most Outstanding Player. His was presented to him on the golf course.

12:25 Speaker 1: I didn't see that one.

12:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, And Cole Coffield won the award for the most Gentleman League Player and Suzuki of the Canadians won the Selki Yeah Trophy.

12:38 Speaker 1: So we still have I think the Wrensky won the Norrish Norris.

12:44 Speaker 2: We're still looking for the most Valuable Player and I think that's the one that's going to be announced at the NHL Awards ceremony. But that's what we have to date with NHL Awards. But we're going to get to the Stanley Cup Finals, which have been freaking off the charts, unbelievable hockey. These two teams, the Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes, are freaking relentless. Just when you think one team has the game one, they're up three to nothing, the other team says, hey, yeah, not so fast, We're coming back and we're gonna take this game into overtime or win it in regulation with mere seconds left on the clock.

13:26 Speaker 2: And I don't know about you, but watching these two teams play makes me realize how far away the Boston Ruins are from getting themselves back into being a powerhouse team in the league that's going to contend. I don't know about you, That's just what my eyes are showing me. Yeah.

13:47 Speaker 1: I haven't watched much of the Cup Final because again, the idea is abhorrent to me. But I have watched some clips. I have tuned in periodically because I am seeing the conversation and the discord. I watched a little bit of the overtime from the last game that actually went to double overtime, and I knew it was going to go into double overtime because I'm watching that, and I'm like both teams they were falling all over themselves. Whether it was because of the ice because it's one hundred degrees in Lass, but even just watching the entire the Carolina Hurricanes path through the East and watching them play, I completely agree because it almost you could say that it was no contest for the Carolina Hurricanes to make it to the Cup Final.

14:34 Speaker 1: Because they had literally one loss under their belt to get there. They just steamrolled everybody. And watching them play and their level of intensity and just everything that they're doing out there, agree it was good for Boston to get into the playoffs, to remind players, especially ones who had been to the playoffs and experienced the grief and loss of last seas, and then to give those young kids who had been new last year, who'd never been to the playoffs, to give those young folks a taste.

15:09 Speaker 1: It was good. Hopefully it will motivate, but this is not the twenty thirteen to twenty twenty Boston Bruins.

15:21 Speaker 2: Watching the Game three on Saturday night. First of all, Vegas had two goals called off right away. They were the right calls. I hate to side with the NHL and the officials, but the goaltender interference was the correct call, and the offsides was the correct call. But then you have Mitch Marner seemed to be waving his biggest middle finger that he can find at the Toronto maple Leafs, and that organization three goals, the fastest hat trick in the history of the Stanley Cup Finals to put Vegas ahead, And I found it interesting I was reflecting on this, and I was then also thinking about the Vesna.

16:02 Speaker 1: This is a Stanley Cup final without an incredibly elite goaltender on the ice. You think about the last two seasons you had Bobrovski and in the past you've seen obviously Vassilevski, and to not have ultimately one of the best goaltenders playing is obviously contributing to the high number of goals. And I still stand by my own personal philosophy, which is goaltenders win Cups, and it's obviously going to come down to who can be the most clutch in that moment. But Freddy Anderson certainly got Carolina to the third round, and then Carolina took care of everybody else In that third round against Montreal.

16:50 Speaker 1: Shockingly, but not shockingly, Freddy Anderson got pulled and Brandon Bossy went in and he was lights out until that. And the thing is, when you're playing in the Stanley Cup, you're already at game three. You've lugged how many minutes as a player the whole season, and now you've played a really intense game. It's much more physically demanding, it's much more mentally draining, and even though you have the intermission period to take a break, it's not enough, Let's be honest, to be completely refreshed.

17:26 Speaker 1: Those games end when somebody just gets too tired and they make a mistake.

17:32 Speaker 2: But credit to Carolina for coming back and tying the flipping game when everyone thought this is over, this is over and no. So credit to them, and credit to Brendamore for pumping his guys up to get them back in that game. But holy moly, what a finals this has been, and what an eye opening view it is for those of us who are Bruins fans to say, yeah, we are nowhere near these two teams right now. So which brings us to today conversation, Yes, where we're going to talk about Michael Ismont, Hanah Janeau, and Henry Yoki Haru.

18:08 Speaker 1: Let's start out with poor little Mikey Asamot, Well little Mikey. So these three guys are signings from last year. Technically, Joki Haru was a re sign on June thirtieth, whereas jane and Asamont were brought in as part of free agency agency. Correct we did a whole episode last August about Mikey Asamont. I think for the most part. This is a guy who met general expectation. I think we were probably more optimistic about him last year for two reasons. One, we had just come off a very traumatic season where everything was terrible, and we hoped that everyone who signed could make some kind of generally positive impact.

19:00 Speaker 1: He played fifty six games. He's twenty nine years old. I keep thinking he's younger.

19:06 Speaker 2: I was a little surprised when I brought that up too, because I thought he was younger as well.

19:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, but he's a bit of a journeyman. There's always going to be a place for a player like him. So fifty six games played, eight goals, tenn assists, again met general expectations. He was expected to score about eight or nine goals. He signed a two year deal for a total of two point nine million, that's one point four to five AAV and he generally played third line minutes in and out the extra man you bring in. But he did play the most frequently with the kid line marat Us, Nadina and Freezer Mitten, and they seem to do fine together.

19:48 Speaker 1: This is a guy though that I'm thinking. He's got another year left on his contract. He's not very expensive he's certainly a placeholder jag type. I have to assume he's going to be a part of a package.

20:01 Speaker 2: My assessment on this based on how we finished the season. He was a healthy scratch on more than one occasion, and I think he is going to fall by the wayside because given his statistics in the number of games he's played, wouldn't we be better served to have a kid up from Providence or someone else up in his place and move that money offcubooks. I think my expectations for him, I expected them to be a little higher than what we saw. There were times where you know, hey, this guy has given it as all, and then there were other times where it was like, where are you?

20:40 Speaker 2: Are you out here? Are you playing a ship? What are you doing? I don't see him as part of the rebuild going forward. He's not, to me that key of components of what you're trying to rebuild, because we still don't know what that is yet. I don't see him being a part of that.

20:56 Speaker 1: Compare him to Alex Steves, who played paid forty three games. Now, granted he came in a little bit later, so he played forty three games, all right, Steve's also a center, but he had six point six goals above replacement compared to Michael Asimont's literally points.

21:14 Speaker 2: And he was a plus player to finish the season. Eastmant was a minus player to finish now, only a minus three. And I know that's not the be all and end all statistic, but even when you look at the average ice time, Steves was getting a little bit more than Astimont was.

21:32 Speaker 1: So my point being here, you've got two bottom six players at this point, same position, same general usage, but you have someone like Steves who is making actually a pretty good positive impact on the team in fewer games. Steves had one hundred and forty four hits this season. Acemont not even close. He had had fifty four. You're looking at a guy in someone like Steves who had less time on ice, played fewer games, scored nine goals and had seven assists for sixteen points versus the eight goals and tenniss for eighteen points in Asamot, and.

22:21 Speaker 2: Steves is three years younger. We can't have this many repetitive players, right, all right, we already have that. This is why when I say we seem to have an abundance of Jags This is the exact conversation. Now, if that's what we're going to do, then why aren't the Bruins filling those spots with people that they have drafted. Now that's a whole other conversation that I think we're going to have at some point during one of our podcasts this summer, because I think it begs the question of what is going on with the drafting and development of young players within the Bruins organization.

23:02 Speaker 2: But in this instance, I'm thinking, if I had to pick between a Simont and Steves, they serve the same role.

23:09 Speaker 1: Correct, I'm gonna go with the guy who's a little bit younger, who has more of an impact over a replacement level player, and unfortunately he may be a roster casualty. Yeah, so what's your letter grade for him? Oh?

23:24 Speaker 2: God, you know, I'm a little bit harsh with the red pen here. I'll give him a C.

23:30 Speaker 1: My grade is a C plus because he was slightly on the better side of average. Slightly, no harm done great, literally average in terms of every measure you could use. The number of jags in the bottom continues to exist for the Boston Bruins placeholders perhaps, And you know what if the Bruins actually have a long term plan, and these guys are placeholders. He's the exact kind of place holder that you would want. Does no harm, right, rolling my eyes.

24:05 Speaker 2: People can't see me roll in my eyes. But it's tiresome that when we continue to have these conversations around players that don't light a fire in our belly.

24:18 Speaker 1: But okay, next, the controversial one from last year, Tanners. You know, now we didn't love this particular signing. We had a whole episode about him. He's been in the league for six years, although I'll say five of those seasons are as full time players. Only his first full year in the league for Nashville was it a year that he truly amazed. Otherwise, he's basically put up almost the exact same numbers, games played, goals, all that every year for the last four seasons. Now that alone, okay, fine, you then know what you're getting.

25:00 Speaker 1: Obviously. The rub is the fact that he just turned twenty eight and his contract value.

25:07 Speaker 2: We both lost our minds on it when it first happened. The money, maybe it's a bit of an overpay.

25:14 Speaker 1: Three point four.

25:16 Speaker 2: The problem that I think most of us had in this region was the freaking term on this contract, and if I'm not mistaken, it's a full no trade because the guy doesn't want to move again given the role that he plays and the minutes that he plays in terms of what you're expecting him from a physical level. Sure, do we really think he's gonna make it to the end of this contract and play the majority of seasons? He played seventy seven games this season, But I would think that, I don't know. I'm not sure that the value.

25:53 Speaker 2: I haven't seen the significance or the significant return yet on the investment that was made and has been made in this player.

26:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fair. As a reminder to listeners, it's a five year contract for a total of seventeen million dollars, a three point four cap hit aav first two seasons full no trade clause, So that's the first season this coming season full no trade, followed by two modified no trade clause which is a fifteen team list and then a seventeen list in that second year, and then the final year. It's wide open. But you know, he plays a very physical game. We talked about Milan Lucich at the top of the episode.

26:40 Speaker 1: I think maybe the Bruins were hoping that he could be someone who could bring a little bit of that physical flavor that granted, nobody is going to compete with the physicality that Milan Lucich brought to the game back in the day. Last season, we only had Mark Castilik, and he was a younger, less experienced player, and then had some compute.

27:04 Speaker 2: He was pretty beat up and banged up. He had those congressions. He does have concussion issues.

27:09 Speaker 1: Yeah, they needed to have another guy who could play that same physical game, and they played really well together. I'm not saying that, you know, was a bad player at all. He had two hundred and thirty nine hits, which is one of the higher numbers in his career. The last time he had anything more was in twenty two when he had two hundred and ninety hits. This is a guy who's still very physical. Played seventy seven games, He had six goals, sixteen assists. This is not a guy who is going to be scoring the goals.

27:41 Speaker 1: I think we thought at the signing that we had that expectation that, like, yet, you got to score goals if you're going to be on the second line. And I think at the time, knowing the name the expectations, that's where we thought he was going to end up, and he's clearly the third and fourth line player at this point. He's got a very different role than what I was expecting him to have, But he's been consistent.

28:08 Speaker 2: On the positive side, given the physical nature of how he plays. Did have a few fisticuffs here in the throughout the course of the season, but he's not in any of the top tier categories of penalty minutes. Does seemingly play a relatively clean, hard game, leading the league in penalties this season, where in Nikita Zadorov and Mark Castili the Bruins.

28:31 Speaker 1: If you look at his assists per sixty minutes and his points per sixty minutes, he had almost one assist per sixty for amount of time that he played, so that's impactful. That's the most he's ever had in his career. And then his points per sixty was one point thirty six, which is also one of the highest that he's had. So, yeah, he's only on the ice for all of what ten minutes a game, maybe a little bit more twelve.

28:58 Speaker 2: Minutes per game, but he's puking what's his Yeah, he's twelve minutes thirty eight seconds. But I think you're right, that's an expensive placeholder. And I don't think he's going anywhere. We're having this conversation. I think it's a mood point because I don't believe that he's going anywhere, at least for the upcoming season. And John Sweeney, when this player was brought in, was talking about his leadership qualities and being a veteran voice or presence in the room. So maybe that's what he's being compensated for.

29:31 Speaker 2: I don't know. If you ask me did he do his job, I would say, hold my feet to the fire. Yes, am I excited about the impact that he made. I'm like, eh, meh, another met As far as I'm concerned.

29:45 Speaker 1: When you think about him compared to a replacement player, he didn't do a great job in that regard. He was basically average in terms of his ability to make a significant impact, to lead to a way or points or goals. It's just between him and Asamont. Reflecting on last year's signings, very underwhelming in both directions. This coming season with him should be very telling because remember this whole year, the beginning, especially under new coaching, everybody was learning this new system that it was different than what they've done and trying to find that chemistry.

30:28 Speaker 1: And he was on a line that had good chemistry and they did well together, and so I'm optimistic that they will continue to have good chemistry on that line. Namely, I'm talking about Cassolek and Jeneau. When they perform really well, man, do they do their job really well. In the Buffalo series when we really needed to see some physicality, that line had an incredible game. They were doing out the hits exactly how you'd want to see them, and we just need to see that happen a little bit more consistently.

30:58 Speaker 2: So they did have a great deal of ability like try to change momentum, bring a little bit of energy due to their physical nature of play. So I just I don't know. I'm ambivalent to the way seems like a nice guy. Yeah, worked hard shift after shift. Doesn't seem to be a guy that takes shifts off. You pretty much know most of the time when he was out on the ice. Yeah, Okay, what kind of grade would you give him plus? I was thinking' be minus.

31:24 Speaker 1: I'd be minus at the top of my head.

31:26 Speaker 2: But I think if there was a little bit more offensive numbers for him, I would have gone be minus because I think his offensive contribution was a bit lacking.

31:37 Speaker 1: But yeah, all right, let's talk about the guy that's the most intriguing. He's the most confusing player in the entire NHL. This is a man that I do not understand at all, Henry Joki. Are you as a refresher? Technically, he came to the Bruins at the trade deadline just begging to get out of Buffalo. They didn't even trade him for anything, really like at all, desperate to get.

32:04 Speaker 2: Out, and I wonder how he feels about that now.

32:09 Speaker 1: We talked about him last summer. We weren't sure if he was going to be re signed, and I wasn't really sure that he was going to be because he was seemingly expensive at the time. But they did sign him literally the day before the deadline on the thirtieth, and they signed him for three years with a value of nine million, So that's a three million aav cap hit, and it was a slight pay decrease because he had come from Buffalo, where he had a one year contract of a three point one And this was a little bit of a surprise because we knew that he wasn't going to obviously want to play for less, so I certainly thought that he was going to be on his way out.

32:58 Speaker 1: And he confused is me, because this is a guy who is always picked for his national team. He played for them in the Olympics. He just played for them for Worlds, Worlds and more way one and they won, Yes, Finland, he won. He won a bronze medal in the Olympics, and he won gold or whatever they wanted whatever, And he's consistently ending up on these winning national teams. And one thing that I have learned over the last couple of years, I apologize to the nation of Finland because I was not familiar with your game, Like, holy crap, this is a country that produces tremendous hockey talent beyond goaltenders, because I've all they known them for their goalies.

33:51 Speaker 1: So this is a guy who is incredibly successful on the international stage, and the international stage when the NHL is allowed to participate that level, their team is always fully NHL players. They were one of teams in the Olympics that had one hundred percent NHL roster. They participated in the Four Nations, so Why does it feel that this guy is the most underwhelming defenceman ever? Why does it feel like he doesn't play like.

34:24 Speaker 2: That because he is underwhelming on our team. Anyways, from what we saw, he played only forty one games. He was in and out of the lineup. Yeah.

34:36 Speaker 1: Right, But then here's the other thing that kind of was surprising. I don't know, is it just because he's very unassuming. He played literally half the games. He was clearly the seventh man. He's odd man out on the defensive depth chart. I looked at his numbers and I also compared him to three other bottom borderline odd man out defenseman ap Laurai and Peak. Asparo played sixty one games, Laurai played seventy three, and Peak played seventy seven. When you're looking at their contributions above average, and that average is the jag zero goals above replacement, wins above replacement, and then the standings points above replacement.

35:18 Speaker 1: But when you're considering that defensively, Asparo had the best numbers. He had an eight point five goals above replacement one point four wins above replacement. Yoki Haru had four goals above replacement and a point seven wins above replacement. Now, if he had played more games, he probably would have then ended up having very comparable numbers to Asparo, which blew my mind because I could see and recognize how good of a player Asparo is defensively, He's a defensive defenseman, and I thought, maybe some of those numbers are for Yoki howre You are just that good because he didn't play that often, but his low player usage supports that narrative that his positive contributions did actually belong to him, because then you look at someone like Lori, who played seventy three games, he had a negative two point one goals above replacement, and then Peek had a horrific year with a negative nine point one.

36:24 Speaker 1: That makes Yogi how You look even better. So I just I don't understand this guy.

36:31 Speaker 2: Why the in and out of the lineup. Then he's like why, That's what I'm wondering.

36:35 Speaker 1: Why was he if he could make that kind of an impact on literally half the games, and he's not just playing half the games, but he's playing bottom pair minutes. Probably, granted, Sterm did a good job of not overly relying on just the top three guys, rarely did you end up seeing games where, you know, McAvoy or Zadorov or Lynnholm, we're playing twenty eight twenty nine minutes, you know.

37:06 Speaker 2: But in the games that Yokiharyu was playing in he was averaging about seventeen minutes of ice time.

37:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, and McAvoy and company were probably really getting twenty one maybe twenty two on average, So it's not that huge of a spread. He was still playing bottom pair, but okay, there's nothing wrong with him. If he's a bottom pair player, that's just the same thing as being a bottom six forward. That doesn't mean you're bad. You have a different purpose. Right. Why the heck was he that not played more? I don't understand. Well.

37:39 Speaker 2: I think it's a question. I think that the organization sees some upside in Henry and trying to develop that upside. But when you're straddling the fence of what the Ruins have been doing with one foot on the rebuild line and the other foot over the we need to get in the playoffs. We can't have another year where we miss the playoff, or ownership is going to have our heads on a platter, so to speak. I think that has an impact on the usage of someone like Henry.

38:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, like they were. I don't know, Risk, I don't know. This is the least number of games that he has played in a season since his first year. He hasn't played fewer than sixty games since twenty twenty, and he performed right on target.

38:27 Speaker 2: Now, I will say I will say that there were instances, and I can't remember them specifically because we've spent a fair amount of time crapping on Mason louri When he's good, he's really good. But when he's bad, he's really bad type of scenarios. And I think there were some instances where they needed to have Henry take a view from another level on occasion. I think that's still part of the development of the player and not wanting to have compounding of mistakes and erarors, and what was good enough for Mason Laurai needed to also be good enough for other members of the decort as well.

39:06 Speaker 2: Sure.

39:07 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's just about to turn twenty seventy. I think in this month in June, as we've talked defensive players, they take a little bit longer to kind of.

39:17 Speaker 2: Get they need to be here.

39:19 Speaker 1: Eight. Clearly the Bruins see something here because you wouldn't sign him.

39:23 Speaker 2: Do we trust what they see though? Do we trust what they see?

39:27 Speaker 1: I don't know. I feel like the last couple of contracts that Sweeney has signed off on, and this is a guy who generally does a good job with his trades and his signings, this is why he confuses me, Maria, I don't understand.

39:42 Speaker 2: You're not alone. I don't think you're alone because I think this specific player, Henry, is an enigma to a lot of people in the area in terms of what's the threshold for this player. And I'm not sure that they have figured that out yet. But the other question is how much time do we give to figure it out? I don't know.

40:02 Speaker 1: I think how he gets used in the fall will give us an idea of the direction that Boston is going to be going in with him, because I think this past season they gave a lot of responsibility to Andrew Peak because he does have as a player. I think does have a lot of talent and ability as a defenseman, and they gave him more responsibility and it blew up in his face.

40:30 Speaker 2: I wouldn't completely blame that all of that on him, I know, but we talked about that at the last product. I'm okay with saying thanks by right, thanks for the memories, Andrew, but time for you to go make memories someplace else.

40:45 Speaker 1: And that's a player who I think they saw something there and then gave him that opportunity and then that happened. So will we see something like that happen with Yoki Haryu this fall? Are we going to see him all of a sudden then be given a longer leash more time, especially if we don't know what the defensive situation is going to be. There's going to be certainly some kind of notable changes happening on the back end. And being an older defenceman slightly more veteran, is he gonna then take that position that Andrew Peak had?

41:22 Speaker 1: Are we going to see more of him and see how he handles the increased workload if he gets that? Otherwise, what are they doing? What is this team doing with this guy? I don't know.

41:32 Speaker 2: I wish I could tell you. And I think the defensive structure wasn't as solid. It was not as solid as we had been led to believe that it was going to be. We saw snippets of it the course of the season, but it wasn't consistent enough, and I think you need to identify how you're going to tighten that up and do you have the right guys that are going to help you there. I don't know if Henry is one of those guys or potential to be one of those guys.

42:03 Speaker 1: Well, this is going to require John Sweeney and Cam to sign guys that fit the long term defensive brand of the Boston Bruins and not the defensive brand of right now, because that's what they've been doing for the last couple of seasons. Does he fit with what we've got right now or does he fit with whatever our broader plan is the defensive identity of the organization, because that's the only way that you're eventually going to get to where you need to go, because you can't assume that you're going to have the same coach in five seasons, but you're probably going to have a lot of the same players.

42:43 Speaker 1: Especially after having cleared house of a lot of the old guys, you are committing to a new, younger group and it would be absolutely insane to then clear house again after only three seasons. Who's mister Wright not mister right now before?

43:04 Speaker 2: That's a million dollar question, and one that I don't think the answers are going to come in this offseason either. My friend, No, I agree, but grade. I feel like I'm being really harsh with my grades here simply because nothing is like standing out saying, Oh, I can't wait to see what this player brings to the table next season or the season after that. I'm going to go C plus Yeah, go B. He made good contributions when he was on the ice. I want to see more. I don't understand why we didn't see more.

43:38 Speaker 2: Is it because there's something bad that we don't know about. Yeah, that's the interesting part of it, right, and the in and out of the lineup situation. It'll be interesting to see when it comes to the defensive groupings here. I still have high hopes for Jordan Harris.

43:55 Speaker 1: But yeah, there's going to be a lot of young blood coming in this ball.

44:00 Speaker 2: You know, and competition should be good and it should spark others who want to keep their jobs or have a more regular recurring role. Yeah, the Bruins in the upcoming season. With that being said, you have any final thoughts on this trio? Nope, because there is that much The thing about I just yet our lack of enthusiasm, folks, I think is probably palpable at this juncture, but it is what it is. Yeah, thank you as always folks for listening. Please make sure you like and subscribe for more content.

44:38 Speaker 2: Be sure to leave us eRating our review. To help other Bruins fans find us, You can support our podcast by joining our Patreon or following us on our socials. Tape to tape mp at substack dot com. Any closing thoughts, my friend, go Bees, Go Bruins

45:14 Speaker 1: B