Signed, Sealed, and Still Re-Tooling in Boston? | Ep. 99

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.

0:13 Speaker 2: I'll jack sending out a troup of buck of this says to day, here's a chance, pop right down with goalie Scars.

0:22 Speaker 1: Oh my, what a move by the rookie.

0:24 Speaker 2: Too on one faster not moving in with Marsha get it?

0:27 Speaker 1: Jet Oil dances in podcast Wait at home, right way corner, paster Chester. What is that for? Moston? Welcome in everyone to another episode of Bruins Tape to Tape. I'm your host today, Caroline, and I am joined by my fabulous co host, Maria from Watertown. Hey Maria, Hey Caroline, how's it going. It's going, it's going. It's about mid July, so we're just another week closer to hockey season. It's also a million degrees out and I have to show off some of my fantastic swag from our merch store. If you're not watching on YouTube, I've got a fancy glass with our microphone logo on it.

1:30 Speaker 1: I'm enjoying my juice cocktail here. It's fantastic. I'm keeping cool, keeping cool. How about you, Maria? What are you doing cool right now?

1:40 Speaker 2: Well, my air conditioners have not turned off much at all during these dog days of summer, So I'm spending as much time as I can, maybe out on the golf course and you know, reading up on as much hockey as I can stomach at this time of the year, while everyone else is taking their hockey breaks for development camps and training camps and rookie camps start in earnest. But we've had our time off and now it's time to take a look at the Bruins ross moving forward into the upcoming season.

2:20 Speaker 1: I know it's that time of year where every fan, no matter what team they're on, is asking the question, who's on my team again? I don't know who plays here anymore? What is this roster actually like?

2:31 Speaker 2: Right?

2:31 Speaker 1: Right, right?

2:31 Speaker 2: All valid questions, what are we going to look like?

2:34 Speaker 1: How are we going to do?

2:36 Speaker 2: And you know, obviously those are all going open ended questions right starting the season right and Bruins management really hasn't done a whole heck of a lot during free agency to maybe quell any of the fears of concerns that are being raised by not only us, but many other seasoned Bruins fans. So we're here to help in any way we can, but just rest assured that we likely have similar trepidations going into the upcoming season.

3:19 Speaker 1: Yep, well, I'm sorry, but Maria, as we go through Don and Cam's I don't know business dealings from a couple of weeks ago, I'm afraid you're gonna get a little hot under the collar. But see now, I'm trying to stay.

3:35 Speaker 2: I'm trying to stay, come in retirement mode, and you my friend, trying to poke the bear.

3:43 Speaker 1: Hey, don't shoot the messenger. I'm not the one making these horrible decisions. Okay, I'm not making these horrible decisions.

3:50 Speaker 2: Help us, I know.

3:51 Speaker 1: But before we dive right in, we're just going to take a super quick little ad break. All right, Bruins fan, If you're thinking about picking up some new gear, now's the time. I'm already planning to grab a fresh poster NEC jersey this fall. Who knows, maybe he's rocking a new letter on the front. The NHL Shop is running tons of season ending and summer sales right now, including twenty percent off Fanatics gear. And here's the best part. When you shop through our link in the show notes, a portion of your purchases helps support this podcast.

4:27 Speaker 1: Same gear you'd find at the pro Shop, but with way better perks. So stock up, save big, and help keep Bruins Tape the Tape rolling all year long.

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5:14 Speaker 2: Tap the link in the show notes and take your spot on the bench.

5:23 Speaker 1: All right, Maria, So here's the current situation as it stands it is. So we're recording this a little bit early. It's July eleventh recording day, and Boston currently has two point one million dollars still left in cap space, so the cap is going up to ninety five and a half million dollars, and there are currently three teams across the league that are over the cap. But keep in mind teams are allowed to exceed the cap by ten percent in the summer and they just have to get into compliance by the start of the season.

6:02 Speaker 1: And so Boston is currently six under the cap. So there are six other five other teams ahead of Boston that have less space than them. So not sure what you make of that. Not sure if it's trepidation, if it was the you know, availability of talent. I mean, in general, what was your impression going into free agency in terms of player availability at all? Like, were you impressed not impressed with the crop of free agents.

6:41 Speaker 2: I was not lusting after anybody, if if that's an appropriate response, I mean, were there viable players out there? Sure, you know, but I wasn't. I certainly wasn't going to throw the kind of money at Mitch Marner that Thegus Golden Knights threw at him. And Sam Bennett by all accounts, was going to stay in Florida no matter what. Right, that's just how the writing on the wall was. You know, Brockfester decided to stay in Vancouver, So right, maybe that was part of management's plan, right, I think we all at that time of the year, trade deadlines, free agency.

7:31 Speaker 2: Right, we look at it as Christmas in July, and who doesn't want a shiny new toy? Yeah, as a gift, but at what cost do you bring that gift to someone? My issue is that then we go out and sign a litany of and again, I don't want to be disrespectful in how I described this, because you know, anybody who plays in the NHL clearly has some level of skill, talent, and ability, or else you wouldn't be there. Yeah, but when did the Boston Bruins become the land of misfit toys? I know, a lack of a better Like we've once again gone out and signed a bunch of jacks to what end?

8:30 Speaker 1: Exactly? What end? Exactly? Now, this is something else that I haven't asked you yet. This season feels like or this, you know, off season certainly feels like a lot of I don't know if you would say it's the players doing this, the team's doing this, but it's it feels like it's flirting with circumventing the expected rules or whatever you want to call it by doing the trade and sign deal. We saw that with a number of players, but most notably, of course, Mitch Marner. And in that particular scenario that almost actually felt like an extortion situation that if Vegas didn't participate in a trade to get Marner, that if it went to free agency, that Toronto was threatening then to accuse them of interference regardless, it seemed like, aside from the fact that a lot of teams did some very last minute extensions, so we were being teased for a really long time on the possibility of some players hitting the market.

9:51 Speaker 1: They didn't, and then you saw a number of these trade and sign situations. What do you make of that trend? Because I wouldn't be surprised if we started to see that a little bit more as well. I mean, certainly teams would want something in return if their big fish is walking away for nothing, right well, and.

10:12 Speaker 2: You know what, I'm all for it for a variety of reasons. Number One, right, you drafted, if we're talking specifically about Mitch Marner, sure was drafted by the Maple Leafs a quote unquote homegrown talent. As an organization, you have invested an enormous amount of time, energy, and resources, not the least of which is money. And so why would you want to see that individual just go waltzing off and not get anything in return. Now, you, as the player an agent, you can say, well, the return on your investment was the fact that I played here for all this time, and you know I contributed.

11:03 Speaker 2: I was a meaningful contributor to the success of your team. So I can see both both sides of the coin in that conversation. I do like the the the drama of the you know stuff that came out about the tampering. However, if you listen, and as you do and I do, we listen to other podcasts, and tampering happens all the time. Oh for sure, it happens all the time. So I think Toronto, you know, to their credit and I hate to give them maple Liefs any credit for anything, took advantage of that because they know that there have the the the league is taking longer heart of looks at those types of shenanigans or potential backdoor deals.

11:59 Speaker 2: So, you know, good on Toronto.

12:02 Speaker 1: I suppose, I suppose I know, but listen, we'd be applauding.

12:07 Speaker 2: We'd be applauding otur team as opposed to what our team did was you know, kind of give away, give virtually give away your team's identity traded away, and I'm not sure that you got Now there's no even Stephen trades, right. I mean, it would be nice if that's how it worked, but it doesn't work that way. However, in some circumstances, you expect a little something something back in return when you trade away your identity and your culture.

12:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, yep. So let's take a quick look then at what actually what business was conducted. So I'm gonna go first through the extensions and then we'll talk about the acquisitions. So I'm going to talk about a player real quick, give you the basics of his contract, and then Maria gets to share her honest and unfiltered opinion of this deal. We'll call this a deal or no deal game of free agency for you. So let's start with Morgan Geeky, obviously the one that had all of us wringing our hands a little bit because of just how close to the deadline this one got.

13:38 Speaker 1: And we're all a little I don't know, Jumpie, based on last year's situation with Jeremy Swayman. But Morgan Geeky has signed a six year, five point five cap hit contract which includes signing bonuses through twenty twenty nine, he has full no tray for two seasons, and then he has a modified no trade in twenty seven to twenty eight to a seventeen team list, modified no trade twenty nine for a twelve team no trade list, and a modified no trade for twenty nine and thirty a sixteen no trade list, and then his final year of the contract.

14:20 Speaker 1: It's just the contract. What do you think of this deal for Morgan geek.

14:26 Speaker 2: I'm fine with the money. I'm fine with the money. The term might be a little bit longer then I would have, you know, I guess expected or wanted. However, I have said this on more than one occasion. If Pasta is happy, then we should all be happy. Clearly, clearly, there was chemistry that developed between these two players, and they made each other better on the ice together. My fear for Morgan Geeky is the expectation of living up to that contract, because now you know what he's done is you know, he made himself a thirty goal scorer for the first time in a while, and we his fans right are going to come to expect very close to that, if not a bit more than that, because you know their chemistry didn't really start developing until the second half of the season.

15:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, right, So.

15:45 Speaker 2: That's my only concern for that, And you know, I'm The other thing is these no trade clause They friggin drive me crazy. You know, I understand why you give no trade clauses to elite players, sure, elite players.

16:04 Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, these no trade.

16:05 Speaker 2: Clauses are seemingly, like, you know, a part of the regular recurrence of contract negotiations. Now, I know it's only two years, but still, I don't know. I just stn't know when this became such a kind of secondary no brainer all that we're just going to hand out no trade clauses everybody and anybody that's not a new deal with their team.

16:31 Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I mean, there's it's one of those things that I think there are certainly gms who are teams who hand them out a little too freely in some situations. But what the right circumstances are I don't know the answer to that.

16:50 Speaker 2: But I don't either. It just seems like it's become extremely common.

16:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, and starting to you can start to see certain teams really it tied up in a way that's not ideal.

17:05 Speaker 2: Then it it can become contentious, right, and we saw that happen at the Range. Though there was some dirt, you know, dirty pool that happened in with the Rangers with regard to with Jacob Trubas. So just just a little aside. But I'm glad Morgan Geeky is back, and I'm glad that you know, he'll be playing likely i'm assuming, alongside David Pasternach for the foreseeable future.

17:33 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. The only thing for me that this contract makes me a little bit nervous is the fact that it expires the same time as David Pasternach. And you know, obviously I don't know what the cap is going to be in twenty thirty one, but if both players are healthy and continue to play at a high level, they will be young enough to be eligible for at least one more contract in their career. And again, if everything goes really well and they are both still phenomenal players, that is going to be an expensive year.

18:12 Speaker 2: That is going to be because David Plastronach is a bargain. He is a bargain. And actually I think I heard as I was listening to the Spit and Chickletz last podcast when they did their free agency review, and Ryan Whitney was just laughing about the value of David like it's a it's a joke that David Pasternak is only and again tongue and she only making eleven million dogs compared to you know, other elite players in the league.

18:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, just as a in a side. Even a couple of years ago, when his contract extension talks were happening, there was talk this was part well, we're about two season into the new contract. He could have really pushed and if he had, for some reason gone to free agency, he could have walked away with at least thirteen million dollars.

19:09 Speaker 2: And this was a couple of seasons ago. And you know what, maybe maybe he will again. You know I mentioned this kind of tongue in cheek in our discord conversation. But you know, how much patience does a David Pasternach have to be part of a rebuilding effort? Right if things become as challenging and trying as they were last season, and I think we all hope that doesn't happen. Yeah,

19:42 Speaker 2: how long would it take before he marches into Donnie's office and say, yeah, I gotta go get me out of here.

19:49 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, exactly. He's not thirty yet. But once they hit thirty and they don't have a cup to their name, I think they really start to get probably a little nervous. But that's a conversation for a other day or another day. So let's talk about Marat housnadinof So he's one again. Listeners, if you haven't already listened to our conversation about him from a couple episodes. He was a trade acquisition. He came to Boston in the swap with Minnesota, and he came in as an RFA, just a straight RFA.

20:23 Speaker 1: So he was one of those players where if he's basically at the mercy of management, so it was either he's given a qualifying offer and he takes it because he has no arbitration rights, or he's not given a qualifying offer and he's you know, set free to be a UFA for that particular off season. So he was granted a qualifying offer and he actually took a pay increase, So he got a two year deal, a nice little bridge deal nine to five as a cap hit. The base salary this coming year is nine hundred thousand and next season is nine fifty, so that evens out obviously to nine twenty five.

21:11 Speaker 1: So management clearly was intrigued enough to give him that kind of a deal, especially considering one of the next folks that we're going to talk about who did receive a qualifying offer and who didn't receive a qualifying offer in Jacob Lauco. So we're talking right now all essentially pennies like not even one percent of the cap. And it's interesting who got picked and who didn't. But that aside, because I'm sure we'll talk about that when we talk about the next fellow, Marat Husnadinov. What do you think about this particular deal, the term and the pay, and you know, based on our conversation about him last month, what do you think.

22:03 Speaker 2: I mean, does it light my fire? No, it doesn't. But you know, at least the money and the term themes use a friendly for the organization and it doesn't luck them in to anything that they can't get themselves out of if you need me. But I think you know, Whustadino falls into a category of a lot of other guys on this roster in a similar vein that you're like, okay, but why right, But why sure, why why not?

22:42 Speaker 1: Right? It's kind of like, okay, you know me and my analogies. So now we're shopping for groceries, and you know you have to have vegetables, right, you got to eat your veggies. So do you pick the green beans or the carrots? Well? Which one? You know? Maybe you don't love either, but which one do you pick? Uh?

23:06 Speaker 1: Who knows? Right what he is? He could be something interesting and a good deal. He could be something that's interesting and good trade bait, so to speak. But yeah, when it comes to this amount of money, okay, like great, Maybe he's such an unknown that's kind of the problem.

23:28 Speaker 2: I think that's part of it. And maybe they know something we don't. Maybe they see something we we don't. But you know, when when you cobble together, you know, nine twenty five here, nine point fifty here, one point two, it's like.

23:44 Speaker 1: What is it? What?

23:46 Speaker 2: When you add that up, couldn't you have gotten yourself a viable, proven scent?

23:53 Speaker 1: I don't know.

23:53 Speaker 2: And again maybe maybe maybe maybe the deals aren't out there. Maybe the deals aren't out there. Maybe there's so much uncertainty with this franchise right now that it's not an attractive proposition to come right here. And when you have management that has a reputation for hardball negotiations and nickel and diming players, you know, don't don't underestimate the fact that there's still a lot of people in the league that don't like how brad Marshand was dealt with. And I know, you know, they can say we sent him to where he wanted to go, and you know, there may be some truth to some of that.

24:46 Speaker 2: However, you look like a bunch of boobs.

24:53 Speaker 1: I was gonna say idiots, but yeah, he has boobs. Idiots because you didn't want to pay him right right, Oh exactly, you could have had one brad Marshand and instead you went off and bought ten John Beacher's right. So, speaking of John Beacher, he's the one that was particularly shocking to me, considering again you had Jacob Blouco right there. So John Beacher, this is this is interesting to me. This was a last chance deal. So he just came off of a three year deal. Previously he got a qualifying offer and a one year deal of nine hundred thousand dollars.

25:42 Speaker 1: Now what makes this interesting is he is now in this one season making less than he did in his previous contract. His old contract was worth nine to twenty five and that also had signing bonuses. So he effectively is taking a twenty five thousand dollars pay cut Tuesday in Boston, and he took the deal. And I think this is the last chance for him. I think they're giving him the last chance. What are your thoughts on this?

26:15 Speaker 2: Well, here we have another instance of a draft pick who has is struggling in this organization, struggling to develop, struggling to reach a level of expectation that maybe there was when drafting this player. It's interesting with the one year deal and bringing in a coach in Marco Sturm, who has been applauded for his development of young players in the Los Angeles Kings system. So maybe this is one of those instances where, Okay, maybe this is your last chance. We do see something there. Maybe Storm can bring it out in a feature more consistently and to the level that justifies being a high draft pick.

27:12 Speaker 2: If that doesn't happen, he won't make it past March.

27:18 Speaker 1: I don't think. I'm not I'm not sure I would even give him that much time, honestly, right, Yeah, yeah, he's gonna be certainly traded for something. And I think, you know, thinking back on his previous couple of seasons when he made it out of rookie camp, you know, alongside Mason Laurai and and all those kind of young kids, that group, he certainly has special skills when it comes to like face offs. He was one that was doing a great job with that, and he he does do some things very well. But as we've seen since see right, as we have seen with you know again that little group that I'm gonna just call the kids, right who all kind of came up together Patra low Rye Beacher.

28:14 Speaker 1: The problem with those kids is they've not been developed properly. And I'm not saying it in a way that doesn't put some of the responsibility on them, Like obviously, yes there's stuff that they have to be filed. They failed to.

28:33 Speaker 2: Take advantage of opportunities that were clearly provided them in training camp scenarios where you know, in past years, there weren't a lot of open spots, open foster spots on the Boston Bruins team. They got lucky in that time period because there were open spots. However, on the flip side.

28:55 Speaker 1: You know, last year in particular, I feel like those kids were put in scenarios where they were they never were gonna succeed, right, Like you know, putting Mace LOWII and we'll talk about him, you know, on in a position where without Charlie McAvoy and any sort of really good guiding hand, like, he went awry. You know, so maybe don't put him in that situation because he's twenty three and he doesn't know what he's doing. Or with Patra you know, why are you not calling him up to give him the experience?

29:35 Speaker 1: Or with Beacher, like why are you playing him in this way? So you know, it was it it. There were two sides to kind of what's happened with that particular group of kids. But yeah, we'll see if the new coach can kind of help turn them around, because they are the kids, right this is the this is the best that we have with this particular a group because right now our best players are quickly approaching thirty years old, and you need to make sure that the next batch in line right behind them, your twenty to twenty five year olds are getting properly developed so that they can take over.

30:20 Speaker 1: And that's the big question mark and Veature falls into that particular group.

30:27 Speaker 1: The other of the of the kids, obviously, Mason Lawright surprised everybody with a two year, three point two million dollars signing with signing bonuses this coming season worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This is obviously a significant pay bump from his nine to twenty five k previously. Uh. You know, we've alluded to this particular contract in previous episodes with complete shock, because I think we both agree that when he's good, he's very, very good. It's a lot like how it was with Matt Rislick.

31:14 Speaker 1: When he's great, he's great.

31:16 Speaker 2: When he's bad' not horrible, it's bad and and not just bad where you say, oh, geezz, a young player made a mistake, No, he's bad is in that's it's costly, Okay, it can be costly and yeah, yeah, but it's an overpay.

31:38 Speaker 1: I don't this one.

31:39 Speaker 2: I don't. There's a couple of them I don't understand, and you know, far be it from me to try and understand, because you know, Don Sweeney's from Harvard and Heed's a lot smarter than me. But Jesus Christ, like really you rewarded this kid with that much of a bump yeah in in pay I don't, I don't understand it. I I would like to have someone in that organization explain to me the justification with that significant a jump in this player's salary.

32:18 Speaker 1: It should be Uh. I would have said, I was maybe expecting a one point five, right, And I would have even.

32:29 Speaker 2: Said, you know, to to something okay, right, because again, in in the scheme of things, what is that to an organization right at this point in hockey?

32:41 Speaker 1: Right?

32:41 Speaker 2: But three point two when you you have clear, clear and definable needs and I know, I know you can't carry the money over from one year to the other, right, But that does that mean that you should spend it all or a big part of it in an area that you scratch your head going huh, but why.

33:12 Speaker 1: They could have used that extra million or to pay brad marshand. Instead we've got an overpaid.

33:19 Speaker 2: So that's basically you make a good point, because that's basically what you did. So you gave it to a twenty three year old kid who now offensively offensively as a defenceman. He's clearly gifted and he seems to that aspect of his game comes more naturally to him, but the defensive part of his game still needs a ton of work. And so again these are the decisions where you want to just looked on Sweeney in the face and say, what the.

33:58 Speaker 1: Fuck are you doing? Yeah, yeah, it's that one's a head scratcher, and more evidence to the notion the idea that when Don and Cam are negotiating, that they are the worst negotiators out there, that they're the absolute worst, that they're terrible at negotiating, and I think this is one of them. So the last extension also kind of came in at the eleventh hour that did surprise me. So we talked about Henry Joki har you during our trade acquisition player profiles, and he was one that again coming in so late into the season, only playing those twenty games on a team that was just already drowning and you know, difficult to watch.

34:58 Speaker 1: He was the one that we weren't really sure if he actually wanted to be in Boston because, if you recall, at the trade deadline, he effectively said to Buffalo, because that's where he came from, he wanted out, just get me out of here, and Buffalo essentially just gave him to Boston for I think basically nothing in return. So we had raised the question does he even actually want to be in Boston? Is this a place that he wants to be in? Is he a good enough defenceman? Like? What kind of defensive abilities does he even bring to the table.

35:37 Speaker 1: So, whatever he did in those twenty games, Bruins management thought well of him because he earned himself a three times three million dollar contract with signing bonuses in twenty five twenty six worth five hundred thousand dollars and then in twenty six twenty seven a signing bonus of two hundred and fifty and your favorite, a modified no trade clause for the twenty five to twenty sixth season and eighteen no trade list. So what do you think of this one? I was surprised, but I was too.

36:15 Speaker 2: I was too because I think we were both in agreement that this would be one player where we would be like, you know, I'm not going to shed any tears if they move on, right. You know, I think he's young. He's young. He you know last season. I'm just looking at us now career wise, you know, in four hundred and seven games He's had nineteen goals seventy eight assists, which is not too shabby. Sure career wise, though he's overall in his career he's a minus seventeen, although he finished the twenty twenty four to twenty five season as a plus thirteen, so there must be Again they clearly the Bruins want to become a harder team to play against.

37:11 Speaker 2: We've heard that terminology used quite often already in this offseason, almost to the point where you know, it's it's making me nauseous to continue to hear it. Yeah, that in the term we want to play with more jukes, which I'm like, give me a break, Yeah, give me a break. So you know you can and we've talked about this before. You can have not have enough defense. You can never have enough goaltending, right right, yep.

37:37 Speaker 1: So well, and he's an interesting one because again and again maybe.

37:43 Speaker 2: A little overpay too well. Yeah, so two things.

37:47 Speaker 1: One to your point of his kind of maybe less than fantastic statistics. Keep in mind where he is coming from. He's coming from Chicago, He's coming from Buffalo team not exactly, no, no, no, understood. Yeah, right, And that's probably one of the rationales because again, you're they want to go back from you know, from what Storm says, Sweeney says, they want to go back to a more well, let's see if this comes to fruition, then I call it back to the you know, the Claude Julian days, where we're likely going to be having to watch a lot of games where you hope they get a lead and then they protect that lead and you end up winning the game, you know, three to two, two to one, you know, somewhere along those lines.

38:44 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, but that's exhausting.

38:48 Speaker 2: It is exhausting. It's exhausting to fans. It's frustrating to fans because you know that style of play. Everybody has to be defensively responsible, right right, but then at the expense of potential rate of I don't know again.

39:07 Speaker 1: And that's what you have to do when you don't have a ton of offensive power. Obviously, as we're going to discuss, they will get from him. The other thing, you know that I wanted to bring up was, you know, you mentioned his price tag now when we had our conversation about him a couple of episodes ago. One of the things that also gave you pause and hesitation was his contract that he was finishing up, which was a three point one million dollar contract, and the price kind of gave you pause. You know, he he took a quote unquote pay cut of one hundred grand, but he made up for it in the fact that he got a little bit of term, like a little bit of a bridge deal.

39:53 Speaker 1: Any kind of reaction to that, or is it more of a well, let's wait and see now, because he's here for X number of years, is he actually worth Yeah? Three?

40:06 Speaker 2: I mean, I guess I have no choice but to say, let's wait and see. That might explain why Laura got what he got, because maybe they anticipated right, and they probably didn't want Yokiharu to be making more money than Laura. You know, these are the dilemmas that when you sometimes mismanage your froster or misallocate, you know, player values. This is the conundrum of the pickle or the mess that you get yourself into. One can only hope that he continues on an upward trajectory and becomes maybe you know, a team who because listen, any playoff contending team at some point in time is always looking for defensive help heading into the playoffs.

41:00 Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, look at what Seth Jones did for the Florida Panthers, and I'm not comparing. I'm not comparing well this kid to Seth Jones. I'm just the analogy of, you know, needing to shore up and have as much defensive depth. So maybe he one of the two of them, either Yokiharu or Lori, becomes a viable asset for the Bruins.

41:27 Speaker 1: Exactly. Yep. So let's dive in now to the new folks on the team. First, I'm going to talk about actually the trade acquisition Victor Arvidson. He was traded in from Edmonton on He's on year two of a two year, four million dollar contract. Edmonton did not retain any of that, so that is a four million dollar paycheck coming straight from Boston. And keep in mind he is a thirty two year old winger. Thoughts on this it basically, you know, another one of those like Yoki Haru situation where it's like, all right, here, take this guy.

42:12 Speaker 1: You know, I'm sure Edmonton was trying to shed cap, so here here's this veteran player.

42:20 Speaker 2: Why did you take his whole salary?

42:22 Speaker 1: Like?

42:22 Speaker 2: Why what? Why are you doing? Favors for the Edmonton Oilers.

42:29 Speaker 1: Right, so keep this in mind. Here's a little bit of info on him. If you don't know who he is. Obviously he is coming from Edmonton. Last season, he played sixty seven games, so pretty much most of the season. He had fifteen goals. All right, I'm not gonna you know, based on our current situation, I'm not going to say poo pooh to fifteen goals, twelve assists for twenty seven points. He was a minus three and he had twenty four penalty minutes. But on the plus side, his corsi four, so the man does take shots was over fifty percent.

43:06 Speaker 1: It was fifty five percent, So I mean, I guess I can't be mad about that. What do you what kind of role do you think this guy is going to even.

43:15 Speaker 3: Be playing on the team, because I hope this guy will light a fire under pavel Zaka's ass especially if this guy is a has a shoot first mentality, which is what we've heard, that he will take a shot, whereas pavel Zaka sometimes.

43:35 Speaker 2: Right doesn't take the shot that's given to him. There's there's a potential upside right to him as a player. He's got decent playoff stats, again, not that this roster is a playoff roster at this point in time, right, yeah, yep, but if if nothing else, maybe it will light a fire under sure, I mean, you know, State, and maybe we'll give them flexibility to be able to have moving parts on, you know, within the first three lines.

44:15 Speaker 1: Sure, exactly. So you know, Arvidson's coming off of a team that was just on obviously the ultimate Cup run, you know, thinking about where he could be placed on the roster, I think general consensus is that he would be a second line right wing and that Pavo Zaka would be moving to the left wing to be centered by Casey Middlestat. You know, we didn't really see I mean again those final twenty games when we're all we were all in deep mourning, like nobody was really paying attention. So we don't really know what that's going to look like potentially, But I would like.

44:56 Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you something, if the this year's team and coaching staff and management doesn't address their secondary scoring problems, okay, once and for all, this retool rebuild is going to be worthless, going to be worthless, and and you know, maybe that's some of what you know, the hope for Victor Arbinson will be where they can maybe try to balance and not have one top heavy line. But you've I mean, and again, I hate to keep going back and comparing, but the Florida Panthers have set the standard in the league for what you need to do to be a successful team.

45:58 Speaker 2: Not the best tea in the league. They don't care about the President's Trophy, but to be an elite team in the playoffs. They have set the standard. And you look at their lines and you see that they have balanced scoring throughout their lines. So the Bruins have got to figure this out. Maybe that's part of it. I still don't get why they felt the need to take the entire contract.

46:34 Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know they had the space. I have no idea, but I will say one thing, and it's I need to see this potential second line. If this is our base second line of Zaka, middle Stat and Arvidson, I'm going to need to see forty to fifty goals from this line this coming season. Oh yeah, yeah, minimum? Right, because I'm tired, and I think minimum, I know, fifty goals out of these combined players. And that's being forgiving and allowing Casey Middleset to effectively not have to score.

47:14 Speaker 2: But like you know, it has to come somewhere.

47:18 Speaker 1: It's got to come from your top six. I'm not worried about the top line right like I'm expecting.

47:24 Speaker 2: Oh, they're going to get No.

47:25 Speaker 1: One hundred goals from the top line. I need to see forty to fifty from that second line to feel like we're moving in the right direction for this. But are we.

47:37 Speaker 2: Are we setting our expectations much too high? And are we setting ourselves up for disappointment?

47:44 Speaker 3: Now?

47:45 Speaker 2: Hard to answer either one of those questions right now until we start seeing games, but I think we're going to be able to get those questions answered pretty quick into the season.

48:01 Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, yep, exactly. All right, So next we will talk about the actual signings. So we brought in Jordan Harris from the Columbus Blue Jackets, a twenty five year old defenceman. He was traded in twenty twenty four from the Habs to Columbus, but he was not given a qualifying offer, so that made him a UFA for this off season. He'd been making one point four million annually in his previous contracts, but in signing with Boston. He actually took a pretty significant pay cut with a one year deal worth eight hundred and twenty five thousand dollars, so really quickly, because I didn't I have no idea who this kid was.

48:52 Speaker 1: He played only thirty three games last year with a goal and four assists minus one. You know, I think this is probably one of those situations where it's we need to gather uh defenseman just to have in the wings. You know, maybe he's gonna be in the you know, the the seventh or eighth defenseman to move up and down. But I just thought it was really intriguing that he was being paid, you know, over a million dollars previously and then got this one year deal for quite a lot less. So just maybe like what's going on here?

49:35 Speaker 2: But this he's a local boy, and so we know how much Donnie loves his his local boys. So you know, maybe it was a match that worked out not only for the organization but for the player too. So and again, you know, credit to the player for being willing to take a quote unquote hometown discount. But yeah, so I'm told I haven't I have very little expectation of that. If we see much of him at all, because you know, and let's hope this is not the case unless there are injuries again to key defensive players.

50:21 Speaker 2: I'm not sure we're going to see a lot of Jordan Harris, right who, Yes, he could shock the world, who knows. Sure, So our last.

50:34 Speaker 1: Two signings, I'm going to be very intrigued to see how they compare as the season progresses, because I am talking about, of course, Tanner Jane and Michael Isamont. Now, both players are twenty eight year old forwards. Okay, the difference in what their terms are and their pay is significant. Yeah, all right, And so I and I don't I don't know much about these players other than the you know, the stats and the information that I've read about them and seen in their you know, trade histories and blah blah blah.

51:19 Speaker 1: But this is going to be really interesting for me to track. I believe both players are effectively third line players. So let's start out with the easy one, which is Ismat because there's this less less to talk about him, I suppose. So he was traded this past year at the deadline from Tampa Bay to Seattle. He had He's received a two times one point four million dollar contract, which is an increase from the eight hundred thousand that he got from Tampa Bay. So kind of actually the inverse of what happened with Jordan Harris.

51:57 Speaker 1: So clearly Boston c something In this forward, you know, per the Internet, it says he can play all three positions, so he's likely though, gonna get a winger role. He's

52:15 Speaker 1: fairly I thought he was fairly I don't know, unknown to me, but he played seventy seven games last season, so he clearly was out there doing his thing. Nine goals, seven assists, sixteen points, he was a plus one and his coursy four percentages of fifty two. So I'm intrigued by him just from those statistics alone, that here you've got this kid who is making you know, one and change or whatever I just said and two. Yeah, at one point four to five million. And I think he's a little bit of a dark horse.

52:54 Speaker 1: I like that he played a full seventy seven last year. If he's a third liner nine goals, I'm not mad about that. No, No, So I'm intrigued. I don't know about your thoughts on I am too. I am too.

53:08 Speaker 2: And I like the fact that you know, there's an addition of competition for certain roles and hopefully you know, we talked about this last year at the start of the season about what a ship Show training camp was, and they seemed to be, you know, no clear direction or structure or you know, just it was just not good.

53:34 Speaker 1: It was just not good.

53:36 Speaker 2: So I think that this season there are actually viable spots that you know there in essence, these will be tryouts, These will be tryouts, and you are likely going to earn I hope you are likely going to earn your role or your spot in the opening day lineup by or two of what you accomplish during training camp and maybe you know, some of the preseason games. So i'm i'm i'm, I'm okay with this signing. Yeah, you know, it didn't cost you a lot. No, there's a good opportunity for a viable return and reward at at low risk.

54:22 Speaker 2: At low risk.

54:24 Speaker 1: Now to the other guy, the other guy, the semi counterpart. So, like I said, I'm expecting uh to be your third line right winger and the left winger. Oh and you know what, Maria, I just realized I forgot to put down some notes about another player. So we're gonna have to do his review on the fly. But he's an old, old friend of the team, so I shouldn't.

54:51 Speaker 2: Be Oh yeah, mister, I forgot all about it.

54:54 Speaker 1: But we're gonna talk about Tanner Jane. But Tanner Jane. So so I again have heard that there was a lot of competition for this guy. And if you recall, and we've talked a little bit about him, just because this competition.

55:11 Speaker 2: Doesn't mean mean that you have to be the highest bidder.

55:15 Speaker 1: Right, And was this ape was his alleged bidding war over him due to the fact that he can actually accomplish something, or is it because of the lack of options available for in the free agency? But regardless, So Danner, you know, essentially has taken over the contract of what Trent Frederick had. So he's he's signed a five year, three point four million dollar contract with I know, with signing bonuses and not tiny signing bonuses either. In twenty five twenty six it's a two point twenty five million dollar bonus, twenty six twenty seven a one point five, and twenty seven to twenty eight a one million and he has a full no trade through twenty twenty seven and then it goes modified for the next two seasons after with a fifteen team no trade followed by a seven team no trade.

56:20 Speaker 1: Now what irritates me about this particular contract because look, big picture, three point four million dollars Uh, not a ton of money, right, no snier, It's the right, fair, right, fair value, and even potentially fair term for a decent third line player.

56:47 Speaker 2: Right.

56:48 Speaker 1: Uh. My particular issue becomes the term and a little bit of the pay when I do a little bit of digger deep, dig deeper digging on this, particularly.

57:01 Speaker 2: Because he hasn't panned out right anywhere that he has landed.

57:06 Speaker 4: Right, he seems to have failed to meet expectations every team that he has played for in the NHL.

57:17 Speaker 1: That arguably the last time he was what I would consider successful was when he played for the Moosejaw Warriors, and this was, you know, quite a number of years ago at this point. Now, yes, I've heard the stories about how he is one of the most fit players that he has you know, awards named after him for his you know, fitness and his commitment to the room.

57:45 Speaker 2: He's a character guy, he'll defend his teammates, blah blah blah.

57:51 Speaker 1: Right, but I'm also getting a little bit tired of this team instead of trying to develop its own identity whatever, this post golden age ruins, because the golden age for me, of course, was the Chara Berger on marshand era. It now is the time for the team to figure out and develop its own new culture and its own identity. And right now, what it seems like they've been doing for the last two years is how do we be like Florida. Well, your only Florida can be Florida, right. You can try to imitate it, and it will never pan out to be exactly the same.

58:39 Speaker 1: You're going to end up with a cheaper in terms of quality, a crappier version that is just inauthentic and not who you are. And I recently listened to Elliott Friedman talking about how, oh, you know, the impression that he's getting from a wherever is that Jane is being brought in to take on some of those minutes that Zadorov was getting. But let me tell you, my friend, Zadorov wasn't getting minutes for fighting. He was getting minutes because he was taking stupid penalties because he's a lazy player, not because he's getting into fights, And I don't want a guy who can just go out and get into fights just to get into fights, or to be this tough guy or whatever.

59:26 Speaker 1: That's that's stupid, that is not what this game is. And the other idea that is he gonna be the juice that Don Sweeney keeps referring to. I'm zach. But I feel like if it's done or it's cam, they're trying to and you know you've seen this with their new throwback jersey, they're trying to go back to a time of old.

59:49 Speaker 1: Tradition is important in hockey, right. It's one of the things that makes hockey as a sport unique to all other sports because it's tradition is so important. But you cannot just focus on tradition in a way that takes the way you play the game backwards. When the game that is being played out on the ice is completely different than how it was being played in the nineteen eighties and the nineteen nineties. This is a time of high skill, extremely high skill elite goal scorers, not a time of go out and punch and knock out other players.

1:00:33 Speaker 1: And that is what I got from this particular signing. That makes me so irritated with this management because it tells me that they are so disconnected from the reality, they are so unaware of what the product is that is out on the ice these days that I'm at a loss because I don't know what they're doing, and

1:01:03 Speaker 1: it's it's troubling to me.

1:01:05 Speaker 2: It's troubling to me that you even right now, right now, at this you know, we just went through free agency, we just had development camp, rookie camp is going to be starting, and I have yet two understand what this team's identity is going to be. I've yet to understand. I've yet to understand the direction that management is going in, even with these particular signings. And I know that the phrase that they keep using is we want to be a team that's hard to play against. Okay, I can wrap my head around that, right because there was too much and we talked about it at nauseam where the opposing team was literally game after game, shift after shift, period after period, skating in, dancing in, waltzing in, walking into our own end of the ice, virtually untouched.

1:02:14 Speaker 2: Okay, I can get on board with that, But the last time I checked, you still have to score one more goal. Than the other team in order to win games.

1:02:26 Speaker 1: Right, yep.

1:02:27 Speaker 2: And I hate to sound like a broken record, and I hate to sound like an old head, but Jesus Christ, this lack of balanced scoring problem has gone back way beyond where we find ourselves now, way beyond. And this group has seemingly and when I say this group, this management group, because they've been the ones pretty much in charge, Okay, hey, have not have not resolved the problem. And for experts to say, oh, well, they're just lining themselves up because there's a better crop of free agents coming in next year, don't let them off the friggin' hook.

1:03:21 Speaker 2: No, for basically what they have done, which is inexcusable roster mismanagement. Okay, so again, I'm you know, Tanner jano Is probably is a character guy. You know, I've heard many people say, you know, he's a great guy to have in the locker room. He's got the potential, He's got the potential. Okay, Well, we're not in a position. We're not in a position I think that we can take reclamation problem project or should be taking reclamations right.

1:04:01 Speaker 1: Not at that kind of a term. Right. We can't afford a personality higher. Right now, we're in a startup phase. We need all hands on deck, we need everybody contributing. And I just like, yes, we talk about a lot. You know, it's important to have people contributing off the ice. That is very important. Obviously, we saw what happened when you subtracted all of those off ice support people, like what happened then on ice, But we're all right now we're trying to find You need to find a balance between making sure that you can have a good off ice, you know, team, and a good on ice team, and for that amount of money, for that amount of time, I'm not convinced that it's enough to make a difference on or off the ice.

1:04:54 Speaker 1: So who knows? Again, I mean, his agent has got.

1:04:57 Speaker 2: To be phenomenal to have been able to negotiate.

1:05:00 Speaker 1: And and how does he keep getting these opportunities? I don't know.

1:05:05 Speaker 2: I just that's the one to me that is like you, okay, you dumped Freddy.

1:05:13 Speaker 1: Right now you picked up Against which is just as bad.

1:05:16 Speaker 2: This is this player is likely going to be or is on paper probably a better player than Freddy, But why the five years?

1:05:28 Speaker 4: Right?

1:05:28 Speaker 1: Why? Why? Why? Especially considering he's been traded mid season two years in a row. I mean, that's just about as bad as not getting a qualifying offer, Like, well, what does that mean? What's wrong with you? What? That's suspicious? Like? I don't like that. But we will of course get into his situation more in the coming months. But of course I didn't want to forget quickly. Uh. The other one that he's come back into the fall Sean Kraal. So, if you recall, he started out in Boston way back in twenty sixteen, and he was with Boston for a number of years, including through the sad twenty nineteen Cup run.

1:06:16 Speaker 1: And actually his contract in Boston ended in twenty twenty one and he left as a UFA to go out to Columbus where he he spent four years, and he actually took on a great leadership role there. He wre A a number of times. But he is, of course coming towards the end of his career. He is thirty two years old. He just signed a two year contract for a little bit less money than he'd been making in Columbus. There he'd been making two point five in Boston, he's going to be making one point eight five.

1:06:53 Speaker 4: With some.

1:06:55 Speaker 1: No he's actually not getting any bonuses. I was just gonna say, but this is a guy who you know, we haven't seen him in four years. You're you're gonna see him probably at least to start as centering your third line. But this is a guy, Now, this is a guy who maybe he's not gonna be the biggest producer, He's maybe not the you know, he's obviously not going to be playing top line minutes. But this is a guy I think, who is going to provide good leadership on the ice for the bottom six players, especially the kids.

1:07:39 Speaker 1: And he's going to provide good leadership off the ice in the locker room. And he costs a hell of a lot less. But what are you thinking about Sean Coraley returning to Boston?

1:07:52 Speaker 2: I mean again, you know, none of these signings made me want to, you know, dance on a table, okay, And you know, my last memories of Sean Corally were you know, I had higher expectations for him than what he ultimately ended up providing, you know, to us. And I understand why the Bruins you know, moved on and let him go out and you know, get his bag of cash someplace else, because they weren't in a position where they were going to be paying whatever the market value was at the time. You know, again another you know, just another guy, just another guy.

1:08:43 Speaker 2: Sure, just another guy, you know, welcome back. I'm sure he's excited to be back. He has familiarity with maybe some of the players currently on the roster, certainly with management. Management has familiarity with the player. Okay, fine, but again we're we're we're building a.

1:09:04 Speaker 1: Roster of this.

1:09:07 Speaker 2: This isn't you know, this isn't twenty and eleven.

1:09:10 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for me, I'm hoping. You know, the biggest role that we realized that the team did not have last year at all, even at the very beginning, was an uncle Nick. So now we're just forever going to call that role the uncle Nick. Right.

1:09:31 Speaker 2: Well, it started even before that with you know, the likes of you know, I mean, we can start with charr but then you know Mark Reki Yeah yeah, yeah, you know, we can't underestimate Charlie Coyle's contribution as you know, a leader in that room. So yes, all important aspects of a team's dynamic and culture.

1:09:54 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and even when they when they traded Nick Felino away, you know, they brought in Kevin Chatt and Kirk who kind of was also a little bit in that role. You need that This is gonna sound ridiculous, but almost like a den Mother type for the bottom six to really be like the leader of those guys, right, And there was no Uncle Nick last year for that group. Really there wasn't. And I think it was you know, it wasn't something that Charlie Coyle could truly take over last year because he was having a rough year.

1:10:30 Speaker 1: So it's like really hard, I think, to play that role when you yourself are having such a difficult year and you're wrapped up in all of that as well. And so I think that that's the role that he could potentially be taking over, and hopefully that's an element that helps with everything that's disastrous happening off the ice as well as on the ice. So I'm not mad about it.

1:11:00 Speaker 2: I mean I think, oh no, I'm not bad. I'm not mad. I'm just like okay, ho hum, Like it doesn't you know, it doesn't give me. None of these signings, right, and I'm not sure that anybody is. We're probably not alone. None of these signings and deals give me a warm and fuzzy. Now, might I get a little bit warm and fuzzy when I see players on the ice and chemistry maybe developing, But you know, right now, on paper, yeah, this is not a roster that gives a lot of other teams in the league pause for concern.

1:11:42 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I agree.

1:11:44 Speaker 2: Maybe defensively, and maybe that's the road they're going to go down. Maybe defensively, you know, because you know Jeremy Swayman needs and will I mean, I'm going to say that he if he doesn't have a better year, this team is in a shit ton of trouble, a shit ton of trouble now. You know, based on how he performed in the Four Nations, it seems like he was on an upward trajectory, right, And I think having McAvoy and Lindholm back and healthy and staying healthy, because I thought the Bruins defense was going to be miserable for other teams to play against last season, and that unfortunately was not the case more often than not.

1:12:41 Speaker 2: So those are areas that I'm going to say will improve.

1:12:47 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well we shall see, we shall see. So

1:12:54 Speaker 1: it's already been well over an hour. Uh so we will call it there. What grade real quick. If you were going to give this free agency, what kind of letter grade are you handing out? D? Yeah, well I said D plus. Yeah, we can read a little bit more about.

1:13:18 Speaker 2: We can discuss this before we started, So yeah, right there. You know, I don't know, maybe you know we still have scars from last season. But yeah, it's it's hard.

1:13:32 Speaker 1: It's hard to be an optimistic fan right now because it just seems like we are. It's still very much an unmoored situation. But uh, as we go through the summer, we're going to talk again a little bit more about these players, especially the ones that we sort of glossed over to see. Okay, is there there there? What did management see potentially in this layer that made them go, yeah, we gotta get this guy. This is the guy that we want. So we will look a little bit further, We'll dig a little bit more.

1:14:09 Speaker 1: We'll bring you that information and see if our opinions have changed on that at all. This is also I forgot to announce at the top of the show, this is our ninety ninth episode. So next week we will have a very special guest to help us celebrate our one hundredth episode. Uh, and then it'll be almost time for preseason stuff, So any final thoughts, Maria, I can't believe we're almost at one hundred episodes. That's pretty exciting. It's crazy, Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, yeah yeah.

1:14:49 Speaker 2: I can only hope to live to be one hundred.

1:14:51 Speaker 1: Eh maybe, I don't know. If I got to watch another you know, mosty years of this hockey, I don't know if I could do that. But anyways, as always, thanks for listening. Make sure you like and subscribe, follow us on all of our socials Tape to Tape MK, check out our Patreon for exclusive things, and as always, go Bees, Go Bees,