By Spencer Smith | Follow Me @Spencersmitty13
The Bruins season came to an end after a crushing Game Seven loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh a few weeks ago, but a larger problem has presented itself and swept worry around Bruins Nation: Is this it for Patrice Bergeron? The team’s captain and “face of the franchise” has completed his 18th season with the franchise and has given Father Time a run for his money.
Bergeron’s ageless two-way game compliments forwards such as Brad Marchand Jake DeBrusk and David Pastrnak has proven a point per game explosion from all three players. The four (will be five by the time this article is submitted) time Selke Trophy winner awarded to the league’s best defensive forward is finally contemplating retirement at age 36 on 37 next season.
After the Bruins lost to the New York Islanders in the 2021 Playoffs, longtime 2nd line Center David Krejci left the team to return home and play for HC Olomouc in the Czech Extraliga. Immediately Bruins fans started to theorize possible replacements. I myself lobbied for former Coyote and current Canadien Christian Dvorak who played with Taylor Hall in Arizona. Hall was acquired by Arizona during the 2019-2020 trade deadline and was a lineman of Dvorak where Hall put up a respectable 27 points in 35 games.
If you selected the skilled Finn Erik Haula as a replacement center you were correct, but it took some adjusting and moving from third-line Center to second-line Center for Haula to rack up points with Pastrnak and Hall. Unfortunately for the Bruins, this gaping hole is franchise altering and will not be able to be filled by someone who has played with the Bruins top unit before. In comes Mark Scheifele.
Scheifele is a terrific first-line center for the Winnipeg Jets and has represented the team for many years, in fact, he was the Jets first official draft pick since the franchise’s relocation from Atlanta. The Alternate Captain is extremely consistent: putting up 60+ points every season since 2015-2016. His cap hit of 6.1 Million over the next two seasons is similar (in fact, a tad cheaper) than what the Bruins have been paying Bergeron the previous eight seasons. Acquiring a talent like Scheifele would take a ton of work, luck, and correct timing, but it appears the stars could be aligning.
Winnipeg is also at an organizational crossroad where long-time, respected Head Coach Paul Maurice stepped down earlier this past season after subpar start with the team. Winnipeg is typically in or around the playoff mix, but has struggled taking the next step as a team. Some of Winnipeg’s key players are aging or have already retired, such as Dustin Byfuglien and Ex-Bruin Blake Wheeler. Their time competing in the West is pivoting to a rebuild soon enough, but there is no question the Bruins are more equipped to win now compared to the Jets. The Jets would do some digging in the Bruins lackluster “farm-system” perhaps targeting a Mason Lohrei + Jake DeBrusk and picks combination for a trade. Although it seems hefty for the Bruins to trade Lohrei, they must act and make any one of their better prospects not named Fabian Lysell available.
Winnipeg perhaps could look for some Left Defenseman help in a few years given how much they are paying Josh Morrissey, Nate Schmidt and Brenden Dillon. They may look to move either Dillon (age 31) or Schmidt (age 30) in the coming years to add offense due to their seven forwards that are impending free agents (either restricted or unrestricted). Winnipeg would also most likely not wish to receive either Mike Reilly or Matt Grzelcyk given they are free agents in two seasons or less, therefore following the same pattern as their current LD’s.
DeBrusk presents a skilled scoring winger that may boom when paired with Pierre-Luc Dubois who had one of his best seasons to date with Winnipeg logging 60 points in 81 games. Debrusk’s newfound extension of two years with an AAV of four million provides the cap relief for Winnipeg to re-sign other players as well as adding other external talent in the future. Lastly, Winnipeg is stockpiling picks!
They have the NY Rangers 2022 1st round pick and 2023 5th round pick from the Andrew Copp Trade (as well as the option of either New York’s 2022 or 2023 2nd round pick due to The Rangers advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals) and Columbus Blue Jackets 2022 3rd round pick from the Patrik Laine & Jack Roslovic / Pierre-Luc Dubois trade. They do not, however, own whichever year they do not choose between 2022 and 2023 2nd round picks. They may ask the Bruins for a 2022 2nd and / or a 2023-2024 1st round pick as a capper with the Bruins acquiring a future 3rd or later from Winnipeg.
This is all still hypothetical and a long shot, but if the Bruins wish to stay competitive, this provides a fan-based framework of how it must get done as well as somewhat realistic asking prices from a team shipping away a longtime player.
I don’t know that Scheifele is a Bruins type player. He’s not very interested in playing defense and apparently is not the greatest team guy. If we were to pretend that the B’s have pro scouts who can judge talent, they would be better off targeting a younger NHL player who they think has good upside, like Dylan Strome, Pavel Zacha, or whoever (not saying they should target those players, just using them as examples.)
But if we judge the current B’s management’s pro talent evaluations on their FA signings (Beleskey, Backes, Reilly, Nosek, Foligno, Brett Ritchie, Forbert, Lindholm, Moore, etc), I have doubts that they have the ability to target the right person.