B- for me.
Like Reilly a lot. Seemed like a fair price, maybe a bit higher than market but the extra year is probably the reason for that.
Lazar? Meh. I think we'll like him well enough, but also don't really think he's much of an upgrade over options we already have for the 4th line. No harm, no foul there though. He's a fine add
It's great we got our lottery ticket in Hall, and it could pay off nicely. It also could flop. The price was great, sounds like Hall may have helped us out there.
Something I can't really get off my mind. We're leaving available money untouched(B's not using LTIR for John Moore, but LTIR overage can't be used for bonuses so it's not that...we just aren't going to spend it), we're holding onto prospects that will never see a game with Krejci, Bergeron, Marchand, and Rask, and picks that will be even further away..more than likely.
I think the most exciting part about the Hall price was the opportunities it created. You traded really nothing for him. Kept all major assets. Feels like a missed opportunity to add just one more piece and really solidify things. Our hope is that one of Jake DeBrusk/Nick Ritchie/Taylor Hall work out playing out of position and that one of Reilly/Lauzon/Zboril can be a top 4 20 minute a night defender in four 7 game series'
Maybe they're so confident they can keep Hall at a reasonable price this summer that it wasn't a go for it move this year, but next year. I dunno. Just felt like a moment where the chips really could be pushed in, but instead, we remained hesitant. It's sort of saying "sorry Patrice, Sorry David, Sorry Tuukka...we could have really gone for it but that would have cost Uhro Vaakaninen, or the chance to draft another Uhro Vaakaninen and we determined that getting you that help just wouldn't be worth that."
It's a deadline where we were "in on" a ton of things, ended up with a solid bottom 3 defender, a 4th liner, and a guy who it sounds like requested to be traded to us.
THAT ALL BEING SAID
No one moved today that I wanted in addition into Hall. But also, no one knew Mantha or Vrana were available until they were. So I'm speculating a little bit that the chips could be pushed all in and the issue could be forced to acquire someone that otherwise wasn't traded. Obviously that's not a guarantee.
I think these moves helped, with the potential for the Hall move to help a ton or crash and burn..but I still just can't shake the feeling that the Bruins cup chances are solely based on a lot of things going exactly their way.
Again, unless this was all for building toward a run next year, with this year just being gravy and I'm just misreading it. It's also been a while since we've had an aggressive offseason...or a single offseason trade...so I'm factoring that into my equation here.
