The Athletic - Boston By the numbers: Offseason grades for all 31 NHL teams

[Blowfish]

Did you not watch our series against one another last spring? JVR looks like Jason Allison on the back check and Bozak lost every single battle no matter which line he was up against. We simply couldn't shelter those guys against you, or any deep team for that matter.

Funny I thought they played better than Matthews and Nylander .... the only notable players in that series were Marner Marleau and Anderson...

 

[bob27]

Yeah, I thought that Bruins had a pretty bad off-season. Not a disaster, but certainly didn't improve the team much. Moore signing frustrates me since it's pretty obvious that either Krug or Grzelcyk is going to lose out which I think is a huge mistake. I just don't see Moore as an upgrade on either of them and locking up a bottom pairing defenceman for 5 years is not good cap management. That said, unless they are hit with an injury bug of biblical proportions they should make the playoffs. From there anything can happen.

 

[Mainehockey33]

Was hoping people wouldn't go for the low hanging fruit but this is HF

This should be considered though. Both Nash’s were ineffective after their concussions so it won’t take much to replace their playoff performances.

 

[Mr. Make-Believe]

Don't underestimate the backup goaltending position. I think -- think -- JH is a steal. Overlooking the second tender in Boston would be "penny wise, pound foolish."

Remember, at one point he was a legitimate number one goalie. He will push Rask, and that's key.

I believe I will actually underestimate that.

Not that I disagree with anything you're saying really. But I didn't feel at any point during the season that the team required better goaltending. They didn't get their asses handed to them by the Lightning because Anton Khudobin wasn't good enough.

Yes Halak is an upgrade. And Rask can be spelled more confidently with him in the fold. I like him a lot.

But his signing will not translate to wins.

 

[Mr. Make-Believe]

So as of right now at this moment in the off-season, do people think the Bruins roster is worse, better, or the same as it was last season?

Same question for the Leafs.

The Bruins... An argument could be made either way. More-or-less the same.

The Leafs... Decidedly improved.

The Bruins were however, the more complete team going into this offseason.

 

[GordonHowe]

I believe I will actually underestimate that.

Not that I disagree with anything you're saying really. But I didn't feel at any point during the season that the team required better goaltending. They didn't get their asses handed to them by the Lightning because Anton Khudobin wasn't good enough.

Yes Halak is an upgrade. And Rask can be spelled more confidently with him in the fold. I like him a lot.

But his signing will not translate to wins.

Not saying it will. I'm saying Halak is superior to Chad Johnson, and, likely, AK. Again, Rask needs his rest, and he needs to be pushed. Halak should provide both elements.

 

[GloryDaze4877]

I believe I will actually underestimate that.

Not that I disagree with anything you're saying really. But I didn't feel at any point during the season that the team required better goaltending. They didn't get their asses handed to them by the Lightning because Anton Khudobin wasn't good enough.

Yes Halak is an upgrade. And Rask can be spelled more confidently with him in the fold. I like him a lot.

But his signing will not translate to wins.

Completely disagree with you here.

If you subscribe to the idea that keeping your starting goalie in the 55 game range is a good idea mentally and physically (which I do), having a good backup absolutely translates into regular season wins (this is not even taking into account the starter getting knicked up and missing a few games).

Obviously, you can only dress one during the playoffs, so Halak will (hopefully) not be translating directly to playoff wins. Indirectly, however, the rest that he provides Rask regular season should absolutely benefit the team come playoff time. I don’t think Khudobin was a problem last year, but we have seen what an issue having a weak backup can be, and I think the B’s are very cognizant of it.

 

[GloryDaze4877]

The Bruins... An argument could be made either way. More-or-less the same.

The Leafs... Decidedly improved.

The Bruins were however, the more complete team going into this offseason.

I agree with you on the B’s. The D should be even better, but up front they will have to rely on Heinen and DeBrusk building off last year and a couple of other young uns to fill the holes.

I think Toronto has improved, but they did lose a couple of significant pieces. I’m not the biggest JVR guy, but 36 goals is 36 goals, and I thought Bozak and Komarov were good players.

Leafs fans remind me of B’s fans in one regard. While a guy is on their team, he’s the best thing since sliced bread, but when they lose him to free agency, he becomes a worthless POS that they won’t miss at all.

 

[ON3M4N]

I love that so many "experts" are down the Bruins and drooling over Tampa and Toronto. These same "experts" last year said Boston was a fringe playoff team that was a few years away from competing.

 

[Donnie Shulzhoffer]

I love that so many "experts" are down the Bruins and drooling over Tampa and Toronto. These same "experts" last year said Boston was a fringe playoff team that was a few years away from competing.

The expert you are referring to is a Leafs blogger and pretty much everyone including this board last year thought they were a team on building youth and jot making a serious run

 

[ON3M4N]

The expert you are referring to is a Leafs blogger and pretty much everyone including this board last year thought they were a team on building youth and jot making a serious run

He's not the only one. You read most articles that grade teams and I've yet to see anyone say good things about Boston. As far as the board, maybe that was the case. Myself, I told people that I thought Boston would surprise some folks. Maybe not make a full cup run, but that they could get to the 2nd/3rd round of the playoffs.

 

[KnightofBoston]

Yeah, I thought that Bruins had a pretty bad off-season. Not a disaster, but certainly didn't improve the team much. Moore signing frustrates me since it's pretty obvious that either Krug or Grzelcyk is going to lose out which I think is a huge mistake. I just don't see Moore as an upgrade on either of them and locking up a bottom pairing defenceman for 5 years is not good cap management. That said, unless they are hit with an injury bug of biblical proportions they should make the playoffs. From there anything can happen.

Have you watched Moore play? He’s an upgrade on both in terms of size and skating, krug is obviously far better offensively and Gryzz is younger and has more room to grow his game, but he’s one of our better D now


I look at the Moore signing as Sweeney saying “I like that we brought in Nick Holden, let’s get a guy that’s similar maybe even better to shore up our defense”

The cap he was able to sign him at is very good btw

I think this is where the money spent on both McQuaid and Miller will really start to hurt them however because inevitably we will have a few million watching the games most nights

 

[DKH]

Bruins offseason to me is

D~ splash

A-/B+ ~ hockey move

I actually get it why the Leafs guys have no clue assessing the Bruins and should have cut them a break instead of calling them out even though I was 100% accurate

They did it last summer
They did it before the playoffs

I’m going to give Luke Fox a mulligan seems like a good guy reading him and I get his frustration with the Leafs

 

[chizzler]

Bruins offseason to me is

D~ splash

A-/B+ ~ hockey move

I actually get it why the Leafs guys have no clue assessing the Bruins and should have cut them a break instead of calling them out even though I was 100% accurate

They did it last summer
They did it before the playoffs

I’m going to give Luke Fox a mulligan seems like a good guy reading him and I get his frustration with the Leafs

I don’t think they go 8 deep in defense.

 

[DKH]

I don’t think they go 8 deep in defense.

Right now it’s all planning and educated guess work and Camp will likely have a twist to those 8 and Zboril

What is will be?

We will find out

 

[b in vancouver]

Toronto best chance is to save Cap money they have and pick up expiring FA defenseman next March

I’m ecstatic the Leafs fans have already put chairs along the parade route

Can’t wait for their demise

Can you have a demise when you already suck ?

Toronto's won every off season in the cap era, minus the Muskoga Five year.
I think the season is just a long distraction for them until they can back to what they love, talk about how great their team is going to be in the summer when no one can point to the ice and laugh. It's the only time of the year they can't be proven wrong.
It's a broken record out of that fanbase every July and August.

 

[DKH]

Toronto's won every off season in the cap era, minus the Muskoga Five year.
I think the season is just a long distraction for them until they can back to what they love, talk about how great their team is going to be in the summer when no one can point to the ice and laugh. It's the only time of the year they can't be proven wrong.
It's a broken record out of that fanbase every July and August.

The Leafs fans are begging the 3 kids to take team friendly deals because deep in their subconscious mind is the knowledge that their D as is is not a Cup quality group

 

[b in vancouver]

The Leafs fans are begging the 3 kids to take team friendly deals because deep in their subconscious mind is the knowledge that their D as is is not a Cup quality group

They won't. That's the problem with tanking. Teams like Toronto without anything else going for them have to market these high picks so much to keep the fanbase excited that by the time it comes to second contracts the players have all the leverage as they know there'd be a revolt if there was some snag or if they were traded. Getting Tavares might help them in that regard as they have someone else to talk about.

Bruins and Lightning are the gate-keepers. T.O. has to go through both of them and everyone league-wide knows how brutal that fanbase would be if they actually won a round or two.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

They won't. That's the problem with tanking. Teams like Toronto without anything else going for them have to market these high picks so much to keep the fanbase excited that by the time it comes to second contracts the players have all the leverage as they know there'd be a revolt if there was some snag or if they were traded. Getting Tavares might help them in that regard as they have someone else to talk about.

Bruins and Lightning are the gate-keepers. T.O. has to go through both of them and everyone league-wide knows how brutal that fanbase would be if they actually won a round or two.

Don't really think Toronto's fan base needs pumping. Selling the fans on the Leafs is pretty easy there. Its a hockey team.

 

[b in vancouver]

As far as the off-season.
Coming into it all I really wanted was for them to re-sign Rick Nash. Still hoping he decides to sign if he thinks he can handle it, even halfway through.
Then the chance of Tavares had me excited as that top 9 would be deadly and be incredibly entertaining.
Kony would've been interesting.
That they were trying for all three means I'm not completely out to lunch. Just seemed like a summer that you either get the big fish or lay low.

Outside of that I didn't think they needed to do much. Didn't want them trading either Backes or Krejci. Thought they could try and find a decent 3rd line centre but wasn't sure what their thoughts were about in-house players.

 

[b in vancouver]

Don't really think Toronto's fan base needs pumping. Selling the fans on the Leafs is pretty easy there. Its a hockey team.

True. But every second sweater is Matthews already. pre-Tavares, it's all Leaf fans talk about. And Marner. He has them seeing this light at the end of the tunnel. They finally had a somewhat decent year and expectations are through the roof because of him. If he held out or was traded, management will be on thin ice.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

I've already given my opinion on the topic earlier in the thread, but I'll add in some brief thoughts on the backup goaltender position.

Halak, by the book/numbers, is an "upgrade" over Anton Khudobin. That being said, this is the second time that I'm disappointed Anton has left (the first time I understood since he was getting a shot at a #1 role). From what I can see, he's got a winner's attitude and has performed quite admirably in his role being here, during both stints.

Considering the importance in today's game of a good backup, I really don't like that it is a position in which the team seems to penny pinch or move on from guys because there is a slightly "better value" on paper. It's hard to call someone a "backup" when he is relied on for goaltending duties 1/4 to 1/3 of a season. It is just difficult for me to see the swapping guys in and out nearly every season to be a surefire strategy, especially when the guy leaving is one who has verbally expressed his admiration for the organization and has performed very much up to par, in my opinion. Seems almost to be as big of a risk as it is a potential reward. Especially when it's a guy like Halak who has got some miles on him.

 

[BruinsBtn]

The premise of this thread is stupid. Who cares about offseason grades, the only thing that matters is how good your hockey team is.

The Bruins had a terrible start last year, a whole bunch of injuries, six rookies playing big roles and still crushed it. Now they're adding Donato and Bjork is back. They didn't need to do anything in the offseason to get better.

If they find out the team has a hole, they can fix it at the deadline.

 

[CharasLazyWrister]

The premise of this thread is stupid. Who cares about offseason grades, the only thing that matters is how good your hockey team is.

The Bruins had a terrible start last year, a whole bunch of injuries, six rookies playing big roles and still crushed it. Now they're adding Donato and Bjork is back. They didn't need to do anything in the offseason to get better.

If they find out the team has a hole, they can fix it at the deadline.

This is exactly how I feel, and I can't remember the last time that is how I have felt approaching an offseason.

 

[ODAAT]

I agree with you on the B’s. The D should be even better, but up front they will have to rely on Heinen and DeBrusk building off last year and a couple of other young uns to fill the holes.

I think Toronto has improved, but they did lose a couple of significant pieces. I’m not the biggest JVR guy, but 36 goals is 36 goals, and I thought Bozak and Komarov were good players.

Leafs fans remind me of B’s fans in one regard. While a guy is on their team, he’s the best thing since sliced bread, but when they lose him to free agency, he becomes a worthless POS that they won’t miss at all.

Good post

While I can`t disagree that the addition of Tavares makes the Leafs stronger, it makes them stronger in one area IMO, that`s offensively.

Unless that team see`s a drastic turnaround on D, they will continue to lean heavily on Andersen. The benefit for them is they may very well just outscore teams 7-6

I`m totally uncertain about the B`s. I feel that way simply because I haven`t seen much of Wagner that I recall, know little about Nordstrom other than he won`t produce much offensively and Moore I have only watched a handful of times when the B`s played the Devs and the few playoff games I watched him play this past year vs the Bolts where I didn`t notice him a ton.

Either way, Nash (Riley) gone might be a tough one to replace but he got paid way too much, I`ll argue he`ll return immediately to the norm of sitting somewhere between 20 and 30 pts but his value wasn`t just that he produced some offense.

We shall see what happens. I think the Wagner signing will be fun to watch, seems like a player Bruin fans will love as far as physicality, hustle etc...DS said he wanted to add some size on the Left side of the back end, he did that but I think some here took his comments a touch out of context(not directed at you), I don`t think he was referring to that player being a guy who`ll lay out opponents consistently but more so a player who has the size to absorb the physical play of opponents a bit easier and it sounds like Moore can do that.

So much of the B`s success IMO will be reliant on how the 2nd year players play. Will we see Heinen and Jake play with a bit more consistency? I know all loved Jake and his game at playoff time (as I did too) but some seem to forget that Jake wasn`t exactly consistent either during the regular season. While he didn`t slump offensively as Heinen did for a long stretch at one point, he too was a healthy scratch at least on one occasion and I did find often he was completely invisible for games at a time.

Please don`t hammer me for that, I love the kid, love both he and Heinen and both seem to be the kinds of kids who push themselves to learn and get better so I suspect that will continue but those two, McAvoy, can Grizz continue his strong play from last season and concerns about the 3rd line would be my question marks once the season begins