BOSTON BRUINS QUOTES
July 13, 2022
BOSTON BRUINS GENERAL MANAGER DON SWEENEY…
On Bergeron and Krejci…
“Nothing’s changed, there’s no update as of right now in terms of finalizing anything. As I referenced the other day, I think we’re in a really good place with Patrice, just the timing and working out the details of his contract and allowing him to declare he’s good to go. Could be any timeframe there. Just working through some of the stuff, letting this day pass and again, he’s the only one who’s going to make that final announcement, because he’s the one with the final say. And David Krejci, we’ve had numerous discussions throughout the day. Going to try to continue to try to find some common ground there. Remains positive, but I just don’t have a clear cut answer for you.”
On if not having those answers made today more difficult…
“No, we operated with a clear mind, indication certainly with one of them. We made the trade earlier today with Erik Haula, and I want to thank Erik. He was a big part of our team this year and did a tremendous job. Wishing him well in New Jersey. We just felt that Pavel Zacha was a player that we had targeted in the middle of the ice in a multi-positional type player. Younger. I feel there’s growth and potential there moving forward. We hope to be able to find a deal with him being a part of the organization now and beyond, that remains to be seen how long that is. But, we’ll attack that right away. Just felt like it was an opportunity for now and potentially moving forward. We identified a player that fit into our organization that we’re excited about.”
On Zacha playing center or wing…
“I suppose a little of it depends on Patrice and David both in that sense. He’s more than comfortable playing all three positions and being productive. And again, we can always move other people around. I think he sees himself as a center and he’s excited to be joining the Boston Bruins. We’re excited to have him. Not really worried about the position, I think down the road he’s definably a center. I think that helps us if we’re able to find the term and agreement.”
On if he has a higher scale offensively…
“Obviously, that’s what you hope for when you make a trade of this nature and a player that was drafted and has the skillset that he has. He’s had opportunity in situations, playing with better players for periods of time — albeit in a younger environment. So, he’ll have a chance to hopefully play in a top-nine scenario with us and with March being out, a significant opportunity early on with power play and situational play that he can benefit from. But we do believe there’s more potential there, and that’s up to Pavel to take advantage of the opportunities he’s presented with.”
On negotiations with Pastrnak…
“No, nothing concrete. We didn’t exchange any numbers, as I said the other day. Officially we can now. So, we’ll go right to work in seeing where David’s at and we’ll take an aggressive mindset and hopefully find the common ground and see. There’s no timeline on it.”
On considering buyouts…
“It probably hasn’t changed for where we stand. But people know me well enough, I don’t rule things out because things can change as you go. But not at this point in time.”
On if he’ll have to get creative with Krejci and Bergeron and the cap situation...
“Yeah, we’ll probably be a little more tilted, look at the performance side of things.”
On if he’ll move salaries before signing them…
“Will I look to, or do I have to? It depends on how we structure the deals.”
On the one-way contract for Greer…
“Our group did a lot of work. Obviously, we’re welcoming A.J. and Dan Renouf, Connor Carrick and Lettieri and Keith Kinkaid to our group as well. We worked hard to look at the depth of our organization and address the areas we felt we could benefit from. In A.J.’s case, had a heck of a year offensively. I think he understands, in talking with him today, doing our background work on him — I think he understands himself a lot better as to what type of player he is and how to be successful. And hopefully that translates — I mean, from the skating and a speed standpoint, getting on pucks and being an aggressive mindset with his size — it’s an attractive quality for us to add to our group. Monty was excited about going through the coaching process and how he envisioned the bottom part of our lineup looking like. I think it was an area that we tried to identify and A.J. was a guy that we feel had some upside there.”
On why he hadn’t exchanged numbers with Pastrnak previously…
“Well, today was the very first day, in all honesty, that you could actually put a number in front of the player. So, with a lot going on elsewhere, it’s just not an area we’ve touched on. Maybe I’ll call tonight and let you know after that, whether or not I’ve actually exchanged numbers if you’re that concerned about it. But we’re going to attack it in an aggressive mindset and see where it hopefully plays out. That’s really the timeline to be more definitive and answer your question.”
On balancing contracts coming up…
“We’re a long way removed from when those contracts were signed. I do believe that the landscape of what those players at that level are signing for, and that’s what the marketplace dictates. Tampa did several deals today that indicate that there’s market shifts, and you just have to move along with it if you’re going to be competitive in this league. Good players are going to put their demands forward, and you’re going to have to decide as an organization whether you can fit those things in or how you’re going to fit those things in. Especially if you want those players, that’s just the nature of how the dynamic of the cap and how teams are being built. I think you’re seeing it pretty much across the board, that these players are existing and what their contract wishes are. As an organization, we have to continue to react to that in a market environment. Again, implementing younger players that provide depth to the organization is paramount.”
On general observations from today…
“You saw some teams hit the accelerator in some situations. They positioned themselves to add to their clubs, and some of them not ready to add to their clubs. But I think overall, the league is going to remain competitive to get into the playoffs. There’s no question. These cycles that are existing, it’s getting harder and harder to just maintain your footing. You look at Tampa reinvesting in their own players since they believe in them, and we’ve done that over here pretty well for a period of time. I think referencing that, you have to continue to find pieces that help you as well as what you’re going to develop. But yeah, I would say honestly some teams hit the accelerator in some areas.”
For if he’d prefer to know about Bergeron and Krejci sooner rather than later…
“No, in Patrice’s case there’s certainly not a deadline. He’s dictating his timeline, but the conversations have gone well, so I’m not overly concerned about it. David’s recently indicated in terms of where he’d like to be, so I don’t think there’s a level of urgency. Obviously, the sooner you get these things, if you can, to a closure, the better off you’ll be. Ideally yes, I would like an earlier timeline on everything.”
On if he’s looking to sign other forwards…
“No, we’re not being aggressive. We’ve got a little bit of view to the back end, given a couple of our injuries, if something presents itself there. Some teams have asked about some of our players, so we’re staying in talks in that regard, so we’re not aggressively in the marketplace at this point.”
On if players are expected to step up due to injuries…
“Yeah, I mean with the injuries I think there is a heck of an opportunity for somebody to emerge and create internal competition. So, we expect all the players, Dan, Connor and Kai Wissmann who’s coming across in Europe who’s got two years of winning in the DEL, Jack Ahcan. So, we are going to have to look through our depth early on, especially with two of our primary players out.”
On if there is any kind of indication from Patrice and Krejci that they would go the other way…
“No, I mean the talks have been positive. So, you know, I’m not a general guy to focus on the negative or the bad side of it. I’m attacking it as it comes and taking my indications from them and hopefully, I find closure here in the shorter term versus the longer term.”
On if he is comfortable going through that many NHL contracts through the season…
“We go through quite a bit of defensemen in the course of the season and the year, so I don’t think that is a general major concern of mine. As I said today, I think the more the merrier in the depth of your organization, the better off you’re going to be in particular the back end. For whatever reason it’s reared its head, the war of nutrition, you know you go through the playoffs. It’s happened to us, you know, Charlie [McAvoy] and Griz [Matt Grzelyck] are great examples of getting dinged up and ending up having surgery as a result. So, no I’m not disappointed to have the number of defense we have in our contract at all.”
On if he will consider signing more defensemen…
“Possibly. You know, you get into the season you just never know. You start with two injuries, who knows, you knock on wood you’re not going to have more, but it’s challenging, you know.”
On if Zboril will ever be able to be the type of skater he was before his injury….
“Yeah, I think it probably is because that’s just the nature of that injury. You know, guys take some time to get back. He got injured very early into our season, so he’s had significant time to come back and be back on the ice, and had a full offseason of appropriate training and playing in his pickup games, and being on the ice appropriately. So, that give you a little bit of comfort and peace of mind, but I think you have to understand he’s going to need some volume in reps, through training camp that will allow him to get his timing completely back. And probably play, you know, significant exhibition games in order to continue to improve upon his timing because the speed of the game as it goes along gets ramped up. But his recovery had gone very well, we are hopeful that he does – as you pointed out – assume the nature of his game was at and where it was trending. That’s what we are excited about.”
On if he has been in touch with Curtis Lazar…
“Yeah. We wish Curtis well. He was a really great Bruin for us. Landed closer to home and it’s probably what was best for he and his family, and you know, Vancouver is lucky to have him.”
On if going back home was important to Curtis…
“I mean you’d have to ask Curtis that. I mean I have to assume anybody would, you know, if you’ve got a young child and you have the opportunity to do that. Vancouver is a good organization, and he got a good opportunity, but I can’t speak for him in that regard. I just thank him because I thought he was a really good Bruin.”
On resigning fourth-line depth players ….
“Yeah, probably just keeping an eye for the guys that we have in the depth of our organization at this point in time that we feel need an opportunity. Whether they take it and hold onto it. You know, several of those players need waivers. So, we just felt comfortable, not necessarily giving up term, to see what these younger players may be able to offer to our group and you know nothing against Curtis. Obviously as you referenced, he was a really good player for us and we are hopeful that the other guys are ready to assume that role. You know, we have integrated well, we’ve identified pretty well of guys that can go in and handle that role, and hopefully we are going to continue to do so.”
On if he has been able to watch much of the guys on the ice this week…
“Probably not as much as I would like. Again, the timing of the critical day calendar is what it is. And it works best, you know, you can always try and move the development camp beyond all of these things, but ideally it works well for the Euros that are coming out of the draft and make sure that outside of Lysell and Lohrei being injured, we’re getting the vast majority of players in camp and I think that’s what is really important for them to spend the appropriate amount of time here. So again, we are all juggling it. The vast majority of the team have their camps in time, and you just have to find the balance.”
On if he had discussions with Acciari, Donato, Heinen….
“I mean I’d hope to think that I’ve had conversations with mostly everybody and understand what their landscape is going to be, and fit them back in. You know, do you revisit players that have played with us and gone on to have some success elsewhere. Do you think that they can come back and duplicate? Yeah, I think you do, and those guys are all good players in the National Hockey League and you wish them well. Vast majority of them have looped back to save the Boston Bruins, they would like to come back, but in this case, it didn’t line up. We didn’t have a lot of spots open in that regard, but we have created a lot of internal competition that I think the players are excited about. That opportunity being A.J. or Dan or Vinni Lettieri, or really any of the guys that we just recently signed. They were excited to join a competitive environment and hopefully sustain winning.”
On how he feels about the team overall as competition…
“I mean, you’re just trying to create the deepest team you can. I mean, you’re talking about Patrice who just won the Selke and as I said earlier, you’re not replacing that player unless you’ve gotten lucky through the draft or drafted appropriately at the top of the rounds. You have other players that are injured, so you know, we are a long way from opening night, but you never feel great or comfortable. You just try and do the best job you can every day and have the conversations with your coaches and how they feel about it and see if there are areas with your scouts, with your staff. Identification, look for blind spots, how we’re going to play and really just pick apart the areas of your game that you think you can improve upon, whether that’s internally or externally and map out through the course of the year. Player transactions usually happen in bunches, you know, this time of the year, trade deadline and periodically throughout. So you have to do a lot of work leading up to both of those environments and then a lot of cases, you’re sitting back crossing your fingers to stay healthy or get healthy and hope that the pieces of the puzzle fit.”
