Confirmed with Link: Jonas Gustavsson $700k

[talkinaway]

Zane has no reason to be pissed. No promises were made when he signed except an opportunity to compete for the backup position. Of the three he is the only one without extensive professional experience. He should be pleased to play in Providence and compete for an injury call up.

I can see the argument for Zane being a little annoyed - if I'm reading it right. If he had the choice of playing another year of college hockey or going to the ECHL, he'd probably choose college. If he had the choice of playing college hockey or being part of a threesome in Providence, he'd probably choose college. He took a gamble, and, so far it might not work out how he hoped. (Now, if Smith gets claimed, all this changes, naturally.)

I assume that at the time Zane signed, we just had Rask, Smith, and Subban, with Svedberg on his way to Russia. He probably figured that, worse case scenario, he'd be an AHL backup to Subban, which would give him plenty of ice time.

That said, I doubt anyone in the Bruins organization would have been foolish enough to guarantee Zane that we wouldn't get a fifth goalie. In fact, it was pretty obvious even to me that, while he's a perfectly viable backup, Smith was far from a lock to make it to the NHL.

The organization didn't give him a raw deal - I think it's just an unfortunate circumstance at this point.

 

[Tim Vezina Thomas]

If we loan Smith to another AHL team can we recall him if we need him? Not sure how that works.

This whole situation feels a bit mismanaged. Seems like the Bruins wanted to eat their cake and have it too. A prospect like McYintre has no business being in the ECHL. Its not a death sentence, but to go from Hobey Baker award finalist with seemingly a ton of interest from other teams to ECHL starter has to grind his gears a bit.

The only scenario I think the Bruins could run into trouble with loaning Smith to another team is if Monster is injured long term. Having Subban/McYintre riding pine isnt going to help anyone.

If we have the ability to take back Smith if Monster gets injured I think that would be the ideal scenario.

 

[JRull86]

You could argue that Zane would be better served in Atlanta playing regularly while Subban plays in Providence regularly, but man, I really don't get this move. Seems like just a little less cap space that will hinder us IF we get make upgrades near the trade deadline.

Honestly it boils down to the Bruins wanting a proven vet as a backup to Rask after Svedberg sucked last year. Rask has no business playing 70+ games before playoffs.

I think in an ideal world, they would've just signed Gustavsson during free agency, but due to his injury concerns they wanted to see him before committing. Signing Smith was insurance to Gustavsson looking bad, etc on his PTO. But I fully think it was Gustavsson's job to lose in camp if he performed.

Could Smith have conceivable given them 20+ games? Probably. But I don't blame the Bruins front office for being a little gun shy about that given how last year unfolded.

 

[Gee Wally]

feel free to continue discussion here in the Roster Thread.

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1961287

Thanks!

GW