Player Discussion Matt Grzelcyk

[bruinsfan1970]

Let's hope Matty picks up on the scoring as it has been a silent start, would like to see him pop in a few. Also enjoy watching him and Cliffy as Cliffy is a better skater but together they look like two forwards playing "D".

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[Blowfish]

I think one of Cliffy or Gryz can partly replace Krug. I love Krug but a large contract to Krug can hurt the bruins down the road.

Tough decision for Krug and bruins following this playoffs.

 

[Dr Hook]

Still my favorite non-Bergeron/Marchand Bruin. Rarely a bad game from him, and I believe he would thrive with increased ice-time and responsibilities. Certainly his scoring would improve. He's learned a good bit from the last Tampa series as well about dealing with a heavy forecheck from bigger guys. He was rarely caught with the puck in deep, and made very few poor passes in his own zone.

 

[NDiesel]

Still my favorite non-Bergeron/Marchand Bruin. Rarely a bad game from him, and I believe he would thrive with increased ice-time and responsibilities. Certainly his scoring would improve. He's learned a good bit from the last Tampa series as well about dealing with a heavy forecheck from bigger guys. He was rarely caught with the puck in deep, and made very few poor passes in his own zone.

His snap shot is so unbelievable, if he got it off more often im sure his scoring would greatly increase. He seriously seems to hit the bar every time he pulls it out.

 

[False Start]

His snap shot is so unbelievable, if he got it off more often im sure his scoring would greatly increase. He seriously seems to hit the bar every time he pulls it out.

Only guy who scored in Game 7.

 

[BostonBruins11]

How underrated is this guy? He's buy far our best D at puck retrieval/zone breakouts, silky smooth hands for a D.
Give him a foot and he'll get around almost any fore check. He doesn't crumble no matter how much pressure is on him!

I'm not saying he's good in corner/board battles but 90% of the time it's not needed when he's retrieving the puck.
Also he's great at keeping the puck in the O-zone (cough cough Krug...)

Paired with Carlo would also allow Carlo to stretch his leg since Grzelcyk is way more responsible defensively than Krug.

I think it's time for Trap Jesus to make a video compilation of his zone breakouts, especially under pressure!

 

[DKH]

I put him up with McAvoy and see if they spend 70% of their time in the offensive zone

 

[JCRO]

How underrated is this guy? He's buy far our best D at puck retrieval/zone breakouts, silky smooth hands for a D.
Give him a foot and he'll get around almost any fore check. He doesn't crumble no matter how much pressure is on him!

I'm not saying he's good in corner/board battles but 90% of the time it's not needed when he's retrieving the puck.
Also he's great at keeping the puck in the O-zone (cough cough Krug...)

Paired with Carlo would also allow Carlo to stretch his leg since Grzelcyk is way more responsible defensively than Krug.

I think it's time for Trap Jesus to make a video compilation of his zone breakouts, especially under pressure!

but but hes smol!!!!!

 

[BostonBruins11]

but but hes smol!!!!!

He'd be our only "small" D in the lineup.... i'll take it

 

[EON]

Imo Boston should be targeting a decently mobile, 2nd pair LD to pair with Carlo until prospects are ready and form a real shut down pairing, then put Grzelcyk with McAvoy and let those two fly. I think their mobility, passing, and breakout capabilities will dominate other teams.

Would also love to see Grzelcyk get a chance running the top unit to let McAvoy handle the bulk of the workload 5v5 and 4v5. Hopefully they sign Grzelcyk to a reasonable bridge deal soon.

 

[BostonBruins11]

Imo Boston should be targeting a decently mobile, 2nd pair LD to pair with Carlo until prospects are ready and form a real shut down pairing, then put Grzelcyk with McAvoy and let those two fly. I think their mobility, passing, and breakout capabilities will dominate other teams.

Would also love to see Grzelcyk get a chance running the top unit to let McAvoy handle the bulk of the workload 5v5 and 4v5. Hopefully they sign Grzelcyk to a reasonable bridge deal soon.

Didn't he just finish a 2 year bridge deal? At 26 he's probably looking for at least 4 years

 

[Dr Hook]

Didn't he just finish a 2 year bridge deal? At 26 he's probably looking for at least 4 years

I would think so, 4 yrs, 3 - 3.5 mil. would be about right. I don't know what he would get in arbitration if it happens.

 

[BostonBruins11]

I would think so, 4 yrs, 3 - 3.5 mil. would be about right. I don't know what he would get in arbitration if it happens.

That would be awesome!

He's got a ton of skill and if put in a position to succeed offensively I think he would end up being one our best contracts after Pasta's.
I could easily see hit break 30pts maybe even 40 pts next year.
I've never seen another defensemen that can consistently slip past forecheckers while under pressure the way he does (unless we're talking about the greats!)
Silky smooth hands/skating!

 

[BostonBruins11]

Imo Boston should be targeting a decently mobile, 2nd pair LD to pair with Carlo until prospects are ready and form a real shut down pairing, then put Grzelcyk with McAvoy and let those two fly. I think their mobility, passing, and breakout capabilities will dominate other teams.

Would also love to see Grzelcyk get a chance running the top unit to let McAvoy handle the bulk of the workload 5v5 and 4v5. Hopefully they sign Grzelcyk to a reasonable bridge deal soon.

Gryz defensive zone breakout ability combined with McAvoy's offensive instinct/heavy game would be a treat!

 

[Dr Hook]

That would be awesome!

He's got a ton of skill and if put in a position to succeed offensively I think he would end up being one our best contracts after Pasta's.
I could easily see hit break 30pts maybe even 40 pts next year.
I've never seen another defensemen that can consistently slip past forecheckers while under pressure the way he does (unless we're talking about the greats!)
Silky smooth hands/skating!

He doesn't get enough respect around here. People say things like "I love Gryz but . . ." because he is small. I am a huge fan of his game and think he is better than where he has been played to this point and that was largely because he was blocked from playing up the lineup and understandably so, really. Now he will get his chance to play to the level I believe he is capable of, which is as a top 4 pairing playing 20 minutes+ a night and running a PP. He will always be subjec to matchup considerations, but when is that ever not the case for a player who isn't elite? There are not that many guys in the league that matchup just fine against all styles and speeds and skillsets.

 

[BostonBruins11]

That second goal....

 

[BruinDust]

Interested to see what happens here. I think a 1-year arbitration award makes him a UFA next summer.

Is that more advantageous for the Bruins? Set him up to become a UFA, protect someone else. Then hope that Seattle selects another Boston player rather than use their "Bruins pick" by signing Gryz (If you sign a team's UFA during the period they get to talk to UFAs before eveyryone else, Seattle forfeits essentially their expansion pick from that team). Then extend Gryz right after the expansion draft prior to July 1st (or whenever free agency starts next year, likely later than July 1).

Or to they prefer to cut a long-term deal with him in order to keep the AAV down and ration out the actual real dollars going out similar to what they did with Craig Smith? Maybe even allowing them to acquire a scoring winger without needing to shed Gryz or Debrusk to make the cap hit work.

 

[McGarnagle]

Next summer we're going to have to make a choice on him in the expansion draft. We can protect 3 defensemen, and McAvoy/Carlo are no brainers for two of them. 1st & 2nd year players are exempt, so Lauzon/Vaak are clean. That means the final choice is Gryz or Clifton. However, one of the caveats in the draft is that we must expose at least "* One defenseman who is a) under contract in 2021-22 and b) played in at least 40 NHL games the prior season or played in at least 70 NHL games in the prior two seasons.". Clifton only got about 31 games in last year (who knows if they prorate/adjust for COVID). If circumstances of injury or lineup shuffling cause Clifton/Moore/Miller to all get in less than 40 games this upcoming year, then we may be backed into a corner where we are forced to expose Gryz, unless we acquire a defenseman expressly for that purpose or bring back Chara on a two-year deal just to expose him.

 

[Dr Hook]

Next summer we're going to have to make a choice on him in the expansion draft. We can protect 3 defensemen, and McAvoy/Carlo are no brainers for two of them. 1st & 2nd year players are exempt, so Lauzon/Vaak are clean. That means the final choice is Gryz or Clifton. However, one of the caveats in the draft is that we must expose at least "* One defenseman who is a) under contract in 2021-22 and b) played in at least 40 NHL games the prior season or played in at least 70 NHL games in the prior two seasons.". Clifton only got about 31 games in last year (who knows if they prorate/adjust for COVID). If circumstances of injury or lineup shuffling cause Clifton/Moore/Miller to all get in less than 40 games this upcoming year, then we may be backed into a corner where we are forced to expose Gryz, unless we acquire a defenseman expressly for that purpose or bring back Chara on a two-year deal just to expose him.

Good point. I do expect adjustments for the Covid, probably a percentage? Depending on how long this upcoming season is, either Clifton or Moore could acquire the necessary number of games to fit the criteria. If they sign no other D but K.Miller who may not actually ever play, Cliffy should get there. Or they could decide to roll Moore out nightly in some spot for the express purpose of acquiring the needed games.

 

[McGarnagle]

Good point. I do expect adjustments for the Covid, probably a percentage? Depending on how long this upcoming season is, either Clifton or Moore could acquire the necessary number of games to fit the criteria. If they sign no other D but K.Miller who may not actually ever play, Cliffy should get there. Or they could decide to roll Moore out nightly in some spot for the express purpose of acquiring the needed games.

I can easily see a situation in March/April next year where say Clifton is injured and Moore is struggling while Zboril or Vaak are clearly superior options for the 6D, but Sweeney is forcing Bruce to keep getting Moore in the lineup to hit the pro-rated expansion draft number but keeps getting burned for crucial goals. Could be ugly around here.

 

[Dr Hook]

I can easily see a situation in March/April next year where say Clifton is injured and Moore is struggling while Zboril or Vaak are clearly superior options for the 6D, but Sweeney is forcing Bruce to keep getting Moore in the lineup to hit the pro-rated expansion draft number but keeps getting burned for crucial goals. Could be ugly around here.

Yes this is possible and let's hope it doesn't happen because I don't think Chara is coming back and if he does, not at 2 years.

 

[Dr Hook]

I can easily see a situation in March/April next year where say Clifton is injured and Moore is struggling while Zboril or Vaak are clearly superior options for the 6D, but Sweeney is forcing Bruce to keep getting Moore in the lineup to hit the pro-rated expansion draft number but keeps getting burned for crucial goals. Could be ugly around here.

Oh, the other option I guess would be to pay Seattle off for not taking Gryz if they have to expose him.

 

[McGarnagle]

Oh, the other option I guess would be to pay Seattle off for not taking Gryz if they have to expose him.

In that case we'd have to pay them a ransom to make them take Chris Wagner or Blidh. And how many first rounders can you afford to keep trading? If I'm Seattle, I'm not taking a couple second round picks to take Wagner over Gryz.

 

[BruinDust]

Next summer we're going to have to make a choice on him in the expansion draft. We can protect 3 defensemen, and McAvoy/Carlo are no brainers for two of them. 1st & 2nd year players are exempt, so Lauzon/Vaak are clean. That means the final choice is Gryz or Clifton. However, one of the caveats in the draft is that we must expose at least "* One defenseman who is a) under contract in 2021-22 and b) played in at least 40 NHL games the prior season or played in at least 70 NHL games in the prior two seasons.". Clifton only got about 31 games in last year (who knows if they prorate/adjust for COVID). If circumstances of injury or lineup shuffling cause Clifton/Moore/Miller to all get in less than 40 games this upcoming year, then we may be backed into a corner where we are forced to expose Gryz, unless we acquire a defenseman expressly for that purpose or bring back Chara on a two-year deal just to expose him.

Lauzon can be picked, so can Zboril/Clifton/etc. It's 2 pro seasons, not 2 NHL seasons. Lauzon is going on his 4th, so is Zboril.

Vaak is exempt as somehow (and I don't know the specifics, smarter posters than me have explained the how before) his 1st pro season doesn't count when it comes to expansion draft eligibility.

If Lauzon or Zboril play to the level that I think Sweeney and Co. expect them to this coming year, the choice of who the 3rd guy to protect isn't so clear.

Assuming A) Gryz is extended beyond 1-year, and B) Carlo and McAvoy are two of the three protected, if Seattle goes with a D-man they'll have a nice variety of players to choose from Boston, and one of Zboril/Lauzon/Clifton/Gryz will be gone. One of the four will be protected, leaving a choice of 1 out of remaining 3.

But if you consider that Vaak should be ready for NHL duty in 2021-22, it's not really that big of a deal.

 

[Dr Hook]

And of course this all assumes that Seattle takes a d man from Boston whereas in reality we have no idea what choices they will have from 31 others teams as well as what their team-building philosphy will be like.