NHL Team Preview 2015-16: Boston Bruins

Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney comments on trading Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic plus the situation between the pipes.

No NHL general manager was busier than Don Sweeney was this summer. The first-year GM wasn’t trigger shy whatsoever as the Bruins made more significant roster moves than any other team.

Sweeney traded away core players like Milan Lucic, Dougie Hamilton and Reilly Smith, took Jakub Zboril 13th overall at the draft and reached on a pair of first-round picks in Jake DeBrusk (14th) and Zachary Senyshyn (15th). Adding to the scepticism around those three picks is the fact they all failed conditioning tests earlier this month.

You have to applaud Sweeney for his bold approach, however all his moves will be second guessed if the team misses the playoffs again.

Head coach: Claude Julien
GM: Don Sweeney
Team payroll: $66.6-million cap hit on $71.4 million cap

Last season record: 41-27-14, 99 points, 9th in the East
Goals for: 213
Goals against: 211
PP: 17.8 per cent, ranked 18th
PK: 82 per cent, ranked 12th
Corsi for per 60: 55.7 (via stats.hockeyanalysis.com)

Key acquisitions: Matt Beleskey, Jimmy Hayes, Matt Irwin, Zac Rinaldo, Joonas Kemppainen, Zane McIntyre

Key departures: Milan Lucic, Dougie Hamilton, Reilly Smith, Carl Soderberg, Gregory Campbell, Matt Bartkowski, Daniel Paille, Marc Savard

Rookies to Watch: Malcolm Subban, Zane McIntyre, Colin Miller, Alexander Khokhlachev, Frank Vatrano

While the Bruins have a handful of solid prospects in the pipeline, the most interesting battle in training camp could potentially be between Subban and McIntyre for the backup goalie job.

Pre-season letter grades
Forwards
Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Brad Marchand and Loui Eriksson will still be expected to produce, but the success of the Bruins might come down to how well the young forwards can gel. They added valuable size and scoring ability in Beleskey and Hayes, plus youngsters David Pastrnak and Ryan Spooner are looking to build off excellent 2014-15 campaigns. This is a promising forward group. GRADE: B-

Defence
The Bruins needed to upgrade their blueline. Besides adding quality depth defenceman Matt Irwin they failed to do so. Kevan Miller and Zach Trotman will be playing for new contracts and should be improved, but Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg aren’t getting any better at this stage of their careers and a decline in foot speed hurts the Bruins’ back end. The Bruins are a strong possession team, in large part due to the fact they excel in the faceoff circle, which takes pressure off the defence. GRADE: C

Goaltending
When he’s healthy, Tuukka Rask is a top-five talent. He can singlehandedly keep his team in games and gives his teammates added confidence when he’s in the crease, knowing they can take a risk to make a play and he’ll be there to bail them out. Losing backup Niklas Svedberg hurts their depth, but they’re bringing in Jonas Gustavsson on a PTO. GRADE: A

The Bruins will have a successful season if… they can return to being a top-10 team on the penalty kill. Claude Julien’s team missed the post-season by a mere three points and over the course of the season their subpar play while shorthanded cost them.

The Bruins will have a disappointing season if… the blueline fails them. As mentioned above, Chara isn’t the same intimidating figure he once was. Torey Krug will be key to success on the power-play, but they now lack that young stud blueliner they had in Dougie Hamilton.

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