Hockey is back! Well, technically it's been back for about a week and half, in the form of captains' practices and rookie camp. But now Bruins training camp begins on Wednesday with players reporting for their physicals, followed by the first official practice of the new season on Thursday.
This is going to be a sprint of a training camp, even more than usual. With the regular season expanding to 84 games and starting earlier – Boston's opener is Sept. 29 – training camp and the preseason are now shorter. The Bruins will have less than two weeks of practice and just four preseason games to get ready for the season and make some crucial roster decisions.
Speaking of which, here are six of the biggest questions facing Don Sweeney, Marco Sturm and company as training camp begins:
Will they name a captain?
Sturm said last week that he, Sweeney and team president Cam Neely were still talking through the captaincy, but that a decision would be made one way or another before the start of the season.
Last year, the Bruins went the whole season without a captain. David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm were the three primary alternate captains, while Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm also wore an 'A' at times due to injuries.
By all accounts, the arrangement worked out well last year, and there really weren't any signs of any friction. That would be the argument for keeping things as is and going another season without a 'C.'
The argument against doing that is that you just rarely see teams – especially playoff-caliber teams – go multiple seasons without a 'C.' Oh, and Neely and Sturm are both on record saying they'd like to name a captain at some point.
Training camp is a popular time for teams to name captains, so if the Bruins are going to, I've thought all along that this week or next week is when it will happen. It's a two-man competition between Pastrnak and McAvoy, and if I had to handicap it, I'd give the slight edge to Pastrnak. He's their best player, he's been around a little longer, his number is going to be retired someday, and he has really stepped up off the ice in the last couple years to help guide the team through a retool.
Will they extend Zacha?
The Bruins already made one long-term signing leading up to the season when they extended Fraser Minten on a seven-year, $50.4 million deal. Will there be another?
When it comes to contract situations, the biggest one now facing the Bruins is Pavel Zacha. The 29-year-old center had a career-high 30 goals and 65 points last season. He now enters the final year of a contract that pays him $4.75 million per year. His next contract will pay him a lot more than that – possibly double or more. The question is whether it will be the Bruins paying him.
Zacha could become an unrestricted free agent next summer. There is mutual interest in an extension, but the two sides haven't been able to agree on one yet. And while it might seem like there's plenty of time to figure things out between now and July, it's a bit more complicated than that.
Losing Zacha for nothing, especially if the Bruins aren't legitimate Cup contenders this season, would be nothing short of a disaster. He has significant trade value in a league where teams are always looking for second-line centers, and could likely fetch the Bruins at least one premium asset in return, if not more.
Of course, trading Zacha now would make the Bruins worse in the present, and that would be a tough pill for the team to swallow on the eve of the season. If they hold onto him without a new contract in place, the same questions could surface again around trade deadline time. It would be easy for the Bruins to trade Zacha if they're underperforming and out of the playoffs, but what if they're in a similar position as last season (in the playoffs, but still multiple pieces away from true contention)?
I do believe the Bruins' preference is still to extend Zacha and keep him around. The question is at what cost. With the market exploding across the board this summer, and only going up from here, that cost might reach a point that the Bruins just can't afford, especially with significant money already tied up in two other centers (Minten at $7.2M AAV and Elias Lindhom at $7.75M).
What's up with Poitras?
UPDATE: The Bruins signed Poitras to a one-year, two-way deal with an NHL cap hit of $850,000 on Wednesday morning. Note: a two-way deal means Poitras would be paid a different amount in the AHL than the NHL. It does not affect his waiver eligibility; Poitras would still need to clear waivers to be sent to Providence. Our original write-up on Poitras remains unedited below:
Three years ago, Matt Poitras looked like a major part of the Bruins' future when he made the team out of camp as a 19-year-old and posted 15 points in 33 games in his first taste of the NHL.
Now it's fair to wonder where, if at all, Poitras factors into Boston's plans. For starters, he still doesn't even have a contract for the season as of Wednesday morning, as he remains a restricted free agent.
Poitras's name has popped up in plenty of trade rumors going back to last season, and that remains a possibility. But one way or another, something has to get done here and Poitras has to get on the ice. If it's in Boston, Poitras figures to be smack on the roster bubble. And with training camp so short, any missed time could be costly when it comes to his chances of making the opening night roster. Poitras would need to clear waivers to be sent to Providence.
This is a situation that has gone unresolved far longer than I would have anticipated to start the summer, and it really is make-or-break time now.
Who's on Pastrnak's line?
It's pretty amazing that David Pastrnak put together a fourth straight 100-point season last year despite never really being on a settled line at 5-on-5. Sometimes it was Elias Lindholm centering him. Sometimes it was Fraser Minten. Sometimes Marat Khusnutdinov was on his line. Morgan Geekie was frequently on his opposite wing, but not always. Pastrnak played nearly 1,200 minutes at 5-on-5, and not a single player was with him for 50% of those minutes.
Ideally, the Bruins would find a more consistent first line this season. One thing Sturm is probably going to take a long look at is putting offseason trade acquisition JJ Peterka on Pastrnak's line as the left wing. Peterka can add an element of speed and skill that was often missing last season, and can help ease some of the pressure on Pastrnak to always be the offensive creator. That could free up Pastrnak to get back into goal-scoring mode a little more after scoring just 29 last season (while posting a career-high 71 assists).
Who centers them will be interesting. Zacha was the Bruins' best center last season and has played plenty with Pastrnak in the past, but they actually played very little together last season as Zacha drove his own line with Casey Mittelstadt and the now-departed Viktor Arvidsson. Does Sturm load up with a Peterka-Zacha-Pastrnak line this season? Does he give Elias Lindholm another shot with Pastrnak and hope Lindholm's back injury is finally behind him? Does Minten get a serious look there after some encouraging stretches with Pastrnak last season?
Will Hagens make the team?
Top prospect James Hagens certainly gave himself a nice head start by going to the Prospects Showcase in Buffalo this past weekend and scoring six goals in two games to help lead the Bruins to a pair of wins over the Sabres. Now we'll see if he can carry that momentum into training camp and the preseason and win a roster spot out of camp.
The 19-year-old Hagens got a taste of the NHL late last season, playing in two regular-season games and three playoff games after turning pro following his sophomore season at Boston College. He also played six AHL games in Providence.
Hagens certainly looks poised to become an NHL regular sooner rather than later, but whether that starts on opening night or after a little more time in Providence will be determined over these next two weeks.
Looking at the Bruins' roster, there is one clear opening in Boston's top nine up front. Hagens should be the favorite to win that spot entering camp, but he's not the only player competing for it. Fourth-liners Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic would like to push to play higher in the lineup. Alex Steeves, Mikey Eyssimont and Lukas Reichel all want to prove they deserve a spot on this team. Matt Poitras will be trying to show he's ready to be a full-time NHLer.
The other question with Hagens is whether he plays center or wing. He is a center by nature, but played left wing in his five games with Boston in the spring. Sturm has strongly hinted that he is likely to start Hagens on the wing in an effort to ease his workload and responsibilities, but don't be surprised if he gives the rookie some looks at center at some point.
How does the D logjam get sorted?
The Bruins have 10 defensemen on NHL contracts. They all require waivers to be sent to Providence. Boston can only carry seven or eight of them. So, something has to give here.
Charlie McAvoy is suspended for the first six regular-season games, but he still has to take up one of the team's 23 roster spots during that time. Hampus Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov are back to anchor the left side.
Sweeney traded for Will Borgen this summer with the idea that he'll slot in behind McAvoy on the right side. He brought back old friend Connor Clifton on a two-year deal with the idea that Clifton will play, or at least be on the roster in a rotational role at worst.
That's five. After that, there's Mason Lohrei and Henri Jokiharju both making $3+ million, but both coming off a season that ended with Sturm healthy-scratching them in the playoffs. Both popped up in trade rumors this summer, but both remain Bruins as camp begins.
There's Jonathan Aspirot, the career AHLer who came out of nowhere to win a regular job last season, including getting paired with McAvoy down the stretch. There's Jordan Harris, the Haverhill native who hoped to get his career back on track with his hometown team last year, only to have his season almost completely wiped out by a broken ankle.
And there's Frederic Brunet, the 23-year-old prospect who was Providence's top defenseman last season and who has now outgrown waiver exemption. Twice this offseason Sweeney brought up Brunet and highlighted him as someone who is ready to get an opportunity in the NHL. How that happens with so many other bodies on the blue line remains to be seen; Brunet may just have to straight-up outperform two or three others over these next couple weeks.
It's still possible someone gets traded away from this group, but Sweeney has always valued defensive depth as well. Lohrei, Aspirot and Brunet would all be candidates to get claimed off waivers if exposed. None of the 10 would be happy if they end up in Providence.
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Just for fun and to maybe help you visualize where things stand, here's how I would break down the Bruins depth chart as camp begins. Note: These aren't line predictions, but more just how I view the hierarchy at each position.
* = still needs a contract
Center
Pavel Zacha
Fraser Minten
Elias Lindholm
Sean Kuraly
*Matt Poitras
Left Wing
JJ Peterka
Casey Mittelstadt
James Hagens
Tanner Jeannot
Right Wing
David Pastrnak
Morgan Geekie
Marat Khusnutdinov (left shot)
Mark Kastelic
Depth Forwards:
Mikey Eyssimont
Alex Steeves
Lukas Reichel
Ivan Ivan
Brendan Gaunce
Dans Locmelis
Brian Halonen
Attilio Biasca
Riley Duran
Left Defense
Hampus Lindholm
Nikita Zadorov
Jonathan Aspirot
Right Defense
Charlie McAvoy
Will Borgen
Connor Clifton
Depth Defensemen
Mason Lohrei
Frederic Brunet
Henri Jokiharju
Jordan Harris
Billy Sweezey
Maxence Guenette
Goalie
Jeremy Swayman
Michael DiPietro
Jiri Patera
Simon Zajicek
Max Lundgren
