Bruins coach Jim Montgomery has already revealed what he anticipates his top two lines looking like on opening night. The goaltending situation is pretty straightforward with Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark both back.
Until Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy return, the questions on defense are more about who’s paired with whom rather than who’s in the lineup. Barring an injury or a surprise (maybe from Jack Ahcan or new PTO addition Anton Stralman?), the opening night top six figures to be Hampus Lindholm, Brandon Carlo, Mike Reilly, Jakub Zboril, Derek Forbort and Connor Clifton.
Where the Bruins definitely have some questions that require resolution over the next couple weeks, though, is on their third and fourth lines. Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith look like safe bets to anchor the third line again, but after that everything could be wide open.
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The Bruins have more bodies than roster spots, and more players with something to prove than sure bets. They also have a salary cap and waivers to deal with, and both could factor into who ultimately makes the cut.
Running through the list of players competing for four forward jobs (plus a 13th forward spot), there’s a case for and against all of them as training camp and preseason games begin.
Trent Frederic saw ample time on the third line last year, but there’s no guarantee he starts the season there. He showed flashes of third-line-caliber offense last season, like when he had eight points in an eight-game stretch in March, but then he fell off late in the regular season and got healthy-scratched for a couple games in the playoffs.
The Bruins still like Frederic enough that they’re not going to risk him cutting him and losing him on waivers, but whether he ends up third line, fourth line or extra forward will be up to him.
Nick Foligno would like to move up in the lineup after spending nearly all of last season on the fourth line. He recently told The Athletic that he’s healthy and feels much better than he did at any point last season. He still needs to make sure that translates to better play and more production, though.
If it doesn’t, the 34-year-old veteran could be at risk of losing his job to younger legs. That could open the door for him to be waived and sent to Providence if another team doesn’t claim him, which would free up $1.1 million in salary cap relief.
That was the fate another veteran, Chris Wagner, suffered last season. He finally returned to Boston for the final game of the regular season and wound up earning himself three playoff games as well. Wagner is now in the final year of his contract and is fighting to avoid having to spend another year in the AHL.
Another veteran in the final year of his deal whose roster spot may not be safe is Tomas Nosek. Nosek was expected to bring a little more pop to the fourth line last season, but he wound up scoring just three goals, including zero over the final 57 games of the season. He needs to show he’s in position to contribute more this season or risk being waived or traded.
The reason any or all of those more established players could be in danger of not making the team is because there are just as many young players knocking on the door and trying to take those spots away from them.
Perhaps most notably, Jack Studnicka and Oskar Steen are out of waiver options, meaning they either make the opening night roster or the Bruins waive them and risk losing them for nothing. Both have seemed close to breaking through for a couple years now, and Steen in particular had a promising stretch of games at the NHL level last January, but neither has quite been able to stick yet.
This camp and preseason feels like a make-or-break moment for both, and if they make it, that could be one or two fewer jobs for the vets. While that would seemingly mean there’s more pressure on them, general manager Don Sweeney said this week that he doesn’t see it that way.
“Actually the pressure is less, to be perfectly honest,” Sweeney said. “If they consider themselves NHL players and we consider them NHL players, then the likelihood of going through waivers is less. A lot of guys get to that point and they’re really, really excited because they know they’re getting an opportunity here, but there’s also 31 other teams that could have an opportunity to play in the National Hockey League.
“So they should be ready to go. The adjustment comes if a player is sent down and goes through waivers, we reset at that point. But we’re nowhere near that point right now. Those guys know there’s an opportunity here for them to grab a hold of and take, and we’ve made our decisions all the ways across the board in terms of, we’re gonna keep the best players.”
Then there’s the likes of Fabian Lysell, Marc McLaughlin, Johnny Beecher and other rookies. Lysell would probably have to make the team in a top-six, or at least top-nine, role rather than on the fourth line given his skill set, but if he does, other players would be bumped down.
McLaughlin showed promise in 11 NHL games last season, scoring three goals. His combination of a strong shot, physical play and two-way smarts make him a threat to win a bottom-six job out of the gate this year, especially with an opening on the right side after Curtis Lazar was not re-signed.
Beecher, the Bruins’ 2019 first-round pick, needs to show that his work on his offensive game this summer will outweigh his disappointing scoring totals in college and lead to more production at the pro level. If his offensive game is rounding into form, though, look out, because he already has the size, speed and defensive prowess to play in a bottom-six role.
Beecher scored three goals in three games in the Prospects Challenge in Buffalo last weekend, and Jim Montgomery, for one, was impressed by his first day of training camp on Thursday.
“I thought he was really good today,” Montgomery said. “His speed looked really good. I liked the way he attacked middle ice and kicked pucks out and drove to hard ice. I thought it was a really good first day.”
Beecher and McLaughlin can both play center or wing as well, so versatility won’t hurt them in any comparisons to Nosek or Frederic. Those two and Lysell can be sent down to Providence without going through waivers, which can sometimes put them at a disadvantage (see Studnicka last year), but the Bruins have insisted that they plan to play the best players regardless of contract status.
AJ Greer and Vinni Lettieri, both signed over the summer and both with NHL experience under their belt, shouldn’t be ignored either. Greer, in particular, is a former second-round pick (back in 2015) with good size (6-foot-3, 205 pounds) who put up 52 points in 53 AHL games last year.
“I’ve liked him,” Montgomery said of Greer on Friday. “I’ve liked the speed, I’ve liked the fact that he’s playing aggressive, that he’s on top of pucks, and can really wire the puck, too.”
Obviously, there just isn’t enough room for all of these guys on the NHL roster. If some of them have good camps and some don’t, the Bruins’ decisions will be fairly easy. They’d love to see everyone perform well and force them to make some tough calls, though.
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