What to expect from Bruins after their free-agency moves
Kevin Shattenkirk had been linked to the Bruins before, perhaps most notably during the summer of 2017 when he was a free agent and Boston was rumored to have serious interest. He ultimately signed with his hometown New York Rangers that offseason.
Shattenkirk, however, actually thought he was going to be a Bruin even a decade before that. During the summer of 2007, he was preparing for his freshman year at Boston University as well as the NHL Draft, where he was expected to go in the top half of the first round.
The Bruins had the eighth overall pick and had shown some interest. Shattenkirk thought they might take him and make Boston his home well beyond his years at BU.
Infamously, the Bruins passed on not just Shattenkirk, but also Ryan McDonagh and Logan Couture in order to draft Zach Hamill, who would ultimately play just 20 NHL games. Shattenkirk wound up going 14th to the Colorado Avalanche.
Sixteen years later, the time was finally right for Shattenkirk and the Bruins to actually connect. When Boston general manager Don Sweeney called on Saturday to lay out his vision for how Shattenkirk could help Boston, it sounded like the exact situation Shattenkirk was looking for.
“Don Sweeney called us and kind of laid out his thoughts on me and how I would fit with the team,” Shattenkirk said. “It was pretty organic. The opportunity and the fit was what really appealed to me. Getting back to a team that's a Stanley Cup contender was exciting. I've kind of lost that over the last three years being in more of a rebuilding situation. So, getting excited about that again is great, and something that I think every hockey player will tell you that it's the most important thing. So, that is really what enticed me and ultimately led me to this decision.”
Shattenkirk won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020. His play as a stellar third-pairing veteran during that run earned him a nice payday and a three-year contract from the Anaheim Ducks. But as he referenced, that wound up being three years of rebuilding, with the playoffs completely out of sight, never mind another Cup.
There will be plenty of skepticism when it comes to the idea of these Bruins being true Cup contenders. While they just had a record-setting regular season, they flamed out in the first round, have already said goodbye to key pieces like Taylor Hall, Tyler Bertuzzi and Dmitry Orlov this offseason, and could be saying goodbye to Patrice Bergeron and/or David Krejci as well.
Shattenkirk said his decision to sign with Boston did not hinge on Bergeron and Krejci’s statuses, and that he believes in this team even if they don’t return.
“I don't think it affected it much,” Shattenkirk said. “I think I know what those two mean to this team, played against them for a long time. Those are big holes to fill. You also look at the team that they've put together over the last few years and some of the guys that they've added, and I think they're fully capable of shouldering that weight. Now, Patrice is obviously a cornerstone of this team and David as well. At every point in a team's progression, guys have to step up and play bigger roles and take over. If push comes to shove and that's where we end up, then it's going to be on the shoulders of some of the other players on the team to take over that role.”
As for where he fits in both on and off the ice, Shattenkirk has already talked to Bruins coach Jim Montgomery and has a pretty good idea.
“I look at obviously the D corps and some of the great players we have back there, and I know that I'm probably a third pair guy,” Shattenkirk said. “Certainly if there's any need for me to jump up and fill in via injury or whatever it might be, I'm capable of doing that. Playing minutes there five-on-five and slotting in on the second power play and being able to run that and hopefully add a little bit of depth there with the team.
“And I think the other thing, especially I talked to Jim Montgomery about this, is between Hampus [Lindholm] and Charlie [McAvoy], there's two really Norris-caliber defensemen there, and they're still growing into their expectations as players. And I think being able to be a sounding board for them, especially in that kind of role, a power-play role or whatever, is something we discussed and something that's kind of expected of me. So, I've done it before. It'd be very similar, I think, to kind of my role in Tampa when I when I went there for a year.”
Shattenkirk and Lindholm were teammates for a season and a half in Anaheim before Lindholm got traded to Boston. He has trained with McAvoy, a fellow New Yorker and BU Terrier, in some summers past. Lindholm and McAvoy are both already great defensemen, but that doesn’t mean Shattenkirk can’t help them. Neither has mastered the role of power-play quarterback yet, and both have struggled to carry their regular-season dominance into recent postseasons.
If Shattenkirk, a veteran who’s spent his whole career on the power play and who’s won a Stanley Cup, can help at all in either area, while also steadying a third pairing that collapsed in the playoffs for Boston, then that’s a win for the Bruins.
Shattenkirk has already started connecting with other Bruins as well, including Brad Marchand, a player for whom he’s always had “tremendous respect” and one who could probably use a couple more veteran voices around him if Bergeron and Krejci do retire.
“I think I'm looking forward to finally playing with him because he's a special player,” Shattenkirk said of Marchand. “Anything that I can do to help out from a leadership perspective and help him, someone who obviously knows the locker room really well. He was one of the first calls that I got after I signed and was the first one to extend his hand, offering any sort of help that he and his wife could for our family. So, I know how much he means to this organization and I'm really looking forward to being on the same team as him finally.”
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