The Bruins were already looking like a team that was going to need their in-house youth and depth to take significant steps forward if they had any hopes of being better than the 2019-20 squad.
Torey Krug is gone on the blue line, Zdeno Chara may be as well, and so far there have been no signings or trades to replenish that left side.
Craig Smith was a good signing up front, but ideally he would be a third-liner. There hasn't been any upgrade to the top-six, as they missed out on Taylor Hall. They are reportedly now one of the teams "most interested" in Mike Hoffman, but we've heard this song before, so let's wait until we actually see it.
Then came Monday afternoon, when the Bruins revealed that Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak could both miss the start of the season if the season starts on Jan. 1 like the NHL is currently planning.
Marchand should be back by mid-January after a sports hernia repair, but Pastrnak is expected to be out until mid-February after undergoing a right hip arthroscopy and labral repair.
You might want to take a moment to brace yourself as we go over the Bruins' wing options with Marchand and Pastrnak out of the lineup.
On the left, there's Jake DeBrusk (assuming the Bruins reach a deal with the restricted free agent), Anders Bjork, Nick Ritchie, one of Sean Kuraly or Par Lindholm if they bump over from center, and maybe Trent Frederic. On the right, it's Ondrej Kase, Craig Smith, Chris Wagner, Jack Studnicka (a natural center who held his own on the wing this postseason), and maybe Zach Senyshyn.
Obviously no one is going to replace Marchand or Pastrnak one-for-one. But the Bruins are going to need some of these guys to really step up, not just in the short-term until the big guns return, but in the long-term if the 2020-21 Bruins are going to be a serious contender.
Whether they are capable of doing that is a different story. Is DeBrusk, a 2015 first-round pick now entering his fourth full season, finally ready to be a consistent scorer and not just a streaky one? Will Kase show he belongs on the second line after a disappointing and disjointed first six months with the Bruins?
Is Bjork ready to start scoring in addition to doing the little things that have made him something of an analytics darling? Is Studnicka ready to build off his postseason flashes and compete for a regular spot in the lineup? Can Frederic, a 2016 first-round pick, show he is at least better than Ritchie, who ideally would not be in the lineup or even on the roster this season? Can Senyshyn, a 2015 first-round pick already written off as a bust, show he deserves more than a cup of coffee in the NHL?
If it seems like a stretch that all of those questions will be answered in the affirmative, well, you're right. But barring some sort of splash -- be it Hoffman or someone else -- this is what the Bruins are dealing with.
The defense has just as many questions, if not more. Matt Grzelcyk, whose arbitration hearing is set for next week, has excelled in a third-pairing role, but will now be tasked with excelling in a top-four and maybe even top-pairing role. He, Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo will all be expected to take on more of a leadership role on the back end with Krug gone as well, especially if Chara is also gone.
If veteran John Moore is still here and not traded away in a cap-clearing move, the Bruins are going to need him to be a regular contributor and not a $2.75 million healthy scratch. Jeremy Lauzon needs to build off a season that saw him show some promise in the regular season, only to then lose his lineup spot in the postseason.
Now healthy, Connor Clifton will be expected to run with the third-pairing right-side role he ran with in the 2019 postseason. It would be nice if 2015 first-round pick Jakub Zboril and especially 2017 first-round pick Urho Vaakanainen were able to seriously challenge for regular NHL playing time.
Again, it's a lot to ask from players who simply may not be capable of meeting those challenges. Unfortunately, the Bruins' pipeline or next wave or whatever you want to call it isn't full of blue-chip prospects, but rather middling ones who might never be more than fringe roster guys.
Look at all those first-round picks from the last three-to-five years we just ran through (Zboril, Vaakanainen, Senyshyn, Frederic) where we're still wondering if they can even make the NHL roster, never mind play a key role. McAvoy (2016) and before him Pastrnak (2014) were obviously first-round home runs, and DeBrusk (2015) is solid enough though not a star, but otherwise it's been too many question marks high in the draft.
This may be a make-or-break season for what coach Bruce Cassidy called the "second layer" players -- not just those first-round picks, but players like Kase, Bjork and Carlo too. There are going to be growing pains, especially early on with Marchand and Pastrnak out, but the team can't afford too many.
Based on this postseason, it doesn't seem like the Bruins have enough pieces to supplement their veteran core, especially not with Krug now in St. Louis. But given the lack of a major move or shakeup so far (and we still need that "so far" disclaimer since the offseason is, in fact, not over yet), it appears the Bruins may have to hope that with another full season before the next postseason, that "second layer" will take the steps forward the Bruins need them to.
Sometimes you need more than hope, though.
