When David Krejci announced last week that he was leaving the Bruins to return home and play in the Czech Republic, many fans made note of the fact that Krejci’s statement, released through the team, did not explicitly say that he was retiring or that he would never play in the NHL again.
In fact, it even said, “This is not goodbye” and “I will see you at the TD Garden soon.”
The idea that Krejci might return later in the season or maybe next season seemed like wishful thinking, but comments from Bruins general manager Don Sweeney on Friday will only fuel speculation about a possible Krejci return even more.
While discussing the Bruins’ free-agent signings and how they might replace Krejci, Sweeney twice mentioned the possibility of Krejci returning without ever being asked specifically about it.
“I think we addressed some areas that we wanted to. Ultimately with David making the decision, we’re wondering if he may return at some point in time, but that’s open-ended,” Sweeney said. “We’re constantly exploring options and conversations. You know the trade situation sort of died down a little bit after free agency. Everyone sort of re-evaluates where they’re at. There had been some ongoing prior to that that we’ll continue to explore. If we can improve our roster, we’re going to, but we certainly addressed some of the needs.”
“I said it before, we’ll likely have to do it by committee to some degree,” Sweeney added later. “It’s not ideal. And we’ll see if somewhere down the road, David Krejci opens the door back up. But again, that’s his own family decision, and there’s no timeline there. We did have a heads-up on that while we were in the process of trying to fill in from a depth perspective in free agency.”
Let’s reiterate the key quotes here: “We’re wondering if he may return at some point in time.” “We’ll see if somewhere down the road, David Krejci opens the door back up.”
Perhaps Sweeney is guilty of the same wishful thinking many fans are, but there doesn’t seem to be much reason for him to bring this up unless he has at least some reason to believe it’s a possibility. If Krejci told Sweeney definitively that his NHL career is over, Sweeney wouldn’t be saying this.
Where this gets complicated, though, is how a Krejci return would work. Krejci clearly intends to play in the Czech Republic. He said so in his statement, and he has already signed with HC Olomouc, a Czech Extraliga team close to his hometown and also the first place he played juniors.
If Krejci does play (as opposed to moving to the Czech Republic but not playing), he would have to go through waivers upon returning to the NHL this season.
Krejci would presumably make it clear to other teams that he has no intention of playing for any team other than the Bruins. That would likely stop non-playoff teams from claiming him, but there would be nothing stopping one of the Bruins’ rivals from ruthlessly claiming him just to prevent a return to Boston.
The hope, in that scenario, would have to be that other general managers would simply respect his wishes enough to keep their hands off and let him pass through to Boston.
It’s also worth noting that if Krejci plays the whole Czech season, the earliest he could return would be early March, when the regular season ends. Any sort of playoff run would create a time crunch, as Krejci would need to return to the Bruins before the trade deadline. That date is not set yet, but it will likely be sometime in late March.
A return to the Bruins next offseason would be easier to facilitate. Sweeney didn't specify if he was referring to this season or next year when he brought up Krejci possibly returning.
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