The Bruins made one of the best value signings of the first weekend of NHL free agency, landing all-around stellar right wing Craig Smith on a three-year, $9.3 million deal to help improve their five-on-five and secondary scoring.
Yet it's hard not to come out of these early days of free agency without feeling disappointed and wondering what's left for the Bruins to do.
They lost Torey Krug to the Blues. They didn't trade for defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson. They didn't land top free agent forward Taylor Hall despite rumors they were one of the favorites, as Hall wound up going to Buffalo on a one-year deal instead. Potential trade target Brandon Saad got dealt to Colorado for an underwhelming return.
General manager Don Sweeney acknowledged the Bruins were never in on top free agent defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who is reportedly closing in on a deal with Vegas. They apparently weren't in on any of the other top D in this free agent class either, as T.J. Brodie, Kevin Shattenkirk and Tyson Barrie all went elsewhere.
Some of that is understandable. All those defensemen play on the right side, where the Bruins already have Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo. We knew the Bruins may not be in on any of those guys for exactly that reason.
It's why Ekman-Larsson made some sense, even though the seven years and nearly $58 million left on his contract rightly gave the Bruins a lot of pause. It's why bringing back Zdeno Chara as a cheap depth option did and still does make sense, but nothing has happened on that front yet.
It's also why it's fair to question if they could've or should've made more of an effort to keep Krug. Seven years at $6.5 million per year for one of the best offensive defensemen in the NHL isn't crazy. The Bruins certainly could have afforded it, but it's clear that keeping Krug simply wasn't a priority for them. Krug revealed after signing with St. Louis that the Bruins' last offer to him was "about a year ago" and that even that had eventually been pulled off the table.
The seeming lack of interest in re-signing Krug led many to believe that the Bruins must have something else in mind, that they were working on some other big deal.
Maybe it was Hall. It's clear they had at least some level of interest. The one-year, $8 million deal he signed with the Sabres seems like something the Bruins could have matched or beaten. Maybe they did and Hall just really wanted to go to Buffalo for some reason -- be it playing with Jack Eichel and/or playing for his old coach, Ralph Krueger.
Signing Hall, in addition to Smith, would have meant the Bruins had significantly upgraded their forward corps. It would have allowed them to better withstand a downgrade on the blue line, or to trade away another forward (Jake DeBrusk's name has surfaced more than once) for D help.
But the Bruins didn't land Hall, and their defense still looks like a significantly downgraded unit. Most of the best free agents still available are forwards, but none are the difference-makers that Hall is.
Mike Hoffman is a consistent goal-scorer (26 or more in five of the last six seasons), but he's also a defensive liability who is about to turn 31. Evgenii Dadonov is already 31, is also not very good defensively, and is coming off a season in which his offensive production took a hit. Anthony Duclair could be a cheaper, younger option if you're looking for pure offensive skill.
Tyler Toffoli and Mikael Granlund would seem to better fit the Bruins' mold, even if their offensive ceilings aren't quite as high as Hoffman or Dadonov. Then again, maybe Sweeney and Co. decide it's time to change the mold and do go after more of a one-way offensive player.
Then there is still the gaping hole on the left side of the defense. With Chara still in limbo, right now the Bruins have Matt Grzelcyk, John Moore, Jeremy Lauzon and maybe Urho Vaakanainen if the 2017 first-round pick is ready to step up. Grzelcyk is ready to step into a top-four role, but it's hard to feel good about any of those other three playing on one of your top two pairings.
Erik Gustafsson is probably the best left-shot defenseman left on the free agent market. The Gustafsson who broke out with 60 points two years ago had a lot of value as an offensive D-man. The Gustafsson who dropped down to 29 points this past season while struggling defensively… not so much. He could end up being a fairly cheap bounce-back take-a-flyer option, but he's no guarantee to improve your top four.
The top trade option might be Nate Schmidt, whose name has popped up a bunch with reports that Vegas is on the verge of landing Pietrangelo, necessitating a trade to free up some money. There was a report Sunday night that indicated the Golden Knights already had a deal in place with the Panthers involving Schmidt, but it appears that was premature. Perhaps the Bruins could still jump in.
Maybe they could check in on Calgary's Noah Hanifin. The Norwood native and Boston College alum has been linked to the Bruins before and linked to trade rumors this offseason, though things have seemingly been quiet on that front over the last week or so.
Carolina's Brady Skjei, Philadelphia's Shayne Gostisbehere and Vegas' Alec Martinez have all surfaced in trade rumors, but none of them are really great top-four options.
If they really wanted to get crazy, they could offer sheet Tampa Bay restricted free agent Mikhail Sergachev, but that doesn't seem likely.
The point here is that the Bruins would appear to be running low on realistic big-splash options. Maybe Sweeney has something else up his sleeve that no one's even guessing at.
He needs to do something, though. Not just because fans want him to, but because this team needs him to. As things stand on Monday morning, it would be difficult to argue the Bruins are a better team now than they were to end the season -- even though Smith is a really good signing -- and that's not acceptable if the goal is still to win a Stanley Cup with this core group.
