In the wake of Zdeno Chara leaving the Bruins and signing with the division rival Capitals, the big question was whether the Bruins ever had any interest in actually bringing back the 43-year-old longtime captain.
Chara’s farewell to Boston on Instagram stated that the Bruins “informed me that they plan to move forward with their many younger and talented players,” which made it sound like they may not have even made him an offer.
According to Bruins general manager Don Sweeney, though, Boston did make an offer “months ago.” Sweeney added, however, that they made it clear to Chara and his agent, Matt Keator, that they weren’t going to make any promises in terms of what kind of role Chara would have or how many minutes he would play, and that they did want to give younger defensemen a chance to play.
“I want to make sure it’s abundantly clear that we had multiple, multiple discussions with Zdeno and Matt Keator,” Sweeney said Thursday. “Very appreciative of all the dialogue and both sides being honest in terms of where they were. We had certainly offered a contract to Zdeno months ago, and he indicated he wanted time to continue to work through where he felt he was at, where the league was at with return to play protocols, and what the role that we were describing and hoping to integrate him into with our hockey club as we saw it and what our internal plans and discussions were moving forward.
“Make no mistake about it, that did include looking to integrate some of the younger players that have had an opportunity to develop in our system and us trying to see if they were capable of handling minutes and situations that they had not been exposed to. We described it as an integrated role, and just didn’t make a categorical promise that he would have the exact same role that he had had in his 14-year, historic career with the Boston Bruins. I’m very sad. It’s not a rewarding aspect of the job to see a player like that choose to leave.”
While Sweeney didn't go into further specifics, "integrated role" sounds like something that may have involved Chara not just playing fewer minutes, but possibly not being in the lineup at times. It's unclear if the Capitals were able to promise Chara a regular role, but it would certainly make sense for him to move on if they did.
For the Bruins now, Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo are locked into top-four roles, but the other half of the team’s defense is completely up for grabs with Chara and Torey Krug now gone, and no signings or trades to replace them.
There are basically six or seven guys who will be competing for three spots every night, and they can roughly be divided into three categories. There are Connor Clifton and Jeremy Lauzon as the younger guys who now have some NHL -- and NHL playoff -- experience under their belt and who have held their own in third-pairing roles.
There are John Moore and Kevan Miller, and maybe Steven Kampfer as well, as the veterans who haven’t played regularly or at all recently due to either injury or performance. And there are Jakub Zboril and Urho Vaakanainen as the unproven first-round picks (Zboril in 2015, Vaakanainen in 2017) who have been slowly developing and will now get their best chance to yet to show if they’re ready for the NHL.
Sweeney acknowledged there’s risk in this approach, but reiterated president Cam Neely’s comments from last week that the team really does want to see what it has in its young defenders.
“We do have to spread those minutes around,” Sweeney said. “It’s a situation that, as I described earlier, some other players have not been exposed to. Whether or not they’re capable, I certainly believe they would like to be in those situations and aspire to be in those situations. I think we’re going to do it by committee and allow some of these guys a little trial and error and potentially fail as a result of it, but also succeed as a result of it, and not look over their shoulder in any way, shape or form.
“They have to gain that experience. You’re not going to move forward in your career if you’re not put in those situations. Sometimes you fall flat, and other times you rise up. We have several players in Carlo and McAvoy and Kevan Miller coming back on board, and obviously Grizz has been in situations, and Jeremy Lauzon and John Moore, and Jakub Zboril, who’s looking for an opportunity to break through at the National Hockey League level. The players we have on the roster are what they are, the competition will begin, and there are no guarantees, and we understand that.”