Bruins
Boston's team will look a lot different on Saturday after the team made a series of seismic moves.
The Bruins are entering a new era following Friday's trade deadline. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
The Bruins are going to look a lot different on Saturday afternoon when they clash with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Friday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline officially passed, and by the time the dust settled, six former Boston players were sent to new homes over a two-day stretch. The biggest move, by far, was Brad Marchand being traded to the Florida Panthers.
Other key players found new homes as well though, including Brandon Carlo, Trent Frederic, and Charlie Coyle. Boston’s returns were heavily based in draft capital and prospects, but it did add eight-year NHL veteran Casey Mittelstadt to the mix.
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Now that the deadline has officially passed, here’s what Boston’s roster looks like in the aftermath:
Forwards
Boston retained forwards Morgan Geekie, David Pastrnak, Matt Poitras, Pavel Zacha, Elias Lindholm, Johnny Beecher, Cole Koepke, and Mark Kastellic. They also have two-way players like Fabian Lysell, Patrick Brown, Riley Tufte, Oliver Wahlstrom, and Georgii Merkulov at their disposal if needed.
The Bruins also added five forwards through trades, though some may not reach Boston right away. Mittelstadt will help replace the gap left by Charlie Coyle at center, and familiar face Jakub Lauko will be a depth option as well.
Fraser Minten, acquired in the Brandon Carlo trade, has quite a bit of upside and could figure into Boston’s lineup this season, though he doesn’t have many NHL games under his belt. Marat Khusnutdinow is in a similar situation, but is a less likely option for this season than Minten.
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And finally, the Bruins also acquired Will Zellers, who is still in the USHL but is dominating that stage of hockey, leading the league in scoring.
The exact lines Boston lands on for Saturday and down the stretch is yet to be seen, but the Bruins could look something like this at forward:
Geekie-Poitras-Pastrnak
Zacha-Lindholm-Beecher
Lauko-Mittelstadt-Kastellic
Lysell-Brown-Koepke
The bottom-six could see quite a lot of turnover throughout the rest of the season as Boston will likely see what it has from many of its younger players by giving them NHL reps before the year wraps up.
Defensemen
Boston didn’t lose a ton of defenders as part of its roster purge. Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov, Andrew Peeke, Mason Lohrei, and Parker Wotherspoon, all remain on the team. Ian Mitchell is also an option, and has been back and forth between Boston and Providence this season.
Carlo was the only defenseman moved before the deadline, and the Bruins did add a pair of defensemen in Max Wanner and Henri Jokiharju. Jokiharju is a seven-year veteran formerly of the Buffalo Sabres, and Wanner is a much younger but intriguing prospect.
Given the injuries to Hampus Lindholm and McAvoy, Boston will likely be all hands on deck defensively for at least another few weeks, if not longer. Jokiharju should factor in immediately to help replace Carlo, and Wanner could possibly be needed in Boston as well.
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As far as Saturday’s matchup is concerned, Zadorov, Peeke, Jokiharju, Lohrei, Mitchell, and Wotherspoon will likely be the six blue-liners suiting up.
Goaltenders
The only position group on the Bruins roster that didn’t change is the goaltending situation. Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo remain splitting duties between the pipes in Boston.
Although the Bruins’ moves were almost a necessity to turn an eye towards the future, it’s still a remarkable fall from grace from a team that had Stanley Cup aspirations just two years ago.
Now, the team is resetting, searching for a new identity — and a new captain.
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