LATEST BOSTON BRUINS COACHING RUMORS + EARLY DRAFT LOOK!!! Black N’ Gold Hockey Podcast Episode 390!
[Music] [Music] Hello everybody and welcome to episode 390 of the Black and Gold Hockey Podcast. We are back after a long hiatus due to the first six weeks of the Bruins off season, but we are back in living color. I am joined today by David Collins. David, how you doing, fellas? It’s it it’s been an interesting start to the offseason. Um I do love offseason time. Looking forward to see what the Bruins do for the rest of the offseason and, you know, move into training camp. But for today, I’m looking forward to getting some details about, you know, coaches, draft, free agency. Let’s let’s see what today brings. Parker McClean’s here. Parker, how you doing? Happy to be back, Sam. It’s been a while since I’ve been on this program, but happy to talk a little bit of men’s worlds, too. Yeah, we’re’ll be talking about that coming up in just a bit. And Tom Kudi’s here. Tom, how’s it going? Oh, it’s going well, Sam. And it’s about to be going a lot better. Glad to hear that. Today, we’re going to be discussing the extension of Don Sweeney. We’re going be talking about the men’s World’s Championship tournament and how the Bruins did in that tournament. We’re be talking about if Matt Potcher has a spot in the team and who the hell the Bruins coach coach is going to be next year. All that and more coming up here on the Black and Gold Hockey podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Those who are watching on Facebook, Twitch, X, YouTube, and for the first time we are live on Kick. So, thank you all for coming by. Appreciate you being here. And also to those listening on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, thank you all for for for listening in today. Give us a fivestar rating and a nice review. It helps us out big time. And let’s get into conversation because the Bruins fan base freaked out when on a random morning we woke up to news that Don Sweeney was extended by the Boston Bruins for another two years. Now, this came as a surprise. I honestly didn’t see it coming because we heard in during that horrible end of the year press conference that we uh that happened at the end of the season that, you know, Sweeney was in a contract year. He was in a year that, you know, was going to make or break his tenure as the Bruins general manager. Now, he gets another two years. David, I’m going to start with you. What was your reaction when the Bruins extended Sweeney just a couple weeks ago? I feel like Cam Neely isn’t great on thinking off his feet sometimes. Like the comment about Jeremy Swayman having a 64 million reasons why he’d be here according to Swayman’s agent. That was the first time they heard it and it comes out in a public press conference. So, I think he was kind of caught off guard a little bit and didn’t really know what to say in terms of what Don Sweeney was going to be moving forward, if he was going to be resigned, if they were going to do it later. It it very much felt like a wait andsee approach, but it’s hard to really believe anything that Cam Neely says in a press conference because you don’t know who’s heard it before. We have. Um, I was fine with it. I expected it. Um, it’s really hard. Mark Albert has said time and time again, it’s very hard to sign a coach to a long-term contract if you don’t have a GM under contract. If he goes into last year of his deal, any head coach that knows they have a a chance somewhere else, or maybe if they wait a year and go somewhere else the following year, maybe they’ll get to pick their own GM. Maybe there’ll be a new GM that comes in and gets a five-year deal, then they can go there with some security. But coming into a situation where your GM is on the last year of his deal, that could be a pretty quick turnaround for a head coach, especially if things go south. So, um, I think it was a smart move by the Bruins. Of course, it does seem like, uh, it split the fan base again, uh, which seems to be a common theme for the Bruins these days. It seems like everyone is divided in their in their feelings about it. Um, I think it was a good idea. I think it’ll make hiring a head coach easier. Uh, obviously we haven’t gotten there yet, but I think it will uh help a head coach come in and feel more confident. Um, and it’s not a a crazy long-term contract. It’s I believe it’s this year plus two years. Correct. It’s this year and another two. So, his contract would be up at the end of the 2728 season. Yeah. Right. So, it is very much a bridge contract to see where the Bruins are in three years. And I would assume being on a three-year deal, it’ll make it easier to fire them, too. if things do go south before those three years are up rather than sign him to like, you know, a fiveyear deal, a seven-year deal. I do give Sweeney a bit of credit. You know, a lot of people give him grief because of 2015, and he hasn’t been great at drafting, but if you look at um the Bruins since he’s taken over, the Bruins had the longest uh playoff streak, or they were tied for the longest playoff streak um dating back to 2015, they were due for a down year. Um, and I guess this is this is the down year we’re talking about, but Sweeney has done some good things. Um, I I think he’s a guy that is going to learn from his mistakes. I think we’re starting to see a bit of a shift um when you look at the way that he handled the trade deadline this year. So, I am open to giving him a second chance based on, you know, recent history. Um, and I’m looking forward to what he can do with with a higher draft pick. If you look back at his drafting history outside of 2015, the highest draft pick he had was, I believe it was 13th was the year that they took Makavoy. So everything after that was, you know, either traded or later in the later in the first round. So I’m interested to see what kind of what kind of stuff he can, you know, he can get done with a a top seven pick. I completely agree. I think the extension of him was not I don’t think it was because of the complete 100% job he’s done. It’s probably to most likely get a coach because the report came out that Rick Tocket didn’t want the Bruins job because he uh because of Sweeny’s recent history with firing coaches and the fact that the GM was on an expiring deal, Parker. Well, exactly that, right? and and you think about kind of what’s to come for this Bruins team. All Bruins fans, close your ears. The next three years probably won’t be that great, but you also see it by the end of that third year, we’ll see where this team is heading, whether it’s a shot at a playoff run or it’s a complete collapse. So, I think you give Sweeney three years, a chance to sort of retool this team, and then you evaluate his performance from there. Completely agree, Tom. I think what people have to realize about the Don Sweeney extension is that the 2023 and 2024 season saved Don Sweeny’s job. Once he put together that record setting regular season, and once he took a team that lost its top two centers in addition to guys like Taylor Hall and Tyler Batusi and made the second round of the playoffs, went to game six against the eventual Stanley Cup champion. You’re not going to fire that guy after one down season. He saved his job after that happened. I think the extension was necessary given the Rick Tucket report and the fact that legitimate coaching hires and coaching candidates who could really help this team were backing away because of Sweeny’s future. I just think it shows a little bit of the arrogance that the Bruins organization and Bruins management has had. They backed themselves into a corner again and I feel like they’ve done this time and time again. They obviously weren’t ready to fire Sweeney if they wanted to. They didn’t have anything in place and they didn’t have any measures that showed that they wanted to let him go despite the sentiment around the fan base. And although I think Sweeney did a fine job at the deadline gathering assets, I like that this is just a bridge deal because now the onus is all on him. There’s no more [ __ ] around, for lack of a better term. it’s going to be his responsibility to get this train back on the tracks and if he doesn’t he has to be out. Now I think we’re going to be having a different conversation if say next year goes you know just as poorly as this one and Sweeny’s still around but this extension needed to happen. You weren’t going to get a coach and you weren’t going to be able to move forward. It’s it’s like being able to find closure. You need to find that before you move forward and they needed to extend Sweeney simply because they needed a GM. So give him the opportunity to get the train back on the tracks. If he doesn’t, he’s out to write his wrongs, right? And I think he’s had his fair share of wrongs in his tenure. I don’t think anybody will. I I I even think Don has admitted that himself on a couple different occasions that he, you know, made mistakes. And I think this deal is giving him a chance to win back the fan base, which is going to be a really hard thing to do. And secondly, you’re you’re right to get the train back on the tracks, write his wrongs, um fix his mistakes, and I think, you know, giving him that two-year deal, that means he has three years to figure this out. And if he doesn’t, gone. And I think that’s a fair assessment, you know, for a guy who’s been here for a decade, you know, a cup final appearance, playoff appearances, almost every year he’s been the GM besides a few years. I think it’s fair. Now, what the fan base thought the fan base reacted immediately and they were panicking and I I don’t it got to the point where Bruins social media admins were deleting comments. Like that’s how bad it got. Um, so the fan base was upset, but if you sit back and you actually think about it, that is the reason why. You don’t have to like it, but that’s the reason why. And I think people need to learn, you know, hey, there’s got to be a reason for this. There can’t just be, oh, we’re doing this out of spite. No, there has to be a reason. So, I don’t know. My phone My phone blew up. Sorry. Yeah, my phone blew up during this. Everybody was like, you know, what are they doing? And I explained it the same way we explained it. He has a chance to fix his mistakes. So, I understand. And plus, just because they ext they extended him doesn’t mean that if they have another shitty near year next year, they could fire the guy and then that two-year extension gone. Means nothing. It doesn’t it it doesn’t kick in. It doesn’t matter. They gave him a contract for, you know, to try for leeway to try to get a coach. That’s pretty much one of the main reasons they got him. David, so David, what you want to go ahead? You guys want to I don’t know, maybe you guys have already looked it up. You want to take a stab at how many GMs have been tenured longer than Don Sweeney currently? I think it’s two. I might be wrong. Anyone else want to throw in a guess? I’m gonna put up three. I’m going to put up one. So there there’s three. So Don Sweeney has been Don Sween has been the general manager since May 20th, 2015. Jim Nil has been the GM at Dallas Star since uh 2013. Kevin Shovel Day off took over in Winnipeg in 2011. and Doug Armstrong with the Blues has been there since 2010. Someone I watch a lot of sports, so I follow a lot of different teams in a lot of different leagues. And one thing that you see with the GMs that have been tenured for a long time is their ability to adapt when the game starts changing. And I I don’t know if I’d say that Don Sweeney has adapted well, but again, considering the fact that he’s headed, you know, I think it was a 10-year playoff streak. Like, that has to account for something. Like, yes, they didn’t, obviously, they didn’t go as far in the playoffs as they wanted to, but getting to the dance, that that alone shows that they’re, you know, one of the top eight in their conference. They’re one of the top 16 in the league. That goes a long way. Um, but yeah, the ability to be able to adapt to the game changing is very important. And I think that’s what this summer is, or I guess the next three years is going to show us is can we get away from that big bad Bruins mentality and move into more of an offensive-minded team. The teams that are winning now are scoring a lot of goals. Yes, you have Florida who are doing the their best to be the big bad Bruins type of play with Sam Bennett and Kachchuck out there throwing bodies and stuff, but they’re scoring a lot of goals on top of that. So, it’ll be interesting to see if we can kind of move towards an offensive minded team and then also um if we can look into, you know, kind of letting our younger players grow more. And I think a lot of that boils down to Don Sweeny’s mindset. So, I’m very interested in this offseason. I’m very interested in training camp and I’m very interested to see how many players, let’s say under the age of 25 start on the Bruins next year because I I feel like it it could go one of two ways. Yeah, completely agree, Parker. Yep. Not much more to add there, Tom. Yeah, I really think we’re getting down to the point where Sweeney could be, you know, looking over the horizon and this could be the end. I mean, for the first time in a while, management, although they they performed poorly in that end of year press conference, I mean, I could do hours on just how how badly that was handled from a PR perspective. I think you had the fact that they only signed him to a two-year extension shows me that there’s at least somewhat of an admission that, you know, we know things aren’t going great. And uh Charlie Jacobs and management even put out a statement to that effect. How much, you know, the words behind that, how truthful are they, we don’t know. But I I think we are getting to a point where it’s, you know, it’s time to put up or shut up for Don Sweeney. And he talked about evolving the offense. He talked about um finding a coach that can help push them in that in that direction. Let’s see if he can adapt. If he can rebuild this team on the fly the way he did in 2015. If he can do it, great. He stays. If not, you gota you got to cut ties sooner rather rather than later. Yeah, completely completely agree. Let’s talk about some of those players that they were that were looking towards the future in the men’s world’s tournament that happened over the past few weeks and a lot of Bruins were in that tournament. Let’s first chat about Donsmel. Okay, he’s he played for Latvia and apparently set the world on fire because he had a great tournament for Latvia. [Music] Um, the the number one takeaway I had was when you get told by Cydney Crosby, one of the greatest players of all time, that you are, you know, that that you’re going to be the future and you have a hell of a career in front of you. Parker, that’s a really good thing to hear from a guy who’s been there, done that. Just Sydney Crosby, Sam. Come on. Yeah. But like the thing like for people that have watched these international tournaments in years past, especially with a guy like Don Mills, you know that he is the future of Lapian hockey and he’s been that guy for years now and has not even been even when he was younger, right? He he wasn’t as well known maybe in North America, but he was always the guy for the Slapian team. So to see him finally making the headlines on this big stage doesn’t surprise me to say the least. Not at all. David, you are a big Dons Lushmel fan. How happy are you to hear about Lux Melis’s uh performance in the tournament? I’ve been following Lash Melis since uh since his 19s and just watching it like I would never watch a Lapian game just because it’s terrible. But as soon as I heard about this kid, I was like I have to tune in. I have to watch this. And immediately I was hooked. He just like he if you watch back when he played the9s, if you watch back and look at him lined up with his other teammates, he just looked different. He just looked faster. He looked stronger. He looked like he had higher IQ than everyone else on his team. And for him to still be able to put up points when the defensive teams can kind of lock in on him and be like, “Okay, if we shut this kid down, they’re not going to win.” That’s impressive. Like you could almost double team this dude in the offensive zone and he’s still putting points up. He came into the AHL. He lit the world on fire again. He had a great year for UMass. He went to Worlds and got basically a standing ovation from arguably the best player to ever play hockey. Like that is unbelievable. and he is one of the few people that is on a absolute no way am I trading this dude list for me uh going into the Bru Bruins season right now. the fact that they drafted this kid in the third round too. Like I don’t know if it’s because he was in Lavia and they weren’t scouted as highly, but man, he has been an absolute stud so far. And a lot of people will say, “Oh, he’s playing Worlds. Oh, he’s playing U19 where the ice is bigger. This is a European game.” But he came over and he played UMass. He came over and he went to the AHL and he did well. So, he’s already transitioned into that smaller ice surface and he’s looking like he is ready to play against NHL caliber players and that’s really big for a kid that is as young as he is in the situation he is right now. I think he’s a lock to be in the AHL next season, if not the NHL. We’ll see how training camp goes, but I do think he’s one of those dudes that’s going to make a push for uh for a spot in the NHL. Completely agree. New writer for BNG, Jack Suddley, just put a great comment about Dons Lush Melis. And I think this kind of sums up his sums it up. Diamond in the rough. Tom, what are your thoughts on that? And what are your thoughts on Donosh Melz as a whole? So, in that tournament, I think as a Bruins fan, the only negative you can have about this is that he left the uh Providence Bruins playoff run to play at the Worlds. It looked like they maybe could have used him in that that last round. But I echo everything David and Parker said. I mean, the fact that he left the Providence Bruins to be the first line center for Latafia. He is the poster boy for that country now. He is the player that other defenses need to worry about. Every cliche you have about, you know, you need to shut down the other team’s best players. He was that guy. And to put up six points, four goals, and two assists in seven games with his best winger being Casper’s dog events is nothing short of fantastic. I mean, it’s when I when I saw that name, I had flashbacks to to 2013, but I watched a lot of I’m a UMass grad, so I watched a lot of UMass hockey. And what really impressed me there was Lo Melis’s ability to playmake and facilitate. There were a lot of good goal scorers on that UMass team. So, I think he he really let his his shooting and goal scoring ability take a back seat so he could kind of set up other players. and the fact that he’s been able both in Providence and the Worlds to bring that goalcoring touch, use his shot, which even Greg Carville said he’s a better shooter than people give him credit for. It just any question I’ve had about him so far, I I I thought size might be an issue for him. He handled that well at the Worlds. I thought he might be too pass first. He might be too much of a facilitator. He scored four goals in seven games. I mean, every time a test has come up for this kid, he’s passed it. And that’s exactly what you want to see in a prospect. For me, I have a checklist of things that I want to see in a prospect. For Lush Melis, check. Check. Check. Check. Every time there is something I’m like, okay, can he play against NHL talent? Check. Can he score goals at a high at a high rate? Check. Can he create play? Can he create offense? check. You know, that for me is something that I want to see out of a offensive prospect who if I’m going to be completely honest, he’s not going to start in the NHL, but he could end up in the NHL for a lot of that season next year if he keeps producing like this and he keeps moving along, moving forward, progressing. I’m not saying he’s going to be a full-time NHL by the end of next season. I think that’s a little ridiculous, but I mean it could be, it might not be. I don’t know. But I think he’s going to get a look in the NHL next year, especially if it’s another year like this year. There’s no hurt in bringing a guy up and seeing what you have for 10 games or something like that. So, it would be foolish not to see what you have, excuse me, to see what you have in Lush Melis. Um I I think that’s a great um a great start to a young career for a guy who’s going to be Sorry, that’s sirens going by. a great a great uh a great start for a young career for a guy who’s going to be something special. I think that’s for sure. Another another guy we should look at the resurgence of Elias Lynholm. He’s back, baby. Where did this come from? Where did this come from, dude? He had an I believe he led the entire tournament in goals. Am I correct about that? Was the end of the season when he was playing with Geeky and Posternok? Was that the the little bump he needed so that when he played in the tournament in the Worlds, he just went off? I don’t know what that was about. David, I’ll start with you. Um, Elias Lynholm, uh, is he back? U, I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon too soon, but what I will say is that I think it’s evident that he is recovered from whatever was nagging him early in the year. If you look at the way that he closed out the season, the way that he played in Worlds, um I think it’s very easy to tell that he’s healthy. Um the fact that he was able to do it in the NHL before going to Worlds is also something to keep an eye on. Um he was heating up. I think we can all agree on that one. He he was heating up at the end of the season. He looked good offensively. He didn’t look out of place. Um and he didn’t get lost in the shuffle like a lot of players do when when the season’s going to [ __ ] like that. He came out after he got healthy and he looked good. He played um he played 10 games in the Worlds. He had eight uh eight goals, six assists, and he had a plus eight in his plus minus rating. So like he played fantastic. Um he played on the wing rather than as a center at World. So that might be a little bit different for him. I don’t know if something that they’re going to look at moving forward. um with the with the assurgence of players like we’re going to get into those later, but with the assurgent of the young centers coming through like we have Casey Middlestat now and then you have Fraser Mitten that you’re looking at and Matt Patra still on the team right now. Um Donald is is listed as a center as well. So with all these young centers coming through, it’s possible they could look at moving him to the wing as well. Um and maybe he fits better there. Maybe it helps his offense a little bit more if he’s on the wing. Um, but that’s one of those to be determined type of scenarios. Um, I feel really good for the guy. He is a very likable player. He seems like a dude that’s very easy to cheer for. So, seeing him do so well at Worlds made me feel good. And I think it it gave him a lot of confidence. And now we just have to hope that he has a healthy summer and he comes into Bruins camp looking like he did uh to end the season and then also um in worlds. Completely completely agree with that. Uh Parker, what are your what are your thoughts on Elias Linholm’s tournament? Yes, what I will say is for the start of this tournament for Sweden, they they they kicked it off the real impressive win. I think it was 5 nothing win over Slovakia and then they proceeded to play really poorly the entire their next I think three or four games in the round robin the only thing that worked on that Swedish team was Elias Lindholm so whether it was him on the power play whether it was him five on five whatever it might have been he was impressive in all facets of the game so whether that’s him playing in Sweden maybe the Bruins should ship up to Sweden maybe that’s where they can find a little bit more success but I think that if he can play the way he did at the worlds next year for the Bruins it it’s it’ll be an impressive year for him. A bounceback year, especially after the 2223 campaign where he put up what almost 80 point 70 to 80 points in that season. It was a career year for him. Um Tom, does this little segment of games in that World Tournament, does this propel him to getting back to what he should have been when we when they Bruins signed him at the at in the beginning of last summer? Well, I think a lot of people knew when they signed Elias Lynhome, he wasn’t going to be the 42 goal guy he was in that one breakout year when he played alongside Matthew Kachchuck and uh Johnny Gdro. But if you look at his career, he’s been a steady 20 goalcorer when he’s been able to play with talent. And when you’re playing alongside a guy like David Postnock, you’re almost by default going to be able to put up points. What really really encouraged me was Linholm’s goal scoring because through a lot of the year, I don’t know if if the fans out there into advanced analytics, he was one of the worst finishers in the league. Meaning that he’s getting opportunities, he’s literally just not putting the puck in the back of the net. So seeing him be able to actually do that, I know it seems like a real simplification of NHL offenses, but just the ability to score, seeing him be able to do that, gain his confidence back, and really look physically healthy. I think I could tell early on this season that something wasn’t right with him. And you saw, I mean, the last nine last seven games of the year, he had nine points. I think it was five goals and nine points in his last seven games. And again, he’s playing with Posternok and Geeki, but he had opportunities with Postnak early in the season and just didn’t look right. So, I think the fact that he got his goalc scoring touch back, the fact that he has his confidence back and the fact that he’s healthy is huge for the Bruins. And again, am I expecting a a 354 goal outburst? No. But I think you should see a season you could you can expect if he’s playing right 55 to 60 point season with over 20 goals. And if he’s playing as well as he does defensively in the middle, if he can bring that defensive presence, that’s really all you can ask for. Yeah, completely uh completely agree. Elias Lynholm making his presence felt in that tournament, Parker. And one other thing I might add on top of that is he was playing third line. Like it wasn’t like he was playing, you know, top line with the best players on Sweden. He was playing third line on that team and still led it in in in goal scoring. So I think you look at it, it’s not like he was playing alongside like Zabanagad or Raymond or Carlson, you know, he was playing with guys like Wenberg. Like it’s not the guys who you’re expecting to be a part of that eightgoal uh tournament for him. It’s, you know, guys that are a little bit lower on the depth chart on the pecking order. And I think that’s a really good sign for the Bruins team ahead. I could introduce the fact that maybe he was already used to that because remember after the trade deadline, Elias Lynholm was on the third line and he was playing with Morat Husnadinov and Vinil Terry on that third line for a lot of the final six weeks of the season. So maybe it was a chance to kind of say, hey, I am the best player in this line. I’m going to act like that. And hey, he came out scored eight goals in 10 games. I can’t complain about that. That’s a really encouraging thing. Speaking of encouraging, David Posterno um was named the best player in the tournament. And I think that there is a reason why. He was named the IIHF directorate top forward award winner along with Elias Lynholm. He was named to the media all-star team at the championship tournament. Um, David Posterno is continuing to show why he’s most likely going to be the captain of this team next season. David, yeah, he uh in the worlds, I think he was tied for like sixth in goals and tied for second in assists. Um, one thing I’ll say about Bashion Act, and I guess you can put this as a as a positive for Don Sweeney if you want, but that contract that they saw in him, too, is going to look like such a luxury deal in a couple years when you start seeing what dudes this off season and next season are going to get for contracts. It’s It’s going to be mind-blowing how we have David Passnack for $11 million a year. I can promise you that. He just He’s a machine. Um he he’s everything that you want in a hockey player and he just continues to crude language here, but he continues to go out there and swing his dick around and let everyone know that he’s the man. You know, he he finished a season with the Bruins in he would have been in the the MVP race had he, you know, had the Bruins been doing better. I have no doubt about that one. And he continued it in worlds. Um he’s just earlier in the season he was all about passing, passing, passing, passing. and people got upset because he wasn’t shooting enough. And then he started shooting more again and then he found that nice little um in between between when to shoot, when to pass. And then he goes to Worlds and he just continues on. I mean, to be named I know that, you know, the the some teams were still in the playoffs with the NHL or whatever. But to be named the best player in the tournament, no matter what tournament you’re in, has to feel good. And I think it was deserved. Yeah, obviously they didn’t win the tournament, but I I I think he was arguably the best player. Um maybe it’s not even arguable point, but moving into next season, again, you’re going to hear me say this a lot this summer, but a healthy off seasonason is going to be very important for the Bruins moving into next season. And David Passac is going to take them as far as he’s going to take them. Just, you know, hop on the train, get out of the way, and let’s see where this team goes. Uh, I completely agree with that, Parker. Yeah, I think when you look at this Czech team this year, they lost one game or one game that mattered basically, which ended up hurting them because they lose the game against the US. It puts them to the third seed in group B. Then they have to play Sweden, which frank or which frankly means they’re not going to beat Sweden because Sweden at this tournament was in my eyes the best team on paper at this tournament. I know Canada, we’ll talk about Canada later, I’m sure, but for this Czech team this year, they had high hopes and they lost one game to the US, which ended up hurting them. That’s what knocked them out of the tournament, but they win that game. In my eyes, David Passnak leads them to likely the gold medal game where they probably have a shot to win it. I don’t know if they win it or not, but at the very least, they have a shot to win it. So I think as far as for this Czech team goes and for David Pastronac, it’s a tournament still to be proud of and now it’s just a matter of bringing that to the Bruins season next year. Yeah, completely agree with that. Tom, what are your thoughts on Postronox tournament? He’s one of the best players in the world and no, that’s that’s undisputable. He’s he’s a star in this league on and off the ice and he’s further proving that he’s somebody you build around both as a franchise centerpiece and I think as a leader and I think that’s the biggest thing. We all knew he was this talented. We all knew he had the ability to put up these points. I mean I I remember when I was writing my my recap for BNG of the um the worlds, I saw his stats and it didn’t even raise an eyebrow. It’s just that’s what you expect from him at this point. I think it’s more his leadership and what he brings intangible wise. A lot of guys on the team, especially like Morgan Geeki and Nikita Zadoroth, talked about Posternok’s evolution over the season, how he developed as more of a vocal leader, and I think you saw the way he led the check team. He he has the ability now to both say, you know, everybody get on my back. I’ll carry this team as far as I can take it and be that leader in the locker room. And if you’re a Bruins fan, you can’t ask for any more from him. It’s just another example of how he’s growing as a person and how he’s becoming an even greater player. Absolutely. Posternok showed me down the stretch after they traded Marshand and in this tournament he should be the captain of this team next season. I never thought I’d say that. I remember one year ago on this very program, all right, I’m coming up on my oneyear anniversary with BNG. One year ago, I said on my very first program or one of my first ones that the Bru that Charlie Makavoy should be the next captain of this team because David Posternok uh is not a leader. Well, I’m an idiot. Um because apparently he or he might have heard me. I don’t know. Um because apparently uh he is now and he’s a he’s a great one at that. So I’m really happy for him. Parker, you mentioned it’s like that Jordan meme, Sam. What’s that? It’s like that It’s like that Jordan meme where he’s like, “And I took offense to that.” Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. So, sorry, David. Uh hopefully uh you figure it out. Parker, you mentioned Team Canada and I have to bring it up since there’s two Canadians on this panel. Bro, I don’t like you. I do not like you. Gotta talk about it. You got to face the music. Okay, Parker. I’m going to ask you first what happened. So you see on home ice there was Danish pastries and because they’re on home ice the Danes fed Canada a whole bunch of pastries. So that’s what someone wrote in my comment section. So I’m going to I’m going to go with that. But they just overfed them on pastries. So that’s why they looked a little slow and then they lost that game because of the pastries. So you’re going to blame the pastries. Okay. All right. Great. Um, David, I don’t want to talk about it. Um, it hit hard, especially the fact that the States ended up winning after, but I mean, I’ll just go and say that I don’t know if this is true or not. You can say what you want, but most of the best Canadians were still in the NHL playoffs. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Hey, Sam, who won four nations again? Sorry, I can’t I can’t remember. Ah. Sean, sorry. Well, who’s that? Is that the Oh, wait. No, the US lost that one, didn’t they? And who who got the assist on the winning goal? Is that future Bruin Mitch Mner? That’s future Vegas Golden Knight or Carolina Hurricane Mitch Mner. You mean Utah Mammoth, baby? Yeah. Tusks up, dude. If Mitch Mner ends up in Utah, I think that’s actually a great thing for him. You want to know why? He won’t be in anybody’s shadow. He’ll be the best player on that team. The only player comparable be would be Clayton Keller. You know, you know where fans are going to leave him alone? Utah. Yeah. He’ll get out of a mark where people [ __ ] on you. That’s for sure. Yeah. You thought Toronto was bad? Oh, Boston is. It can be bad, too. Oh, boy. That’s That’s one way to bring in viewership, though. If he does go to a place like Utah, that’d be a great place to bring in viewership. We’re getting off topic, but just want to point that out. completely agree. I think, you know, I I think the Bruins should I mean it, hey, look, if they take a swing at MNER, great. They shouldn’t sign him. I I will stick to that. I’m more of a Andre Kuseno guy. That’s just me. That’s my personal take. I think I’ve been I’ve said that on this show. I’ve said this on my streams before. Kuseno plays the Bruins game that they’re lacking. He plays kind of a Jake De Bruss game, which is what they’re missing. So, I think they could easily they should go after him in free agency if he makes the market. I heard the Kings might be want to resign him. So, if they don’t resign him, the Bruins would take a swing. Anyway, that’s besides the point. Um, but yeah, you guys can have the Four Nations. You guys can have See you at the Olympics, you Canadian cowards. We’ll see. Oh, we will. Yeah, you probably will. Yeah, because that’s where everybody’s going to be. All the best. It’s gonna be best on best and then some. It’s going to be more than just Canada, Sweden, US, and Finland. It’s going to be everyone else. Yeah. So, should be interesting. Um, let’s talk about the the US. The US win gold. Um, sorry, but this is good for the Bruins sake because Peak, Lori, and Swayman both all get gold, which is going to lead me into my next conversation. Okay, Peak had a great tournament. Lori, not really sure what happened there. He didn’t play any of the games. Hopefully there’s nothing bugging him. But Jeremy Swayman, he needed this tournament. He absolutely needed this tournament. Goes seven and0. Has a goals against average under two. Uh, you know, a nine a nine a 92 say percentage, something like that. He had a great tournament and he kind of carried the US to a gold if I’m gonna be completely honest. He kind of carried the US to a gold and thank goodness he did. Swayman is uh well, he’s not back. We don’t know that. But he had a really really good tournament, David. That’s for sure. He had a really good tournament. Yeah, I just I tried looking up his stats, but it’s not easy to find. But from what I can see, um, during the preliminary round, he had he was 4-0 and he had a 1.97 goals against and I think it was like a 925 save percentage. Um, I think it stayed pretty consistent moving into the gold pen game. So I think it was around two goals a game and then around 9 29 30 goals uh save percentage. Um, and then yeah, he went undefeated, right? So Stace didn’t lose, right? Yeah. And I guess the other side of it too, he he played what, seven games? Yep. Seven and0. Yeah. So like the fact that he’s able to play seven games in a row, that has to be, you know, a little bit of a confidence boost, too. Everyone’s saying, you know, he plays better when other goalies played close to the same amount of games and he gets time off. Now he’s playing seven games in a couple weeks and he’s doing this. So that might be a bit of a confidence boost to him being like, you know what, maybe I can do this. maybe I can play 60 games a season. Um, I think Lynholm and Swayman are the two that needed this tournament the most, like for it to go the way it did. Um, Swayman just came off of that big contract. We’ve talked about it all year. This was his first year being the man. He didn’t have a full training camp. Um, so I think that you’re going to see a big jump from guys like uh Lyn Holm and Swayman moving in the next season. Um, yeah, he he looked phenomenal. He looked like Jeremy Swayman of old. Um, when he was making saves, he looked like he was enjoying himself again. It wasn’t the Jeremy Swayman that you saw playing for the Bruins who seemed a little bit tight. He couldn’t move his blocker for some reason. He got beat blocker side way too many times. Um, and just he seemed unhappy. And there’s a lot of pressure that comes with being the guy. you know, he still is a young kid and he’s he’s going through a transition phase of being the number one goalie after, you know, obviously he sees the rumors about, you know, we traded the wrong goalie, we should have kept all and oh, Corposal should play more and stuff like this. That that’ll weigh on a person. A lot of times we take these professional athletes and think they’re robots, but they have feelings, they have thoughts, too. So, um, I am looking forward to seeing what he brings to training camp and then what he does next season. But, yeah, just super positive. Also, I would like to mention that this is for Bruins fans. This should also be a confidence booster. You look at what just happened with Aer. Two goals on two shots and he’s making more than Swayman and he gets pulled like that that that can’t feel good as a Dallas Stars fan right now. So, got a lot of confidence in Swayman moving in next season and uh I’m definitely looking forward to to seeing that big smile back on his face after games. Completely agree, Parker. two-parter here for you. I know this is a this is this is a big one. Here we go. Yeah. So, first of all, what were you what was your reaction to Swayman’s tournament? Putting your bias aside for Canada, I get it, but Swayman having a good tournament has to be a good thing. Number one. And number two, um are you glad the Bruins didn’t trade him to the Oilers this summer this during the trade deadline? because there was a report that the Oilers were thinking about trying to trade for Swayman according to Pinñata of the fourth period. What are your thoughts on that? So, I’ll start with first part and for Swayman this tournament has been a really really good form and I think you look at the overall outlook for the Bruins at this tournament. There’s four players that I’d say really stood out to me. Swayman was one, Lalis was another, Pastronac and Future Bruin. Marco Casper was my fourth. um they were they were outstanding for each of their respective countries. You know, Swayman more or less led uh the US to the gold and ended up winning them and and you also look at it that the US lost their game against the Swiss and after that loss I was curious to see what was going to come for them whether they were going to bounce back and then you know be that US team that gives up a lot of chances and goes the other way and scores but and they did that and sure enough they play that offensive style. Joy Accord was not great uh for the Americans at this year’s tournament, but I thought that Swayman was kind of that factor that they really needed to win the gold. And we didn’t see that at the four nations. Obviously, he was the third third goalender behind Halabuck and Ninger. Mhm. And this tournament uh this tournament, the juniors pretty much this entire international season has been a try out for the Olympics and the eventual team that was going to be picked. And I think you look at what Swayman did at this tournament. He made a really good case for himself to be at next year’s Olympics in Milan. So for Swayman, very happy for him. Um, great guy on and off the ice. And I think you look at what’s to come for him. I think you’ll see him on that Olympic team. And who knows, he might just be the backup goalender for them. Uh, to your second part about Edmonton, I would very much like him to be on Edmonton right now and then they can trade him back to Boston afterwards. Um, because go Edmonton. But, uh, that like it was it’s an unfortunate um, situation for him this year, right, where you’re kind of just on the wrong end of a of a rough contract year and it kind of spilled into the season. So, you don’t trade someone when they’re down on value. You, you know, it’s the classic buy low, sell high. Um, so for the Bruins, good thing they didn’t sell high or sell low, buy high this year. Yeah, completely agree with that. Tom, thoughts on Swayman’s bounce back in this tournament and what could that could lead to going into next season into possibly the Olympics in February? Well, I think David and Parker did a really good job of outlining just how dominant he was throughout throughout the tournament and the biggest takeaway for me was his performance in that gold medal game. You have a tight checking game where it’s 000. Tage Thompson ends up scoring the golden goal. You win one- nothing. Jeremy Swayman’s kind of calling card over the past couple of seasons. He’s been a good regular season goalie, but when the Bruins got into the playoffs in 2023 24, he was absolutely lights out. He was one 100% their best player. And the fact that he still has that big game gene, he has that clutch gene that some other goalies, I mean, you look at Connor Halabuk, that clutchness just goes right out the window when the playoffs happen. So, I think you saw even though I know I know Swimman had a hiccup game or two in the worlds, he had a largely good tournament and when the lights were the brightest, he was at its best and that’s what you really need in a goalie. I mean, you can have the best goalie in the regular season, but it’s it’s the hot goalies come May and June that win you Stanley Cups. And that’s what you really want to see from Jeremy Swayman. As for what it brings for next season, you just have to hope that he can shake off whatever happened this season. Whether it was the slow start, whether it was the bad blood between him and management over the contract, it just didn’t look good. It didn’t look right. David talked about his blocker. I thought at the end of the season, his glove wasn’t even that great. I remember Nick Dow scored a two-on-one goal on him where he just beat him gloveside. And that that can’t happen against a bottom six forward. So, I think Swayman is a big confidence guy. He he’s talked about it a lot. Uh the mental side of the game, and I think this will allow him to go into next season with a fresh mindset, clear head, knowing that he is the guy in net for the Bruins, knowing now what it takes. He He’s had, you know, the 60 game slate. He knows what it’ll do to his body, what he has to do to stay in shape and, you know, up to par. with the physical side of the game and I think he knows that that net for the US at the Olympics might very well be open. Bad playoff performance by Auter to end his season. A really bad playoff for Connor Connor Halabach. That’s, you know, to quote Miracle. It’s anyone’s net right now. And if Jeremy Swayman can grab a hold of that, good for him. I mean, like I said, this guy is all about the mental side of the game. And the more confidence we can get him, the better. Completely agree. Completely different topic. What’s up with you, Parker and Marco Casper? I need you to I I need you to explain. Marco Casper, I don’t even know what team he plays for. He’s a former Red Wing. Explain what what does he bring that the Bruins could use. I don’t know much about him. I’m going to be honest. So, there’s Don La Melis in Latvia, right? Who had a really impressive tournament. On the other side, there’s the winner of that tournament who ended up going to the quarterfinals with Marco Casper who more or less led Austria to the quarterfinals. And so, I think that when you look at sort of that clutch gene, if you can get both those players for each of their respective countries, what more could you really ask for? Interesting. 21-year-old with 19 goals this season for Detroit. I mean, oh, I wouldn’t hate that. Yep. Okay, there you go. Um, all right. Well, if that’s if that’s what I’m hearing and if that’s going to be consistent, then sure. Why not? Um, yeah. Any All right. Works for me. Um, and then you sign Nikolai Eers. You have the best player in three different countries or four with Poster. We’ll see if he hits the market. I heard the Jets are are going to be starting contract extension talks with him. So, we’ll see if he hits the market. I don’t know. Um, but speaking of another young player that his future is kind of up in the air right now, and it’s Matt Potra. Now, Matt Potra uh is beloved by fans. People want to see him in the NHL roster, understandable, but his NHL roster spot isn’t guaranteed anymore. Before acquiring Fraser Mitten, I would have said for sure Matt Potra would be the third line center next year. Now I’m saying it’s Fraser Mitten. And if they let John Beecher walk, then Patra could be the fourth line center, but I don’t think that’s good for his career. Tom shakes his head. I’m going to start with you. Will Matt Potra be with the Bruins organization by the training camp? I that’s a really good question. I’m going to say yes simply because I don’t think his value is high enough for them to get a lot in a trade for him. I think right now he’s just a sweetener in a deal. So, I anything’s possible. They could swing something, but I just feel like if they were to have traded him after the the previous season and not this one, you maybe could have gotten more, but I think they are going to give him a chance to make the roster. And I’m not convinced that he stays at the center spot. When Jim Montgomery was still here earlier in the season, he talked about putting Potra on the wing next to Trent Frederick in training camp. Potra played the wing in the year prior to his draft year, so he’s familiar with the position. I do think Fraser Mitten is pencled in as that um that 3C. I think the Bruins view him as kind of Charlie Coyle Light with the the physical build he has, the way he’s able to play the two-way game. And I think they really like that in their bottom six centers, their ability to deploy them against topline guys and play a shutdown role and more chip in on offense than be offensive dynamos. So, I think Potra gets his shot on the wing this year. And I think this is kind of his put up or shut up year. I know we’ve been saying that for Fabian Lysel for years, but I mean, they have a log jam at center now. And you know, whenever you tweet that, people say, “Oh, none of them are good.” Well, that doesn’t matter. They still have too many of them. Even if you don’t like who they have there, you have Elias Lynholm. You’re paying him 7.75 million. He’s staying as your first line center. As long as Casey Middlestad’s here, they’ve shown no indication that they want to try him on the wing, which I would have done at the end of last season because it was a crapshoot. So, you might as well try everything you have. So, it looks like they like him there. If you like Mitten at 3C, you have Mark Castle at 4C, try Patra on the wing. Give an o give him an opportunity to decrease his defensive workload. Let him show off that ability to be a facilitator because he’s best as a passer. let him try to find his confidence cuz again like Jeremy Swayman when he’s confident he can play well and go from there. I don’t think he has a ton of value at this point. If he did maybe a trade makes more sense but I just feel like if you threw him in a potential trade for say Marco Rossi someone like that I think him in a first doesn’t get it done. I think you would need more. So, just because of that, just because of where the value is, I think he’s on this team at training camp, but I think he’s competing for a wing spot, not a center spot, would you be opposed to having him compete for the third line right wing with Mitten as the center and Potra as the right wing? I would have no problem with that. Okay, David, I’ll I’ll go to you. Um, Matt Potra as a right wing. What are your thoughts on that for next season if he were to make the NHL roster? I feel like I haven’t seen a whole lot of it, so it’s hard to have an opinion on it. Um, I feel like rightwing I have a bit of PTSD from how much we’ve talked about right wing over the past year. It seems like they went into last season needing a second line right wing and they just never got one. Not just you never got one for David. Yeah, fair. So, if you look at the centers who are currently on the Bruins, you got, like you said, you’re going to have Lindolm at one, Middlestat as of right now, if he doesn’t get traded, he’s going to be at two. Mitten is going to be at three, and then you’re probably going to have Mark Castle like on the fourth line, and then um you’re looking at um Don Melis is listed as a center. They’re probably going to draft a center. Um there’s a lot of center dep right now. So, somebody has to bite the bullet and go to the wing. So, I think a lot of it is going to boil down to what is the trade value of a guy like Matt Patra? What is the trade value of a guy like Casey Middlestat? I think Casey Middlestat’s contract works. It worked perfectly in the Charlie Coyle deal. Like, it was almost identical to what Charlie Coyle was making. So, if there’s a team out there that could see Casey Middlestep being, you know, a middle six center, um, I could see them moving on there just because of the depth that they’ll have after this draft and obviously after free agency, too, if they want to take someone there. The thing with Matt Padra, he’s only 21. Like, he’s still a kid. So, and don’t forget, he had a lot of uh I think it was a shoulder issue mostly this year when it came to the injury side of it. So, I don’t know if he ever really found his footing between the line shuffling that we dealt with early in the year, the uh the the stuff that we’ve dealt with uh with the injuries. Then he goes back down to Providence and he looked pretty good there. He stayed there for a while and then he stayed there till the end of the year and, you know, he looked good in the playoffs, too. And I don’t know, maybe he’s one of those guys that starts off in Providence and then works his way back up. Or, you know, maybe he’s to the point now where he’s kind of, you know, driven himself out of town. But I keep reminding myself that he’s only 21. He’s only 21. He is a kid. And there there’s still room to grow and there’s room to get healthy. Um, like I said, I don’t have much to talk about when it comes to him on the wing because I don’t have anything to to compare it to. His game, I think, would transition well. He likes being down in the corners. He likes racing down sidelines. Um, I think he could do well as a winger. It’s just a matter of, you know, if he wants to and if the Bruins kind of kind of see that, but I think we’ll have a a better understanding after the draft is over. Once the coach is in place, we’ll we’ll know more about what the idea is for Matt Patra. And Craig Cooper, buddy of mine, says, “Go Habs, go. [ __ ] the Habs.” Um, and I just want to mention uh a little bit up higher here. Um, Neil, you know the deal. Jack is a newcomer to BNG, so we’ll explain it to him. and Tati Tari. Um, we answer questions at the end of the end of the program. So, um, we’ll definitely get to your questions then, but um, in the future, if you could hold them until the end of the program so they don’t get lost in the shuffle, that’d be uh, that’ll be great. We’ll be, uh, answering questions near the end. That’s really funny, that random Canadians uh, Canadian shot. Um, yeah, I completely agree. I would not be opposed to seeing Podra on the wing if he bulks up again. The main thing with Potra is he gets knocked down really quick. Okay, it’s not just putting on weight for Potra, he needs to put on muscle. Um, and I think that is his main knock is the guy is small and it’s great that you can get down into the the dirty areas and get those pucks and dig them free, which I which I think him and Mitten on the third line would be a a back checker’s nightmare. But if he’s on that third line, he needs to have more muscle to him. And I think if he has that, let’s say he bulks up another 10 pounds and eight of it is muscle. Great. Or something. 15 pounds and 10 of it or 11 of its muscle. Great. It gives it makes him more sturdy. It makes him more uh it makes him stronger. And I think that’s good for him. And I think it’s good for all players involved. And I hope that doesn’t affect his game too much. Um, which it won’t, I don’t think. I think his game that he plays, if he’s able to maintain his speed with the muscle he puts on, I think it’s going to be good for his career down the stretch. Parker, Matt Potra on the wing. Thoughts on that? So, I’ll take this two ways and Sam, I’ll put this one back to you. What’s been the biggest problem with Matt Potra? You just said it. His size. his size. So, do you think he’d be a good fourthline player? No. But now here’s my question. At the start of this program, we were just talking about how he wanted to get away from the big bad Bruins. So, if you put them on the fourth line and you say we’re going to be a skilled team this year, does that now make sense for them? If that’s the fourth line they’re going for, then sure. But remember, not not every fourth line is like what the Bruins are doing, right? Not. So if that was if that’s what the Bruins are going to do, if they want to go, okay, we’re going to go skill first, screw size, screw all that. We’re going to go skill first and try to try to beat teams in speed, great. But not every other fourth line, and not every other lineup is like that. Look at Florida. Prime example. Look at Florida. They have found the perfect mesh of speed, skill, and size. Right, Parker? I turn that back to you. I I agree and I think you turn your team into a team like the Leafs where you just have a bunch of skilled players running around with not a lot of size. So that that’s what I kind of asked because I know you you kind of brought it up a little bit at the in between when they were talking where it was about what’s to come for this Matt Potra fourth line. Could it be? Could it not be? And I think there is a potential for it, but I think you’re going to have to see this Bruins team really shift what they are right now. I what we’ve seen from years past, you still have the same GM in place. Yes, he’ll get a new coach. I find it very doubtful uh to see Matt Potra go to the fourth line, which then will feed into this third line discussion where I agree. I think Minton is the next third line center. So then do you move him over to the wing? And I think what we’ve seen from years past is it’s easier to move a player from center to wing than it is from wing to center. So for a guy like Matt Potra, I think it it might not be completely out of the cards for him to move to that wing spot. I just think that if you’re trying to bring a winger into center, you’re probably not going to get that done. Yeah, completely agree with that. And plus, that’s good for the third line because whoever the left wing is, Mitten probably won’t be able to take face off. So if Mitten gets waved out of a draw, guess who comes in? It’s Matt Potra. who could still take faceoffs and win them pretty well. Tom, you had a point. The other thing I just want to and it’s building off of David’s point about how young Potra is we saw him put up I think it was exactly a point per game in Providence this year before the playoffs. Y if he wasn’t rushed into the NHL last year and and not to say he didn’t earn the spot because he absolutely did. But if he wasn’t rushed in in the 2023 24 season and he was just a guy lighting it up in Providence, fans would be over the moon about him saying, “Throw Middlestad out the door. Get this guy a 2C.” Mhm. So, it’s not like he’s reached his potential yet. It’s not like there isn’t a lot to be excited about. It’s just the way he’s kind of been perceived at this point because he’s been exposed to NHL play. So, I think this potra thing can go a lot of ways, but I’m definitely not quitting on him because he’s a kid that’s shown he has the talent to be a playmaker and even drive play at the NHL level. And I think that’s really important. The Bruins don’t have enough of that. And if he can do that, then it’s going to be one of those things, right? If you’re a good enough player, you got to find a roster spot. You got to find space in the lineup. And I just don’t think as currently constructed, and I know they’re planning on adding, but just right now there’s not enough talent on this roster. And you can’t just, you know, because of uh a backlog at center, send a guy like Matt Potra down because oh, you can’t have him at one position. You need as much talent as you can at this point in a he has to be a part of the team, I think. Completely agree with that. So, um, behind this it says labeled as potra trade. That’s no, I’m I’m going to say I don’t think so. I brought it up because I can’t rule it out, especially if they’re going to try to do something at the draft to try to move up in a pick on day two. But again, I don’t see it. I mean, they they traded Lati to the Wild last year for Laco. So, I don’t know what if that happened. Oh, no, I’m sorry. They traded Lati to the Bruin, Laco to the Wild for Lati and yet Loco came back anyways. It doesn’t make an ounce of sense. Last year didn’t make an ounce of sense to begin with, but that uh so anything can really happen at the draft, but if I’m going to be completely honest, I think Patra as the third line rightwing as long as he builds muscle is not a bad thing. It makes a it makes him for a greasy third line. Mitten and Potra with with somebody else. Uh oh. um with somebody else on the third line. Um I think that’s a really strong thing for the Bruins sake. Um so definitely um something to keep our eyes on for next season. Um quick question. Go ahead. Um let’s just say that a team calls Don Sweeney and says, “I want to trade for Matt Patra and I want to give you guys draft capital in return.” What’s the lowest you’d take? So, if someone called and said, “Hey, I’ll give you a fifth.” No. No. Fourth? Nope. Uhuh. Third? Nope. Uhuh. Second. Maybe. Second would be I feel like a second would Sorry. Go ahead. It depends on who the team is, where they’re picking at the with that second round pick. If they’re in the first half of the second round, sure, I’ll take that. If it’s a team like the Oilers who’s probably gonna have a pick in the 38 in in the in the 30s in the rounds, absolutely not. No thanks. I don’t need a low second round pick. If it’s a high second round pick, sure. Cuz remember 21 I mean, yeah, he’s played in the NHL, but and I know I don’t like calling them prospects, but they are. He’s still a young guy. He’s still 21 years old with a full career ahead of him. So, with a ton of potential. So, I I don’t I would not take him for any low any lower than a than a top 15 second round pick. That that’s that’s at least I just think he’s a sweetener at this point. Like you’re you’re not building a deal around Matt Potra. You’re adding Matt Potra into a deal to say, “Hey, on top of maybe a first or a second round pick, what if we give you Potra? Does that get the deal done?” I just don’t think his value is high enough yet. Yeah, completely completely agree with that. Speaking of the draft, let’s take a look at what the Bruins could actually do during the draft. Now, remember, the Bruins do have a lot of draft picks to work with this year. Will they use all of them? That remains to be seen, but the Bruins do have the following picks. Okay, they have the 7th, 51st, 61st, 69th, nice, 100th, 133rd, 165th, and 197th. They have eight picks in this draft. Um, two of which are in the second round. They have two second round picks this year. So, we’ll I think we’ll only hit probably the first three picks here, but kind of like Parker, I’ll start with you. Where do what direction do you think the Bruins should go with these with the seventh pick? I’ll start with the first round pick. Where do you think the Bruins should go with that first round pick? Well, I I think the general consensus is that when you’re in the top 10 picks of the draft, you pick the best player available. And some people say it’s the first five. Some people say it’s the first 10. Some say it’s first 15. But for me, I think it’s the first 10 picks. You take whoever the best there is available and then you work from there. And for the Bruins, I think that there’s plenty of good options. And unfortunately, they’re all centers. Back to Tom’s point where you’re just adding into the clog. And I don’t know whether they try and trade up in the draft. They have a lot of picks in the second round as well and sort of the back edge of the third. So, I don’t know if maybe that’s where they go and they they try and trade those picks, try and move up and maybe they go for number five or number four where you get guaranteed a guy like Fondell or Hagens or Martone or of course Schaefer’s in there as well, but who knows what’s to come with Schaefer because he’s been hurt as well. So, that’s another guy who you don’t know what he’s going to be like coming back. So, I think there’s a lot of interesting options for the Bruins team at this draft. Whether they try and trade up, whether they even try and trade back, I think there’s a lot of different possibilities for them and it’s just going to be whichever one they think is going to best serve their franchise. Yeah, completely agree. David, do you think the Bruins will use all their picks to try to replenish the prospect pool and what’s coming or do you think they could try to sneak a deal with one or two of these picks to try to make their NHL roster better? It’s one of those reasons I’d love to have more insider knowledge about like what players are currently available via trade and what are they realistically looking for. Like obviously Rossi is go we’ve talked about it a lot, right Tom? Like his name has come up a bunch when we’re talking about who’s available, but the deals that we’re pushing out for him are like do you really want to pony up that much money and you know that many assets for a guy like Roie who is going to command you know a sizable contract now coming up in uh in the new year and stuff. So it’s like what are you looking at? And to be fair, Don Sweeney doesn’t have, I’ll say, a long history of recent draft picks in the first and second round. There was a there was an article done by Nick Goss of the uh of NC NBC Sports Boston, and he had mentioned that um uh where is it? Give me one second. It was I can’t find it, but it was something like the Bruins have only drafted in the second round twice in the past six years. They’ve only drafted in the first round three out of their last five or six years. So, it’s like we’re not used to the Bruins having this much draft capital. So, it is it is a fun situation for I don’t know if you want to call it fun. I’d rather be in the Stanley Cup final, but it’s it’s refreshing to be on this side of things when you look at the Bruins because we’re so used to success and you get spoiled by it a lot of times, but sometimes you do have to have a down year and like you said, replenish that prospect pool. For me, when you’re looking at um who should they draft, I’m always going best player available. I don’t care if it’s round one or round seven. If they’re good, you’re going to make it work. If you draft seven forwards and they’re all wingers because that’s the players that were there, that’s what you do. You take best play best player available. Free agency is is what you use to replenish the current roster. So, I’m not looking to, and I know the NHL is a little bit different because you got to look at these are not players that are coming in and making an impact right away, but I’m still taking best player available no matter what. Um, I do think they’re going to use the majority of these picks to um to deepen that prospect pool, but I wouldn’t be overly surprised if we see some of the picks traded to future picks next year. I also wouldn’t be surprised if they kind of combine a couple picks in order to move up if they’re someone that they really like. Um, a guy like Mason West in the second round, a very intriguing prospect given his his background with hockey and football. Um, he’s decided to play hockey now, but is he going to stay in hockey or is he going to move to football after he doesn’t do too well or, you know, people push him because there’s more money that way or there’s a lot of a lot of factors that you can look at. for the first round. Um, for me, I’ve narrowed it down to nine prospects that I’d be okay with the Bruins taking at this point. Uh, nine, eight, or nine. So, you know, I’ve got in no in no order, uh, Denoier, Fondell, Martone, Schaefer, Misa, Hagens, Martin, and O’Brien. Um, and then if for some reason this Victor Ecklan guy comes out of nowhere and blows everyone out of the water, he’d be like a dark horse for me to to take at seven as well. I think Robert Schalmer’s um put up a couple a couple tweets that had a couple of his highlights and he looked like a stud offensively, quick shot, looked like he was he was good with the two-way game. It’s just I don’t know if I have a bad recent history with with European players and I’m love Fabian Lysel but I don’t know if I can go through that again. Um but then if you look at a guy like Dons Losis um you know you can look at it the other way too. So I’m going best player available no matter what in all seven rounds. Um, and like I said, if there’s if there’s a player they’re looking at that they want to get up in the second, the third, the fourth round, someone keeps slipping, I could see them kind of, you know, combine on some of those picks to to move up and grab someone. Tom, I am actually going to go the opposite way. I am not best player available. Um, I think you only get if you’re if things go right in this retool and you’re the Boston Bruins and you’re of the position that we want to be good every year, we never want to pick in this position again. how many times you’re going to get the opportunity to draft a top 10 center. And I think it just so happens that you’re in a draft that’s center heavy, so that’s going to end up falling to you. But I just feel like your your prospect pool is bereft of high-end center talent and you’re kind of thin on defense right now besides Frederick Brune and Jackson Edward. There’s kind of a drop off. You have guys like Elliot Grumwald at Quinnipak, but he’s years away. and a lot of the other guys are kind of just tweeners. So when you you talk about the second round, I think you really have to look at defenseman with those two picks. Again, if there’s a guy there that’s, you know, drops per se or is a consensus great pick, should take the forward. But I think the Bruins really need to look in the the middle rounds of this draft defensive help because their prospect pool is starting to thin out there. And when it comes to specifically the first round in that number seven overall pick, trading up is something I’ve, you know, thought about a little bit. If you really like Caleb Denoy really seems like a guy that fits what the Bruins do. And when it comes to Don Sweeney, he he’s kind of a creature of habit in the way he he works as the general manager. He likes guys that play the two-way game. He’s not somebody that, you know, really, it feels like targets high-end skill. It feels like he likes guys with good hockey sense, good motor, good defensive abilities, and then they try to build the offensive game around that. So, if they could trade up maybe a spot or two to find a guy like Caleb Denoier, I’d like that. But given the way draft prognosticators have kind of projected the first round to go and I know it’s, you know, it’s basically Matthew Schaefer and then everybody else and even with him you have the injury question like Parker mentioned. So maybe Michael Misa goes one, who knows? Maybe someone falls back in love with James Hagens. But it seems like the Bruins are going to kind of be limited to Jake O’Brien, Brady Martin, or Roger McQueen. There’s a couple other guys, but I don’t want to, you know, overload with players and I I just feel like I’m leaning towards guys if I had to, you know, gun to my head, Brady Martin or Jake O’Brien. Jeff Merrick was on with um Billy Jaffy and Andrew Raycraft, the Morning Brew podcast, and just raved about Brady Martin, how he’s a big kid. He’s an old farm boy that hasn’t really, you know, had the elite coaching to um mold the offensive side of his game. So, he’s one of those guys who if you can get good player development around him is somebody who can have a really high ceiling. Jake O’Brien’s a guy where um he’s not only one of the top North American skaters, but he had one of the biggest bumps at the end of this year. So, I think those are two guys you’re going to be eventually looking at. McQueen, that that back injury terrifies me. And I feel bad because, you know, the kid’s 17 18 years old and he’s, you know, they’re already talking about his health long term, but it’s just the reality of the draft. So, to sum up all my thoughts, I think middle of the draft, second, third round, you got to look defenseman if you’re the Bruins, take the center because if things go well, you’re never drafting in this position again. And history shows that the elite centers in the NHL come in the first round. And I think you’re gonna be looking at a guy like Martin, a guy like O’Brien, and a guy like McQueen. My thing is the Bruins goending behind the AHL right now is thin. I want to see the Bruins take a goalie in this draft. if if possible, even if it’s in the fifth or sixth round, I do want to see the Bruins go and take a goalie because I think they could really use one for the future because behind Busy and DPro, I mean, if they resign, Busy, I don’t think so. DPro might. If Busy and Dpro resigns, what’s behind it? I mean, there’s Meyer, Fedback, and Bishel, Bishell. There’s like they need some people. They need they constantly need to replenish the goalending pool. One goalie in this draft and I’m fine with it. Go best player available in the first overall the first the first round pick. Best player available and then I agree they need to replenish defenseman. I want to see him take a take a winger at some point and I want to see them pretty much just take a little bit of everything, but most importantly send go best player available at the first round pick and after that fill in your gaps and get a little bit of everything. I think that’s kind of what I think the Bruins should do. Just overall replenish a little bit of everything. So Parker, you agree with that? Yeah, I mean as as I sort of said off the start of this, right, it was it’s about your top I think top 10 is genuine generally where you want to be. Like it’s you you’re going to have good players available, whether it’s a defenseman or a or a forward or maybe even a goalie. But I think when you look at it, it’s about what’s going to help the team the most. And I think it is the center position, especially at this year’s draft. But it just kind of happens that they both align this year as Tom was saying where in recent years you might be picking between a defenseman and a forward both with equally potential. That’s maybe when you start to go, “Oh, well, we might need a defenseman.” But I think you look at what this team needs and what’s available, especially in the early rounds. I think it lines up pretty perfectly. Yeah, completely agree. Now, let’s get into the big conversation going around Bruins nation. Who the hell is gonna be the coach next year? The Sterminator. Let’s go. Oh my god. Sorry, headphone users. Sorry to headphone users. Good lord. So Tom has made his presence felt that he wanted to be um Marco Sturm as the next Bruins head coach. So here is here is who we’re hearing has interviewed. All right. who’s going to be interviewing or has been interviewed already. Mitch Love, Jay Woodcraftoft, Marco Sturm, Jay Leachch, and Joe Sacko. I believe that is the full list. Now, Dallas has been eliminated. So, Mark’s dream of Misha Donskoff is not completely done just yet. The fact the Bruins have not hired a coach yet makes me think they might be trying to go after Donskov. I don’t know. Or Pete Dbor. You stop that. Here’s the thing. I don’t want a goalie that I don’t want a coach that throws my goalie under the bus when it wasn’t his fault. Two shots. It’s tough to say. Yeah, I I I I gotta agree with Parker on that one. I mean, two shots, two goals off the puck and maybe uh maybe Dallas is playing another game. One of them was a power play goal. One of them was a was a goal on a defensive breakdown that shouldn’t have even happened. Anyways, um I love I love that argument that it was a power play goal so he doesn’t need to stop it. That don’t take a penalty, stupid. That’s That’s Who is it? Maverick Bourke hadn’t been in the lineup since what the semi-final. Future brewing Maverick Bork offers this offse Dallas has no space. Look out for that. Okay. Actually, you know what? That’s actually not that far off. Dallas only has like less than 5 million and they need to resign Ben Duchain by Bourc. They’ll be the third Borc to play for the Bruins this century. It’ll be Ray and then I think what they had Chris Bour. Chris Bourc and now they’re going to have Maverick Bourc. I don’t even think he’s related. I don’t even know. But um but yeah, anyway, I don’t think I’d need a goal. I don’t I don’t want a coach that throws my goalie under the bus. I don’t know. I don’t I just don’t like that. Um personally, but I think the Sturm or Woodcraftoft is where I where I’d like to see the Bruins go in that direction. Um if Don Scott’s available, go for it. Great. Marco Sturm out of the bunch. And I was really hoping that report was true that that he had that they had hired him. I was really hoping it hoping for it. If that report if uh Marm is the Bruins head coach, I think he’s the best option for this current leadership core because he’s a players first coach. He cares about the players. The reason why Cassidy got fired was because the players didn’t like him because he was a hard ass. Montgomery got fired as damage control. All right, I’m not that’s put that aside. But the reason Cassidy got fired was because of he was a hard ass and the players didn’t like him. De Brasque. And I I think I I think the reason uh I think the reason they’re going to go Marco Sturm is because number one he’s I think Neie really likes that former Bruins still in the organiz comes back to the organization I think but I also think he’s has a good resume. He Ontario has been a pretty solid AHL team the last few years under Sturm. I would not be surprised if he brings an assistant with him if he gets hired. Um, don’t be surprised if we see a Chris Hasht, I believe how you pronounce his last name. He’s one of the assistants of the Ontario Rain. Um, don’t be and he really likes him. Um, don’t be surprised if if they bring him over. Um, and with news coming out that I don’t think that we don’t think Chris Kelly is going to be back behind the bench next year on the Bruins staff, don’t be surprised if and I’m going to throw this out there. I think it was Aean or Kenny who tossed this out in our in our in our chat and I’m gonna and I’m going to put this out there. Don’t be surprised is if the Bruins do hire Sturm, they bring in Joe Sacko as the assistant coach to run the power play. Don’t be surprised if that’s what they do because when Sacko was running the power play, I believe that was during um I believe Sacko was on the power play during the 22 23 season. I believe you can fact check me on that. I believe he was running the power play then and look at how good that power play was two years ago, right? Chris Kelly has run the power play the last two seasons and it’s been pretty bad. I believe the power play was the worst it had been in the 21st century this year. So, I I don’t believe I don’t believe that I’m just going to toss it out there. I think Sacko being the coach of the power play could be a good thing for him. Apparently, he was seen around uh Warrior Ice Arena during the same day where Sterm was apparently having his Inerson interview. So, I don’t know what that means. Maybe it’s because he’s the offic he’s the unofficially official interimm head coach right now. Spectacularly, he’s still there. But, I’ll I’ll move this along to David. Out of the rumored names from Woodcraftoft to Sturm to Donskoff to Love to to Sacko or Leech, who do you think is going to be the Bruins coach? Now, who do you want? Who do you think is going to be the Bruins head coach? So, I think and want Marco Sturm. Okay. Um the the the you you set out the reasons pretty clearly. Um, and if if you want more polarizing coaching options, look at Marco Sturm and look at Mitch Love. Marco Sturm is coaching in the AHL. He has I think the Ontario Reign had the sixth highest offensive rating in the AHL this year. Mitch Love has always been known as a defensive first type of guy. Um, so I feel like those two are very uh very very different in terms of what you’re getting out of those coaches. I don’t know enough about coaches to know who has more pull in terms of what assistants are going to bring with them. Um, so it’s hard for me to to sit here and say, you know, if Marco Sturm comes, then he’s bringing so and so to run the offense and the defense and the special teams. And same for Mitch Love. But I want an offensive-minded head coach. Um, I want a younger head coach. Um, I want a fresh head coach. So, with those three things for me, I know that Mitch Love is young as well, but for those three things, Marco Sturm is the one that lines up and I think it’s most plausible, uh, Sam, like you said, because of the the previous Bruins connection, we do know how important that is to Don Sweeney and Cam Neely. Um, so yeah, if you put everything together, Jay Wilcraftoft is out for me because he’d be a retread. U Mitch Love is out for me because he’s defense first. Saco and Leech, I’m not even thinking about. I think Sako and Leech would have had a much better chance of being the head coach. Had Don Sweeney not gotten the extension, I think that would have been a very easy one-year scapegoat. Let’s send the head coach and the GM out the door. And it’s almost like a win-win. Oh, look. We signed this guy that nobody knows and we did great or well Don Sweeney [ __ ] the bed. This is the coach that he picked. We’re going to ship both them out together. So, that would have worked really well together. Um but because he got that extension, I think you are looking at um at this point I think it’s down to uh Mitchlo Woodraftoft and Sturm. The thing that scares me about Woodcraft that the other two don’t have is the previous NHL head coaching experience. Um, obviously Marco Storm has head coaching experience, just not in the NHL. But, um, I think that’s where things could get a little bit spicy if they really covet that NHL coaching experience. Um, but yeah, I’m definitely pulling for Marco Sturm at this point. I think he’s an ascending head coach. Um, I think whoever does take a chance on him is going to get a good one. And I feel very similar about Misha Donskov. Um, it’s one of those situations where in order to have head coaching experience, you have to have someone who buys into you being a head coach. Um, so I do think that whenever Don Scott becomes a head coach, whoever takes him on is going to get a good one as well. Domiano, the great point here. Sweeney was told to cut out the we want to interview a coach in the still in the playoffs rhetoric because the league thought it could be tampering and they didn’t like it while a team was still in the playoffs. So, um, that makes sense. I want to point out something about Mitch Love. Okay. He kind of he’s kind of a an unknown people. I didn’t I hadn’t really heard of him until the Bruins until the name came up. So, I looked him up. Okay. Current assistant of the Capitals for those who are wondering what he is. Okay. Um, he was he’s a he’s a former coach of the Saskatoon Blades in the WHL. He was the coach there for three years. um July 2021 he was named the head coach of the Stockton Heat which then turned into the Calgary Wranglers, the AHL affiliate of Calgary. He was there for two years and then before in the middle of the 20 uh two summers ago he was named the assistant coach of the Capitals to work with defenseman. As you said, David, defense first is kind of Mitch Love’s game. Um definitely interesting. Thank you, Jack, for correcting me. John Gruden was running the power play. Correct. Thank you. I forgot about him. Thank you very much. Um, Sako is running the power penalty kill which was also finished first. That’s really interesting. Tom, I’ll ask the same question to you that I asked of David. If you had to pick out of the names that were rumored, who do you think is going to be the next Bruins head coach? I do think it’s going to be Sturm, although that I was a lot more confident maybe 48 hours ago before that. I think it was Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects that had the initial report and the fact that usually when something gets leaked out from the Bruins organization, it it ends up being true. So, the fact that that hasn’t come true is shaking my confidence a bit, but what I really like about Marco Sturm is Don Sweeney talked about in his end of the year press conference, they want the team to evolve offensively. They want a coach that can evolve the team offensively. When Marco Sturm was coach of the Ontario reign, the LA Kings entrusted him by making him that coach with the development of guys like Brandt Clark, Quinton Biffield, and Alex Turkot. Those are three guys that are now huge contributors in the Kings. Quinton Biffield, one of their best players. Turkot is a key middle six contributor. BL Brandt Clark, great offensive defenseman. So, I think what you get in Marco Sturm is a guy that can develop young talent, which is something this team hasn’t had in a long time. And its ability not just to relate to players, but also embolden them and empower them, to not just improve, but to develop. And again, that’s that’s just something huge that the Bruins haven’t had. The other thing I think Sturm is the best candidate, not just because of what he brings to the table, but what the others don’t. When it came to Jay Woodraftoft, I think an issue that the Edmonton Oilers had when he was there is that they they just wouldn’t get up for a lot of games. When you have two of arguably the top five players in the NHL and you’re, you know, stumbling out of the gate, it’s tough to overlook. That’s part of the reason that Woodcraft got fired. And a big issue the Bruins had this year was their slow starts. Whether it was under Montgomery, whether it was under Sacko, it just felt like, you know, that that get up, that energy, that rearing to go wasn’t there. And if Woodcraftoft’s going to be the kind of guy that brings that in, I don’t want that. I also heard from um this is Edmonton Oilers Twitter, so give it a grain of salt. He’s not great um playoff-wise at in series management. He wasn’t good u making adjustments. So, and he just feels like a retread. He feels like the only reason he’s in um this coaching race right now is because he’s the only one with previous head coaching experience. Mitch Love, I do like I mean what he’s done with Washington’s defense this year is really impressive. I mean, Jacob Cherin before this year wasn’t the offensive dynamo he was and he wasn’t a very good defensive defender. If you look at his advanced metrics, they weren’t great. So, he’s really helped him turn around. He revitalized John Carlson who is a legit top four defenseman after, you know, having a couple years of trending downward. He really swung back up. And if you look at the really the bottom three of their decor, you have a guy like Trevor Van Ree, Alexander Alexi of I mean these aren’t, you know, hard-hitting stellar defenseman. And that team was able to make it to the second round against a solid Carolina team. So I do like Mitch Love. The only thing is I I feel like this Bruins team has a solid core of defenseman and I feel like they just need so much offensively that bringing in a defense first head coach doesn’t make a ton of sense. So I think the combination of Marco Sturm and a guy like Joe Sacko coming back and running the power play where he was so great, excuse me, running the penalty kill where he was so great. I mean this team’s been a great penalty killing team for what 15 years until last season. Yep. and it really took a hit after Sacko became the head coach and couldn’t focus solely on that. So, I think you hire a guy like Sturm who’s offensive minded, but he comes from the King system, that’s another strong defensive team. So, he’s not completely clueless on that side of the puck. You bring in Stern, you let him hire his offensive coaching staff, and you keep a guy like Sacko who really has been a a penalty kill whisperer for a lot of years. Although he doesn’t have the experience, you have experienced guys around him. You embolden him to make offensive changes to this team and help develop your young offensive talent, whether you draft it this year, next year, or the year after. And then you go from there. But all that being said, you got to make a decision and it’s got to come soon because the draft is coming. And the report is that they’re going to make a decision like imminently. So that could be by the end of this show. That could be by tomorrow morning. That could be by Thursday. We don’t really know. Hopefully it’s soon. We’ve already had moments reacting to live news before. Walstrom. That was a really funny moment. We were talking about that in the pregame. Um that was a really funny moment where Walstrom got got uh brought in on waiverss and got claimed and um Mark, David, and I uh reacted accordingly. Um so we don’t really know when they’re going to hire him, but hopefully it’s rather soon. Parker, uh again, I’ll ask the same question. Who do you want who who do you think is going to be the Bruins head coach? So, I do think Sterm will be the guy in Boston at the end of this week. I would like to see Mitch Love. I know I’m a fan of boring hockey and I can I can admit that. Um because I do think that when you play a good tactical game, we’ve seen it at just about every double IHF event. When you see teams like Finland, who frankly I don’t think you could name 10 of their players on any given roster proceed to beat teams like Canada and be competitive with teams like Sweden where Sweden has their entire roster. The Fins have barely anybody at the four nations as well. You could look at that as well. They find ways to beat teams that they shouldn’t be beating because of their way their commitment to tactical defense. And I think when you look at the way Mitch Love has what what he’s done at least in Washington, he’s given the defenseman ability to be active and encourages them to be active. I think you look at the way the Bruins play, you look at who they have on the back end, you could use some of that. And you get rid of guys like Carlo who’s one of your more, you know, sort of stay home defenseman. You look at a guy like Andrew Peak who I think we really saw this year um at the Worlds kind of take it to that next offensive level where we know him as a defensive defenseman. You you give him a little bit of that offensive side and all of a sudden he’s putting up points. And you asked me at the start of this tournament who I thought would get the least amount of points on the US defense corps. I’d be pointing at him and sure enough he’s one of the more offensive defenses because he’s given that ability. And I think you put a guy like Mitch Love in Boston, you’ll see players who you’re not necessarily expecting to generate that offense become that offensive generator. So, as much as yes, the Bruins need offense and they should be focusing on offense, sometimes that offense does actually come from the defense like we saw in Washington this year. I would introduce a thought of would Mitch Love be the one to kind of help in help Mason Lurai develop, you know, cuz like Laurai is still there’s still pieces to his game that are still a bit away. Could Mitch Love be the one to speed up that process? Because if that’s the case, great. if that would just be a cherry on top of his hiring. I’ll ask myself the question. I I I gave all of you the chance. I think they’re gonna hire Sturm. I think they’re going to hire Sturm. I think it is going to be the right decision in the long run is to hire Sturm. They need an offensively minded coach and I think Sturm brings that. But if they want a defensively minded coach, Mitch loves there. I I think it’s down to Lover Sturm. I wouldn’t personally want Woodcraftoft. I want somebody fresh and new that hasn’t coached as hasn’t had a head coaching job in the NHL before. So, Love or Sterm is my choice. Love for if you’re going to go for a defensive based coach and Sturm if you’re going to go for an offensive based coach. Parker, I I but I also think that you look at what Washington did this year, right? You look at their team coming in, how many of you guys said that they’d even make the playoffs? I said they sneak in as a wild card team, right? like let alone lead the metro, win the East, right? Like stuff you weren’t and yes, they did win the Presidents, but they were relatively close to winning the Presidents. So, I think you look at the way that they the way and how they did that because I watched just about every Washington game because I wanted to see the OV chase. And it was it wasn’t just Obie scoring goals. It was Tom Wilson with 30. It was Protest with 30. It was, you know, guys like Chin and Carlson who were jumping up in the rush. It was Alexv who once again you don’t think of him as an offensive player yet. Sure enough he’s leading rushes coming down the wing and I think you look at the way Washington played. Yes, that might be a Spencer Carbury part of what they’re running. But it comes a lot from guys like Mitch Love who’s working with the defense on jumping up in rushes and playing in that offensive zone because they know that as soon as a defenseman goes up there’s another forward coming back. So, as much as it might be one player, um, like a defenseman in the offensive’s end, you’re just as much looking at the fours being defensive. So, I think you’re playing as a fiveman unit that doesn’t really designate positions as much. I think that’s where you could see this Bruins team really switch it up, especially with all their two-way players. Can never rule that out. All right, it is time for the live questions portion of the show. If you’re not over on the Black and Gold Productions YouTube channel, head on over to the Black and Gold Productions YouTube channel. Hit the like button, hit the subscribe button. Helps us out big time and join the conversation. Would love to help us. We’d love to answer your questions as we need a like spike over on YouTube. So, head on over, hit that like button as hard as you possibly can. Maybe maybe uh give us a Zeno Charara slapshot right into that like button. How about that? As we are getting ready here to answer your questions. Um, I’ll actually introduce the first question. This has nothing to do with the Bruins. Who’s winning the Stanley Cup? Is it gonna be Florida or is it gonna be Edmonton? Not who do you want? Who do you think’s going to win? David, I think it’s Florida, but I want Edmonton to win. I want to see Connor get one. Okay, Parker. Who touched the trophy? Edmonton did. Who didn’t touch the trophy? Florida. So, Florida’s going to win. can’t win. Tom, I think McDavid and Dry Cidle are on a mission. That team looks different. They just got Matias Ekhol back, which which is huge. I know they lost Zack Heyman, but they look like a better defensive team, and I think that’s where their breakdowns were last year against Florida. The Panthers are really good. They’re really good, but I just feel like McDavid and Dry Cidle are both healthy and are on a different level. So, I’m going to take the Oilers. I’m gonna go Edmonton. I’m going to go Edmonton in seven. I think the series goes seven regardless of who wins. I think we’re getting another game seven this year and it’s going to be just as good as last year’s. So, if not better because the Oilers just look like the Oilers looked like they looked like they weren’t supposed to be there last year. It looked after in game seven on that big stage. They looked like, you know, they just kind of looked like they were there. Um, now I think they’re more prepared. They’ve been there, done that. I think this is their year. And I hate to say it as an American, Canada’s getting the cup back. Canada is getting the cup back. I think even if it’s just for a year, I think Canada is getting the cup back. Uh, let’s take a look. Uh, 5:00 pm deadline to sign Jonathan Myronberg. Do they sign him? No. That’s that that’s my thoughts on that. Well, we can go around. David Myinberg, do you think they sign? I haven’t. I haven’t seen anything that would indicate that they’re interested in signing him at this point. So, I’m gonna say no as well. Tom, I would sign him because your defensive depth is so porous at this point. And from what I’ve seen from a couple of development camps, he’s a really good skater. I like the way he moves the puck and he’s a guy who’s been playing pro hockey in Sweden as a kid or, you know, 18, 19, 20 year old. So, I would sign him. Haven’t seen anything saying they will, but if it were me in that GM chair, I would. All right, Parker. Yeah, similar to Tom, you think back to was what the Stud Nika trade way back in the was that 22 maybe or 21. Um, they tried to bury it after I I can’t remember did they win that game by a lot or lose that game by a lot. So, I want to point out that I was actually at that game uh when they beat the Red Wings 5-2 in the middle of the M of the uh Stanica for DPA show trade. Yeah, I was at the game when they won. The vlogs up on my YouTube channel is there with a couple of friends. It’s up. You can go watch it now. But I was there. I actually reported it. I said, “Oh, they made a trade. We’re here in the middle of the third period.” I looked at my phone. Oh, they traded Sadika to the Red Wings or to the uh the Canucks for uh DPRO and for Myronberg. So, that’s pretty funny. Um and so to kind of finish that, like I think it’s kind of the end of that storyline. I don’t think they go out and sign him. Um but I think they should to Tom’s point because they are very to quote Tom porous at uh at defense. I think they should just to as I agree with that they need defensive depth and I think they need defensive prospects. I think they should. Will they? No. Is there anything that they’ve Is there from what I’ve heard about him, is there anything showing that he deserves another shot? No. So, I’m going to go with no. Should they? Yes. Will they? No. Do you uh do you think Donsmell Melons will make the team out of camp? No, I don’t think he’ll make the team out of camp. I think he’s gonna have a really strong camp, but I think it’ll be good for him to have another year in the AHL. Do we talked about this earlier during the World’s Talk? Do I think he’s going to get some games in the NHL this season? Absolutely. Does that mean he’s going to be on the NHL roster full-time? No. It’s going to be a Mercurov experiment where he gets four or five games and gets sent down after the fifth game being a really good one. It’s kind of how this is going to go. Um, but I think he’ll get some games, but he will not be a full-time NHLer until the 26 27 season because I don’t think he’s going to be in the minors long. I know that he’s not going to be there long. If he keeps playing like he did in the world and with Providence and in with UMass, if he keeps playing like that all year next year in Providence, without a doubt, he’ll be with the he’ll be with the NHL club during um the 2627 season. So, Sim, to your point, here’s the question for everyone. Do you think we will see the return of Fabian Lysel and Georgie Murkov? Well, Lysel is here for another year anyway. But do they do they do they trade them away at this point? Mercur’s a free agent, so it’s kind of up to the Bruins at this point. Lysel, I don’t. Yes, I think Lysel returns. I don’t I think Merculov’s gone, unfortunately. I think uh it’s because he’s a free agent, Georgie Murcul. It’s not up to the Bruins. It’s up to him if he wants to come back and keep, you know, running on the treadmill that is being first line center for the Providence Bruins. If I’m Hercu, I want out. I’ I’ve proven time and time again that I belong and I need I should get my shot in the NHL. And what did you do to reward me? You brought up Matt Potch right away and you traded for Fraser Mitten. So, see you. I’m out. Lysel is an interesting one because he did have flashes. I think he had like three points in his last four games to end the season. It was something like that. Maybe four and three. So, I know we heard rumors that they were maybe trying to ship Lysel. I think if they can swing a deal, they might use him as a sweetener, but he has to make the team, right? I mean, I I don’t see him taking a demotion very well. Here’s my my thing. I’ll let go. If Lysel does if Lysel does not make the NHL roster, he’s requesting a trade. I think that’s what I think that’s exactly what’s going to happen. I don’t think knowing Lysel’s personality and knowing the way he is, he’s not going to take another year in the AHL. I just don’t think he is. Um, has he done anything really to earn a full-time NHL roster spot? That’s debatable. No, I don’t think he’s going to make the NHL roster. I think he’s going to request a trade. That’s that’s my thoughts on that. David, go ahead. 2.0. I think whoever the head coach is is going to be the make or break for what Lizel becomes. I don’t think he’s going to get traded because I don’t think his value is very high right now. and they’re not going to want to just let go of a first- arm pick that has potential unless they’re getting something of substance back. If they go the whole year, he sits in the AHL, they get to the deadline and someone wants to flip him for a late round pick or something before he hits free agency, that’s worst case scenario. Best case scenario, new head coach comes in, offensive minded, Fabian Lysol works his way into a into a roster spot with the Bruins. Um, obviously being a being a Lysol fan, that’s what I hope for. Um, and the thing with Lys and Merculov too, they don’t Providence does a really good job of not letting the kids talk to the media a whole lot. So, we don’t really know where their mindset is going into this season. Um, we don’t know if Merculot wants to come back or if he wants to go. We don’t know if Lysel is comfortable with where he is or if he’s really upset. you’re just going based on speculation because there’s been nothing that’s come out directly from them that says this is how they feel or this is how I feel. Um, so it’s very hard to determine what to expect, but like I said earlier in the pod, I [ __ ] love the off season and it’s reasons like this. you have so much speculation going into a brand new season and people like Merculaf who are free agents. It it’s fun to see the storylines that that get pushed when really we don’t know what the like we know what the narrative is but we don’t know what the truth is. So it’s really fun to follow these story lines. Um I also just want to say uh Dom thank you for being here. I really really hope that everything is going well in your life man. Uh would love to hear you back on the podcast waves um sooner rather than later. Uh, but love having you in the chat. Absolutely. Completely agree. I back that 100%. Good question here from Jack earlier in the show because we were not taking questions then. We’ll answer it now. Do you think Zidor off has stepped up enough at the end of the season to deserve an A? Okay. Now, here is my only reason why they wouldn’t. Hampus Lynholm exists and I think the Bruins were missing Lynholm more than they realize and I think a guy like him in the locker room is going to help them out. Now if I were to choose the captains of this team the captain Makavoy and Zidorov are the A’s. Can you have three A’s? Can you have three A’s in a captain? Can you do that Parker? You’re nodding your head. Yes. All right. Mackabo Lyn Holmes done. Take that care of taking care of that real quick. But that’s what we’re going to do. I I think I think people like Oh, sorry. Keep going. Same. Sorry. No, no, no. Go ahead. I think people like Charlie Makavoy and David Passion is the reason that the Bruins felt so comfortable moving on from the previous um the previous leadership core saying we sat here early last year like it might have been August, it might have been September, maybe October and we talked about when Ban Maran is gone who’s going to be the next captain of the Bruins and we sat here we threw around names. We we threw around names like Charlie Makavoy. We threw around a name like Brandon Carlo. The name David Passnack got brought up, but we kind of shot it down because he he didn’t show that that leadership voice. And now we’re, you know, nine months ahead and here we are saying, “Fuck, it’s got to be Passion and nobody else.” It’s so fun to follow even like small story lines like that to to uh to see it. Um, I could see I could see Zidorov getting an A. I could see Hampus Lynholm getting an A. Um, I think Makavoy definitely gets one, especially if Passion is the captain. Um, that second A um will be an interesting one. Um, I think it will come down to those two guys. Uh, with an outside shot at maybe Pavlo Zaka, but um, I think it’ll come down to Sidorov or or Hampas Lindholm. Another guy, by the way, Hampus Lynholm that is, who could really benefit from a healthy offseason because [ __ ] did the Bruins miss him last year. Oh, you don’t say. I think What’s that? I said you think Yeah. The minute he went down and I heard he was going to be out for weeks, I said, “Shit, this team’s screwed.” And boy was I right about that. Um, not only were they screwed, they were screwed. Um, question for David and Parker from Neil. What has been the initial reaction around the CHL to the wave of junior players moving to the NCAA? I’ll go first if you don’t mind. Um, the uh the reaction lately, especially after the uh Verho and I think his name is Rashni or R is it Rashni? I believe he’s projected to be uh Verhu is projected to be a first round pick next year, I believe. And then Rashny is projected to be a late first or early second this year. Um two kids that were playing in Saskatchewan that are going to go to North Dakota to play with Bruins prospect Will Zeers. Um, the two of them are big names that just recently went to the NCAA and there is a lot of unhappy people within CHL ranks now that are saying that it’s a bad thing. Um, it’s not doing any good for CHL hockey. I would agree because the players who are awesome are going to go through the NCAA and they’re going to get paid. I think it’s going to force the CHL’s hand to kind of fix the way that they’re doing things. Um the NCAA, it’s all about money, right? And if you’re going to go there as a top player, you’re going to go there and you’re going to get money. So, it’s something that they need to look at. Um, I think the CHL may end up becoming like the the CFL compared to the NFL when it comes to NCAA, but they they really need to revamp the way that they run things or else they’re going to lose all their top prospects to uh to the NCAA. Now, there is other situations where players go to the NCAA and they don’t pan out as as well as they should have and they would have had a better, you know, a better draft status if they stayed in the CHL. But, we’re not seeing that just yet. But it will be interesting to see um what players make the make the trip to the NCAA and bypass the CHL moving forward. Parker, yeah, I think part of it too, right, is you think about kind of how it works and you get drafted to the CHL at 16, 17, I think some somewhere in there. Um so you get two years before you would be even going down to the NCAA. So, I think as much as it’ll hurt the long-term CHL prospects, the majority of those prospects will either be on their way out during the draft or will be kind of hold like you think look at even the London Knights this year where there’s a lot of already NHL drafted talent and those guys would be going down the NCAA most likely given that they wouldn’t get the same kind of attention. But if there are but if there are also a lot of those top end talent going down then all of a sudden the CHO becomes you’re going to be able to play you’re going to get some attention. So it’s kind of a balancing act I think is what is going to end up happening is as much as a lot of the talent will go down to the US into the NCAA in in the same respect there will still be the same amount of talent up north of the border. Completely agree with that. I’m just sending out right now. Make sure to send in some questions. would love to uh get your questions in as we only have about 10 minutes to go in the show. If you have any questions, make sure to send them over to the Black Gold Productions YouTube channel or join the live chat wherever you are and make sure to send in your live questions for the first time ever. We are live on kick. We’re live on uh as well as we’re live on Facebook and X and YouTube and Twitch. And make sure to come on over and join the conversation. We’d love to hear well love to hear some of your questions here. Um, as we are just uh a couple weeks away from the NHL draft and I’m sure we’re gonna So, we’re going to be doing a live stream during the opening night of the draft. I’ll announce that. I know maybe kind of jump the gun. We’ll see. But there will be a BNG live stream on Friday, June 27th, the night of the opening night of the NFL of the NHL draft. NFL draft. I covered the NFL draft with my school. NHL draft. We’re going to be live here opening night. Um, and there will be a live stream on Free Agent Frenzy on um July 1st. So, make sure to uh come by on those days. We’d love to hear from you guys as we’re going to be reacting to um the um the free agent uh frenzy and the draft as it happens live. Um all right, looks like we don’t have any more questions. That’s going to do it for us here on episode 390 of the Black and Gold Hockey Podcast. It was a fun having you guys here on the show and it was fun being back. Um, I’ll tell you what, we haven’t we haven’t had a podcast uh since the end of the Bruins season. Uh, we did a few live streams for the Providence Bruins playoff run, but it’s nice being back talking bees with you guys. We’re going to be back here hopefully soon as we’re going to be talking more in depth about the draft and we’re going to be doing some free agency predictions as well. Where do I where do we think the Bruins go? We’ll talk about all that stuff coming up this coming up in the month of June. So, expect a little more uptick in content when it comes to podcasts and stuff in the month of June. For those listening on Spotify and Apple Podcast, thank you very much for listening in today. If you liked what you if you liked what you heard, make sure to drop a fivestar rating and a nice review and it and it helps us out big time as it as it helps us become one of the top hockey podcasts out there. For those for those listening on Facebook and X and on Kick and on Twitch and on YouTube and on MySpace or whatever other platforms we’re streaming on, thank you very much for uh tuning in here today. Hey, if you liked what you saw, make sure to go over to the Black and Gold Productions YouTube channel, like, subscribe, ring the bell, make sure you get notified every single time we go live or post a new video here on BNG. Make sure to go follow all of us on social media. You can go follow Parker at onthe-fly 1515. You can go follow David at DC_79. Go follow Tom at Tolluties. Go follow me on Sam Smithlight T. Hopefully the next time we talk to you, the Bruins have a head coach in place. Hopefully the next time we talk to you, the Bruins will have uh their mindset set for what they’re going to do at the draft and in free agency. For now, for Parker, David, Tom, myself, signing off for now. We’ll see you guys next time on the Black and Gold Hockey Podcast. Bye everybody.
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2 Comments
Every GM has made mistakes with much more to work with, we have been a contender for 15 years or so. If Sweeny ever gets fired he would be back to work within a month if he wanted.
They are crazy if they don't hire Donskov as HC, Sturm would be a good assistant and could run the PP.