Is Jokiharju Worth Saving?

Is Jokiharju Worth Saving?

welcome in everyone to another episode of Bruins Tape to Tape i’m your host this evening Caroline with a K it is June 25th and I’m here with my fantastic co-host Maria from Watertown hey Maria hello hello the uh month of June is flying by and I am three days away from official retirement land hooray the senior must be so bad yes oh oh you can’t even imagine right now i haven’t fully I have not fully checked out but it is it is creeping creeping up on me oh my goodness well hopefully in a couple of days we’ll have plenty to celebrate uh not just you but also free agency free agency but until then yes to talk about Yes we are here to talk about more of our trade deadline acquisitions uh this week we are talking about Henry Yoki Haru who was essentially brought to Boston uh not really with a trade i don’t think that Buffalo really got anything uh he just wanted out and quite frankly we don’t blame him so this 25-year-old right-handed D uh was drafted actually by Chicago back in 2017 in the first round 29th overall which is a little surprising uh last season he played uh 60 games and he had three goals seven assists 10 points and shockingly a plus 13 he also won the Buffalo Sabres i know and again you know what fun is for us to be throwing shots at any other organization right now after the season the Boston Bruins had so oh my god and he had a Cors 4 uh percentage of 51.4 so he was shooting uh a little bit more often than not uh which is again something that we could not say for a lot of players on our team but interestingly enough so again in the last few episodes we’ve talked about one of my favorite statistics the individual points percentage uh but when it comes to defensemen I like to then shift my focus to defensive point shares the DPS and this is a statistic that effectively measures a uh player’s defensive play it estimates the number of team points contributed by that player uh in this particular season he actually had a fairly solid defensive contribution in Buffalo so out of all of his games he had a defensive points share of 1.5 in Boston and 1.3 in or no I’m sorry 1.5 in Buffalo and 1.3 in Boston so what the heck does this mean and why should you care uh comparing him to let’s say Charlie Mackoy he played only 50 games this past season because of his injury and he had a 2.5 DPS which means he had a really high impact in fewer games zidorov played 81 games and he had a 5.5 whoa which was pretty crazy you know for I mean I look forward to later this summer when we do another review of Nikita Zidorov because I think he was a little bit of a dark horse a little bit of a sleeper cell you know yeah i I I mean he Yeah he he gave himself a bit of a bad rap to start face value yeah so he’s going to be um he’s going to be one we’re going to talk about more but a lot of the other players a lot of the other defenseman on the team you know you’re looking at again Charlie Makavoy 2.5 Brandon Carlo 2.7 Andrew Peak 2.3 Mason Laurier 1.1 but you know he’s he’s the baby um and essentially as I mentioned it’s uh an indicator of you know how they are contributing defensively and so Yoki Haru being a player that again came into a difficult situation in Boston um didn’t really know what the heck was going on his motivations for going to Boston you know I mean I’m not putting words in his mouth but the fact that he wanted to get the hell out of Dodge Buffalo i mean is Boston the place that he really wanted to or should have landed to be determined the biggest issue is that he is also being 25 years old an RFA with arbitration rights so again Boston is not obligated to give him a qualifying offer and without knowing uh the bigger picture and the plans it’s harder to tell what Boston wants to do with this particular player um qualifying offers not doing much with them if he’s expecting more than $3 million i’ll tell you that yeah so here’s the other thing is the qualifying offers and arbitration and all that kind of stuff happens um those are all due a little bit later in the month of July so who knows if if Don and company are going to wait and see where everything else lands to kind of deal with him and figure that out but you bring up an excellent point which is uh he is coming to the end of his third professional contract he’s had four years worth of contracts two contracts total in Buffalo his first contract was a three-year with a value of $7.5 million so that’s a 2.5 million cap hit AAV and then he had a one-year deal that was signed for $3.1 million now again sample size being what it was tiny lots of uh external factors going on but Maria what’s your opinion on Henry Yoki Haru so my opinion about defense in general is you can never have enough defensive depth yes however with some of the other needs that you have I’m not sure that you are in a position to again I’m assuming that this player is going to anticipate or expect more money right yeah and I know that the cap is going up but you need to utilize that money wisely to address needs that you have so that your rebuild mhm moves on a faster track than likely what you may want it to be mhm and I don’t see how this player fits in to those plans right right if it there is even any kind of particular motivation to even stay in Boston now granted he can’t just up and leave Boston um the only way that he’s leaving is if Boston chooses not to give him an offer um but to your point Boston needs always has needed any team always has needed you know those extra defensemen right so another and I don’t want to say those are because because they’re not a dime a dozen no no no no but you find those in other avenues that might not be as expensive now if you’re telling me that you think this guy might be able to like have a higher threshold than Mason Lorai or push Lorai how much is that worth to you right well and Boston already has um a a defenseman who is I mean well again small sample size but at first glance is he truly this that different from Yokohi Haru and I’m talking about Parker Walther Spoon um you know he had a DPS this season of 1.4 he had a two last year so when he’s out there he’s doing his job right wildther Spoon played 55 games this past season he played 41 the season before and he’s going to be a lot more affordable than Yoki Haru so what is your investment in this team it’s it you know it it would be one thing if you had you know acquired this player in a trade where you gave an asset to get this player but doesn’t appear to be the case all right Bruins fans if you’re thinking about picking up some new gear now’s the time i’m already planning to grab a fresh Posternok jersey this fall who knows maybe he’s rocking a new letter on the front the NHL shop is running tons of season ending and summer sales right now including 20% off Fanatics gear and here’s the best part when you shop through our link in the show notes a portion of your purchases helps support this podcast same gear you’d find at the Pro Shop but 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DraftKings Sportsbook app now and use promo code THPN that’s promo code THPN to unlock $300 in bonus bets when your $5 bet wins only at DraftKings Sportsbook the crown is yours gambling problem call 1800 gambler in New York call 8778NY or text hopey467-369 in Connecticut help is available for problem gambling call 8887897777 or visit ccpg.org please play responsibly on behalf of Bootill Casino and Resort in Kansas 21 and over age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in New Hampshire Oregon and Ontario bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance for additional terms and responsible gaming resources see dkg.co/ftball nfl Plus premium offer available only to new and former NFL Plus subscribers additional NFL Plus premium terms at NFL.com/terms and again you have other needs and you can find yourself that utility defenseman mhm in a more economical manner right because I I can’t imagine he’s going to want he’s I mean I would assume his agent’s not going to say to him “Listen you you can’t take less money than what you made last year right that’s just not not do that it’s just not good business right it’s just not good business.” But again you know how much be because our expectation is that the Bruins are going to do something of significance mhm right in order to do that you need to have the money to do that yeah right and so again uh comparing Yoki Haru to Wther Spoon um Wther Spoon makes league minimum he currently makes 800,000 uh on his one-year contract um you know do you do you do you pursue someone like that uh again who’s probably a a defensive version of a journeyman right and you know what the the defense on this team is the least of your worries because if you get No I mean sad statement to make but it’s the least of your worries because right you know you get back a healthy Hampers Lynhol a healthy Charlie Makavoy I mean Ma Mason Laurai he’s got to take an turn for the better he finished you know finished the season pretty miserably yeah yeah but I still think that there’s up up upside to this kid again with the right the right structure and the right coaching um Zidorov he finished the season a lot stronger I think than any of us expected him Yeah to finish the season so I I think you’re in good shape right defensively right so I mean Simon’s going to be better right swaming we will going to be better yes so you know and I’m when I when I bring up Parker Wtherspoon I’m not necessarily you straight up saying that the two of them are exactly the same you know copy paste insert copy players right so again keeping in mind uh Wspoon he had a goal and six assists um but he was a minus 10 but again we know again he was with Bruins the whole I know every everyone every everybody was exposed we said it in a prior episode everyone on the team was pretty well exposed unless your name was David Pastron or Morgan Geeki yeah exactly and you know the the Bruins defense um and let’s not forget another wild card too with this money aspect right which is why I see I said like Yokihar Haru is being kind of like thanks for stopping in is right you’ve got to pay Morgan Gigi something right you know I I also kind of wonder if Boston agreeing to take Yoki Haru was them taking a flyer on him and they’re going to think about whether or not he’s worth continuing a deal i mean that at the end of the day it’s it’s going to be a money thing I think no no it’s definitely this is this is one that I think you know we can both say this is definitely going to be a money issue decision yeah he is the only one that if you know he’s not put in a trade package which again with the exception of all of the guys that we’ve talked about in this particular series uh I’m not particularly attached to any of them except for Lao but again that’s because he was part of the team before without that history yeah probably all of them I’d be like “All right well it is what it is because they’re new what have you.” But he’s one that I think Boston could walk away from he’s the only one that I agree with you yeah that this is this is not going to go great no for him and and again you know none of the players that we have been um doing these segments on are going to bring you back to the promised land okay and I think you know our our listeners and viewers are savvy enough to to know that and to figure that out that’s not what we’re saying here however in this instance I think because you are in decent shape defensively as an organization that you can move on from this player if said player is looking to get a payday or a higher payday which I think it would be an overpay in my view yeah again it’s it’s it’s so difficult to evaluate a lot of these these guys that came in for the last 20 games i mean you would think with 20 games that should be enough of a sample size i mean you know it’s a it’s a reasonable fraction of the season but but I I think when you’re looking better it would things went off the rails so quickly and you know I don’t like to use the word tank in any way shape or form about any pro aletes because I just don’t think it’s in their their DNA but was there a bit of some quick factor in there yeah likely there was I would I would be frustrated too so I mean emotionally yeah so I think it’s really hard for anybody in in the organization you know other than those players that you’ve identified as your core players which right now are David Postron Mhm charlie Makavoy Jeremy Swayman although we did hear an interesting tidbit yes on Jeremy Swayman um that the Edmonton Oilers had actually made an inquiry about Jeremy Swayman even after he signed his new contract and I wonder how much of that had to do with the fact that the Oilers might have been a little bit worried about how Skinner would hold up during their playoff run um but which actually uh without naming the team was brought up by Elliot Freriedman a couple of weeks ago in a podcast yes he didn’t have a team but he said it yeah so I do believe um that that is a factual statement but you know again this might be one of the he he he may end up being a bit of a casualty whether or not he has his heart set on staying in Boston I I don’t know but you know when you have to make roster decisions and financial decisions I’m not sure that this would be a good decision the Bruins to make to to provide him with an offer yeah yeah so he’s the one also we kind of have the the least opinion on as as ridiculous as it sounds because we first of all always have an opinion on every single player on this team and then here you are listening to our opinion as explicitly uh in this series and I think the fact that he didn’t particularly make a significant impact I mean again don’t blame him hard to cut through all that noise no no no and it’s not fair because none of the other players that we spoke about make a significant impact i think we’re looking at it pragmatically right right and Right value we have needs offensively clear needs offensively you have less needs defensively where it would be not an efficient use of resources to keep this player on who happens to be a defenseman right you know I think if he was I don’t know even what he was in his prior contract to something all right maybe you know we can entertain we can entertain that um I don’t know i just don’t have a good feeling about this one yeah no no no i I’m We could be with you who is Right right right i mean the the Bruins could do something you know to make us look like we have no idea what we’re talking about which is five5 deal oh my god then I’m going to turn over my card my my my hockey fandom membership card then I don’t know what I’m talking about but who knows with this team so that being said uh any final thoughts Maria on uh Henry Yoki Haru no not on Henry i think we have we have come to the conclusion that he may likely made a pit stop and it may be time for him to take the next travel itinerary to his ne next destination but I I’m I’m not sure it’s going to be in Boston yep well listeners uh we want to hear from you ahead of this uh free agency do you think he’s going to be uh given a qualifying offer or not and why do you think that um we’ll be so very curious to to hear what you guys have to say and always make sure you like and subscribe and follow us all on our social media especially as we are going into uh the the biggest day of the year which is the free agency Christmas in July it sure is it’s the end of the high holy days um and we of course will be live on uh free agency day you’ll see more details as we get a little bit closer on all of our socials um but as always thank you Maria for a lovely conversation my pleasure i enjoyed it as well and uh of course go bees go bees

🎙️ Word on the street is that Henri Jokiharju wanted out of Buffalo – stat. But this RFA comes with a hefty price tag. Is he actually worth 3 million per year? Or will Boston not give him an offer and let him walk?

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