The Bruins Continue To Make Cuts With The Season Just Over A Week Away

Don Sweeney and Cam Neely have been making some cuts the past few weeks to get their team ready for the season. Just today Sweeney made a few more to inch closer to the 23 players for opening day. Boston is now currently at 42 so they need to cur their roster in half in just over a week. Sweeney will be busy. Sweeney has had some of his decisions made easy as many of the guys so far were drafted this year or have been in Providence to start.

Roster Transactions

Today Cameron Hughes, Emil Johansson, Joona Koppanen, and Zach Senyshyn were assigned to the Providence Bruins. Axel Anderson this year first round pick has been sent back to his Swedish junior team Djurgarden IF (SEL). Also last week Daniel Bukac and Cedric Pare were sent back to their respective Junior teams. Austin Fyten, Olivier Galipeau, Brett McKenzie, Joel Messner, Alex Sakellaropoulos, and Willy Sherman were sent back to Providence.

Even with all these guys being sent back to where they came from there are still a few rookies eyeing a roster spot, although they are limited. As of now, it appears there is two forward spot available.

Players Fighting For The Final Spots

As of writing this article, there are about 20ish rookies left trying to take a spot away from a veteran. The guys getting the looks right now are Ryan Donato, Ryan Fitzgerald (who is due for a breakout ), Jakub Lauko (has been impressing all camp), Jack Studnicka, Jakub Zboril. There are many others, these are the guys that appear to have the best chance at cracking the roster. Also Anders Bjork (still recovering from shoulder surgery)

A rookie making the opening day roster is going to be tough. Bruce Cassidy has mentioned he does not want to lean on the kids as heavily this season. It would be nice to see a rookie on that top line with Patrice Bergeron(if he is healthy come day one) and Marchand. Then that would move David Pastrnak back down to play with David Krejci. We will just have to wait just a bit longer to see who makes the cut.

The B’s will face off the defending Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals on October 3rd in DC. The Caps will be raising the banner that day as well.

Boston Bruins Trade Away Adam McQuaid For A Former Friend With Fellow 2011 Stanley Cup Champion Steven Kampfer Coming Back To Boston

On Tuesday morning the Boston Bruins announced that they have traded away defense-man Adam McQuaid to the New York Rangers in exchange for defense-man Steven Kampfer, a 2019 fourth round pick and a 2019 conditional seventh round pick.

This is rather shocking with the 31-year-old McQuaid being a career long Bruin playing 11 professional seasons with the organization since being acquired from the Blue Jackets back in 2007 for a fifth round pick. McQuaid broke into the NHL and onto Boston’s roster in 2009-10 and became a mainstay on their defense over the past nine seasons.

The long-time Bruin helped lead Boston to the 2011 Stanley Cup and has tallied 13 goals and 53 assists in 462 games with 652 penalty minutes for the Bruins.

As for acquiring Kampfer, he is a familiar face to the Bruins.

The 29-year-old has skated in 166 NHL games in his career with 10 goals and 16 assists with 82 penalty minutes. He was originally selected by the Ducks in the fourth round of the 2007 NHL Entry Level Draft before being traded to Boston originally back on March 2, 2010 in exchange for a conditional fourth round draft pick that was later traded to Carolina who drafted Justin Shugg.

Kampfer made his NHL debut with Boston back on December 9 2010 and appeared in 38 games with Boston in the 2010-11 season. Kampfer had a career year scoring five goals and 10 assists also being part of the 2011 Stanley Cup team with McQuaid.

Kampfer will likely be a call-up option from AHL Providence that has NHL experience. With the current roster build-up the Bruins simply did not need to have McQuaid anymore and making a move now made the most sense.

Boston Bruins Hockey Is Less Than A Month Away And There Are Still Roster Spots That

Need Filling

Boston Bruins hockey is right around the corner. The fans still have no idea who is going to be the first and second line winger. Will Bruce Cassidy move David Pastrnak Down with David Krejci? Will he place Ryan Donato with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand? Where will Anders Bjork play? Who is going to play with David Backes? These are all the questions we still have about this very young Bruins team.

Cassidy has even said that he is still unsure of who will crack the roster. There are too many guys knocking on the door. Donato and Bjork are definitely at the top of the list as they have proved they can play at the NHL level. Do not be surprised if Bjork is thrown on the third line with Backes. Backes could even be put back to Center. The only problem is where does the new guy Joakim Nordstrom play? He may take the center position in place of Riley Nash and Backes stay on the wing.

We know that Bergeron and Marchand are not moving and Krejci is the number 2 for as long as he is in Boston. Since the Bruins did not resign Rick Nash and did not go after another veteran. The second line wing spot will be filled by youth. Even if it is filled by Pastrnak, as Pasta is still only 22. Cassidy should move Pasta down to try and create more scoring up and down the roster. This allows him to put a kid with one of the best centers in the game.

Now that first line spot and who it goes to will be up to the guy who wants it the most. A guy like Zach Senydhyn could come in and have a great camp and find himself playing next to Bergeron.

What About the defense?

Another guy that could play on the top line is Danton Heinen. He spent most of last year up and down the roster. The third line was his home most games, although he has the skill to be a top 5 forward. The biggest questions for the team are those two top 6 winger positions. The defense is not cemented either now with newly acquired John Moore.

Boston also has many guys still fighting for that spot on D. We know that Zdeno Chara, Brandon Carlo, and Charlie McAvoy are a lock. That leaves Moore, Torey Krug, Kevan Miller, Adam McQuaid, and Matt Grzelcyk to fight for the last spots. With the year that Grz played last year, he will definitely be on the opening game roster most likely on that third pairing. The hardest guy to place will be Moore. Moore is capable of playing top 4 minutes and has the skill.

The only problem is why sign Moore unless the Bruins are going to trade Quaider or Miller? Moore is not a 7th d man, especially when you sign the guy for 5 years. This shows that the Bruins want to use him. This makes Quaider and Miller the extra D-men as Krug will most likely be paired with Moore.

Similar to last year the Bruins have a good problem to have and that is there are many players who could be on the opening day roster. We will just have to wait and see as Pre-Season starts in just a couple days.