From now until the beginning of training camp, Bruins Insider Joe Haggerty is profiling players who will be on, or have a chance to be on, the 2015-16 Bruins. Today's player: Max Talbot.
It’s probably difficult to make assessments on any impact Max Talbot will have this season based on his abbreviated 18-game stint with the Bruins after the March trade deadline last spring. He showed versatility, an affable personality in the dressing room and the willingness to play a grinder’s role on the fourth line. That’s really all the Bruins will be looking for out of him this season. His personality was a breath of fresh air in a tense dressing room after he arrived from Colorado and the hilarious video of him interviewing Habs fans on the street of Montreal this month was more evidence of the “glue guy” role he will play on the Black and Gold.
Twitter Handle: @Max25talbot
What Happened Last Year: Talbot, 31, was having a respectable season with the Avalanche, posting five goals and 15 points in 63 games along with a plus-2 rating for a team going nowhere. He was dealt to the Bruins at the deadline for Jordan Caron and the Avs picked up half his salary keeping his cap hit under $1 million for this season. That means the Bruins could have an entire fourth line that all hold cap hits under $1 million (if Chris Kelly is dealt or playing on the third line). That’s exactly where a hockey team should be when they’re bumping up against the salary cap ceiling. Talbot was fine after arriving in Boston and posted three assists in 18 games while quickly learning Boston’s system and fitting in on the penalty kill. Talbot seemed to go quiet down the stretch as the Bruins imploded in the last few weeks of the season and he’ll need to be more of a consistent energy player this season if he wants to be in the lineup. He might have slowed down slightly at 31 years old, but he has the intelligence, the moxie and the hard-nosed mentality to post a successful season on the B’s fourth line as a center, or on the wing if need be.
Questions To Be Answered This Season: It’s pretty simple with Talbot. He’ll have to show that he’s hungry enough to stay in the lineup with young players nipping at his heels and that he still has the skating legs to be effective in a gritty fourth-line role. Everybody watched Daniel Paille and Gregory Campbell both lose it last season as effective fourth-line players and the B’s can’t afford to watch that happen two years in a row. The intangibles are all there: Talbot will be a positive in the B’s dressing room, even if he’s not playing, but he could also give them the energy and secondary offense they didn’t get from the fourth line last season. If Talbot can repeat production like the seven goals and 25 points he posted for the Avs in 2013-14 then the Bruins will gladly take that from a good, hardworking veteran with big-game experience.
In Their Words: “He’s a guy I’ve known for a little bit there. He’s going to do everything he can to help this team out. To me, he’s a lot like a Johnny Boychuk guy in the dressing room where he likes to have fun and let loose, but when it’s time to play, he’s all business. He comes to play and he’ll do whatever he has to to fulfill his role. It’s definitely a good addition to have and veteran leadership down the stretch is often overlooked, and he’ll fill that gap very well.” –Bruins coach Claude Julien, on Talbot shortly after the March trade that brought him to Boston.
Overall Outlook: Talbot has been effective as a fourth-line forward capable of posting 5-7 goals and 15-25 points over the last few years, and should do so again this year in Boston provided he can remain healthy. That’s likely getting more and more difficult for a 5-foot-11, 190-pounder who is approaching 700 career games in the NHL, but Talbot should get adequately pushed by other young forwards looking for playing time. His days of posting 19 goals and 34 points for the Flyers might be behind him, but Talbot can still be a very useful player for the Black and Gold on and off the ice. It will be interesting to see how Chris Kelly, Zac Rinaldo, Talbot, Joonas Kemppainen and Brian Ferlin (and any other number of hopefuls that emerge in training camp) all fit together on the fourth line as camp unfolds. If Talbot can play with a little more of an edge and a touch more energy this season than he showed with Boston at the end of last year, he will quickly become a fan favorite for the Bruins this season.