The Bruins are more than a week into the regular season, and have done a good job whipping up on the Sabres, Senators and Oilers after getting shellacked by the Washington Capitals on opening night. That makes it a little tough to read exactly who the Bruins are after taking care of three of the weaker sisters even if they did outscore those teams by a 14-4 margin.
So with many unknowns and plenty of things still very much up in the air for the Black and Gold, it’s time for another Hagg Bag mailbag. . As always these are real questions from real readers and fans sent to my twitter account using the #HaggBag hash tag, sent as messages to NBCS Facebook fan page or as emails sent to my account at JHaggerty@nbcuni.com
MORE BRUINS COVERAGE
- Too early for goalie debate, but Halak doing his part
- Pastrnak shows NHL star power in starting down McDavid
- SEE IT: Pastrnak's incredible goal vs. Oilers
- Heinen 'fighting it' in early-going after brilliant rookie season
Now let’s get on with the bag:
Joe,
You are 100% right! We have been talking about this for 2 years, this will make it 3. I am not huge Rask guy but I think he’s a good goalie I just rather pay 4M total for my goalies than 10M then use the other 6M on a FWD. Khudobin was slightly less productive LY for less $
Boston Bruins
-- Robert Demore (@BobbyDLight14)
Joe Haggerty: Yes, Robert. This is basically where all the criticism comes from for Tuukka Rask. Part of it is about the feeling that the Bruins are never going to win a Stanley Cup with Rask as their No. 1 guy starting every game in the playoffs. People can throw his career save percentage around as proof that he’s a great postseason goalie, but the eye test tells you that Rask doesn’t always answer the bell adequately in the big moments. Game 7 against Toronto last spring was another one of those moments, and he was lucky enough to be bailed out by his teammates during that one.
The other issue is the $7 million he’s being paid, and the $10 million that the Bruins are essentially paying for their two goalies in Rask and Halak. Only Montreal pays more in terms of cap space for their goaltending, so the Bruins better be getting the best goaltending in the league based on the money they’re paying.
Certainly a team could get into a bit of a pickle if they have two equal goalies making around $4 million per season when it comes time to pick a goalie in the postseason, but there’s a really good argument to be made that you’d get at least as good goaltending in that setup as you would with an established No. 1 guy like Rask. It will be interesting to see how well Jaroslav Halak plays over the course of the season as compared to Rask, and how much playing time he ends up taking away from Boston’s established top guy between the pipes. I’m guessing it’s a lot even if everybody knows that Halak isn’t the long term answer in Boston either.
I stick by my prediction, Halak takes over by midseason. Thank you and have a nice day
--Big Ed (@6055_1)
JH: Thanks Big Ed. You have a nice day too. My prediction is that Halak will get hot and go on a few stretches where he takes playing time from Tuukka for weeks at a time, but that Rask will ultimately hold onto the job. I think the history of both players says that Halak will run hot and cold, and that he hasn’t always been the best big game goalie in the world either. Based on the first week he’s been great, but we’ll see how long that lasts once they start playing the top end teams around the league. You have to also think that all of this is going to eventually light a fire under Rask and make him play a lot better as well.
Hi Joe!
You may have addressed this earlier in off/pre-season....
What would it take to get Mark Stone out of Ottawa? Think he is a UFA come July 1st....and is a big RW who would certainly look good with ‘Snake’ and ‘Krech’ on 1B! B’s need more size to go with skill...
Keep the write ups coming!
Ron
JH: Thanks Ron. I’d imagine it’s going to take a top prospect and a pick of some kind to get a player like Stone, and that Ottawa might not be too anxious to trade a player like that within their division given some of their other trades of core players. I agree that Stone is an excellent winger and that’s exactly the type of player that the Bruins are still searching for at right wing as they alternate between Danton Heinen (no goals in four games), Ryan Donato (one goal in three games) and Joakim Nordstrom (one goal in a couple of appearances for the Bruins). It may be that one of those players end up being the permanent answer on the second line, and that the Bruins will ultimately have to go outside the organization for the goal-scoring punch they need to go with David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk.
One interesting thing to note: Anaheim Ducks exec Dave Nonis spent a long time chatting with Bruins GM Don Sweeney during Thursday night’s win over the Oilers, and it certainly wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that these two teams could be talking trade at this early point of the season. The question is what exactly the Bruins would be chasing down with Anaheim.
Hey Haggs,
You think the Bruins could ever get creative and give Nylander an offer sheet?
Maybe trade Krug to free up some cap space? Trade Backes and eat some $? Are there any possible ways to make this happen? Can we bury Backes in Providence?
--Tyler
JH: I do not think the Bruins will give Nylander an offer sheet. I think the Bruins are wary of other teams coming after a guy like Charlie McAvoy with an offer sheet, and that will keep the Bruins from peeing in any other team’s pool as far as restricted free agents go. I don’t think it’s out of the realm that Torey Krug could get traded, but he’s going to have to get healthy and stay healthy for a bit before that’s even a possibility. If the Bruins do deal Krug, it will need to be for a difference-making kind of winger given the kind of production that the diminutive Bruins D-man has had over the last few years. I also don’t think Matt Grzelcyk is going to be able to adequately replace Krug’s offense if they did trade him, so that needs to be factored in as well.
There’s no way I would bury David Backes in Providence, and I’d be wary of trading away a player that is one of the only forwards with some size, strength and snarl. This Bruins team has enough small, speedy and skilled forwards up front that don’t have strength or experience, and that makes Backes a needed commodity among all the youngsters like DeBrusk, Bjork, Heinen and Donato. If somebody wanted to give you good value back and take on his contract, I’d obviously strongly consider it if I were the Bruins. But let’s be honest here: Nobody is going to give you good value and take on those final few years of 34-year-old Backes’ contract. The Bruins massively overpaid to get him to Boston and I think they’re going to be stuck with that one, so they need to hope that Backes bounces back with a really strong season while still at the back end of his prime years.