The 2019 Bruins (A lot to take in.)

Team: 2019-20 Boston Bruins

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 4, 2017

Published: Jul. 4, 2017

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

The basic premise of this Mock is to flip older players for picks and to fill holes our roster has. Krejci and company get shipped to the Jackets for Ryan Murray, who gets back into playing more than 20 minutes a night as a top 4 guy.

The LA trade is very interesting to me. Backes and Brown are both older type RW leaders. Flipping them would open new possibilities to these teams who are likely to have a disappointing season in 2018-2019. They swing for the fences by making this swap of tough hard nosed players.

The Bruins find a way to dump Beleskey. He's not terrible in this vision, but he's certainly not worth nearly 4M. They also give Subban a chance with someone else. We pull in a late pick as part of the deal as well for 2 guys that didn't work out the way we had planned.

Our 1 UFA signing is 2nd line Center Brian Little. I think Winnipeg will have trouble resigning him as Laine, Dano, Ehlers, Trouba and Morrissey will all be getting enormous raises. He is a great player and I think they try to keep him, but if he has to go to keep the younger stars than it must be done. We swoop in and scoop him up on a fair deal. He gets paid 24M over 4 years because he is a big ticket item. He fills a rather sizable hole we have at the #2 C spot and gives Trent Frederic more time to progress in the AHL.

In this Mock I'm assuming we'll be keeping Bergeron until his contract expires. He will be the team leader and will help the younger guys grow into their roles.

I contemplated moving Rask, but I think that when he's playing his best, he is our teams #1 player. Sometimes he just completely dominates, but we have to find a way to make that happen more consistently. I think he's worth keeping.

As for Heinen, I think he barely edges out Cehlarik, who I like a lot, as the 3rd line Left Wing. It could really go either way, but I think they both get some quality time in the lineup to show their stuff. There will be an even battle there and if we Kept Vatrano, he would have been part of the players competing for that one spot.

About Bjork, Senyshyn and Zboril: They will be due bridge deals. We have about 8M in cap space if we don't retain Kevan Miller. We can spread that around to them and then in 2 and 3 years time we will have an abundance of cap room from Bergeron, Brown and Rask moving on.

I really like these lines that have been formed. Theres a veteran on each line to lead the way inside the top 9. Bergy and Marchy will always stay together. I like Little and Pastrnak as a potent pair. Brown and JFK will be very hardworking defensive oriented players together. The 4th line has the young guys with a lot of energy and a lot to prove. They'll get things done.

The defense is pretty legit now. I generally don't like to see McAvoy and Krug together in a mock because McAvoy is not ready to be the leader defensively. However, this is 2 years from now and he will surely progress. I feel comfortable they will make a good pair and then the 2nd top 4 pair will also shine. Murray Carlo is a really really solid pairing. I think they would be underestimated for awhile but would become one of the best 2nd pairs in the league. Zboril beats out Lindgren for the last LHD spot. It could go either way, but I'm giving the nod to Zboril in this mock. Kevan Miller plays his last year here as the #6 guy. Lindgren will be ready for when injuries happen.

I hope I covered everything I wanted to get to. This is not likely to happen, but I think if things did work out this way we would be in a great position. We'd have about 9 or 10 really young players integrated into the lineup getting playing time and progressing. If we incorporate them slowly we'd have a greater chance for success.

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