Bruce Cassidy opens up on his time in Boston; Did his firing influence the returns of Bergeron and Krejci?

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Dorin Canaday
September 11, 2022 (5:12)

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The Boston Bruins fired Bruce Cassidy on June 6th, after a game seven loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the 2022 playoffs.

Just eight days later, Cassidy was hired as the Vegas Golden Knights' third head coach in franchise history.

After Cassidy's firing, the Bruins brought back captain Patrice Bergeron on a one-year extension, Jake Debrusk rescinded his trade request from last season, and David Krejci returned after playing one season in his native Czechia.

Of course, this brought up rumours that Cassidy was not liked by Bruins players, and his firing influenced all of their returns. However, the former B's bench boss doesn't buy the narrative.

''What I know about (Bergeron), we talked at the end of the year - he was upfront about, 'I'm going to take some time,'" the new Vegas Golden Knights bench boss said in an interview with Boston Sports Journal's Conor Ryan. "I don't think the decision they made with me had anything to do with Bergy.''

He also noted that Krejci was clear about his intent to move home was clear:

''He told us that his parents were getting older, he wanted his kids to get to know his grandparents," Cassidy said. "With COVID, there was a good challenge and he was going home. For how long? He said, 'I don't know. But if I come back ... listen, I'm gonna probably just come back for the Bruins.' ''

''With (Krejci), we never had disagreements - he wanted to play (with David Pastrnak) more than he did. Who didn't, right? He'd be the first to admit it. Hopefully he gets his chance this year.''

However, he wasn't entirely sure whether his dismissal changed Debrusk's mind to take back his trade request:

''Only he can answer that. I thought he had a really good finish to his year. I think there was different things that went into his trade demand.''

''We just signed Taylor Hall to a long-term contract, who was a left winger. (Brad Marchand) had a long-term contract, so there may have been some issues of how high (he) can get in the lineup.''

DeBrusk moved to the right side and was promoted to the Bruins' top line with Bergeron and Brad Marchand in February and saw a massive offensive jump for the remainder of the season.

Cassidy also spoke on the narrative that he didn't mesh well with younger players during his time in Boston:

''That was a little bit of kind of where I disagree with some of the narrative of ... we put a lot of younger players in the NHL in my time in Boston.''

''From McAvoy, Carlo, Grzelcyk, Swayman, DeBrusk, Bjork. Some of them were traded � Donato for a guy like Coyle, where we were upgrading our team. They were young players that other teams wanted. And it was Frederic now who's coming in to play the full year last year. And even Pastrnak was young when I took over. So there was a lot of young guys that I thought we developed well for Boston.''

Cassidy was very successful during his time as head coach of the Bruins, as he made the postseason in all six seasons behind the bench and finished with a record of 245-108-46 in 399 games. What eluded Cassidy in his time in Boston was a Stanley Cup, coming close in 2019 after a game seven Finals loss to the St. Louis Blues.

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