The core that needs to stay together for the Boston Bruins
The Boston Bruins will be in a weird situation in the 2023 off-season.
The B's top-two players from the 2021-22 season (Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand) are on the older side, but the club still has a young enough core to build around.
The Bruins were a top NHL team over the past 10 to 12 seasons next to the Chicago Blackhawks, Los Angeles Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Tampa Bay Lightning. The 2011 Boston Bruins that won the Stanley Cup rank as a top 5 team from the 2010s, in my books. The B's also made the Finals in both 2014 and 2019, a lot more than most NHL teams can say.
With core players from those teams like Zdeno Chara and Tuukka Rask gone and at least one more season of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci's, there are rumours of a rebuild in the near future for the club.
The current core of the Boston Bruins that should be untouchable this offseason are:
- Brad Marchand
- David Pastrnak
- Charlie McAvoy
- Hampus Lindholm
- Taylor Hall
- Jeremy Swayman
General manager, Don Sweeney's number one priority has to be a Pastrnak extension. He's still young and a very important piece to the Bruins current, and hopefully, future core.
Players the Bruins could be willing to move are Mike Reilly, Matthew Grzelcyk, Derek Forbort, Nick Foligno, Tomas Nosek and possibly Craig Smith or Linus Ullmark. Boston will only have around $5 million in cap space as of now.
There's no need to blow things up entirely and start a rebuild, but something that might not be totally out of question at this point.
Give us your thoughts!
