How Can The Bruins Replace Patrice Bergeron?
Unless you’re an ignorant and uneducated piece of trash like WEEI’s Adam Jones, you probably realize that replacing Patrice Bergeron is going to be an impossible task. Bergeron just won the Selke award at age 38 and has been one of the best two-way centers in the history of the sport. That’s not even including the crazy hometown discounts he’s given the Bruins year after year. Now that Bergeron has retired, how in the world can they possibly go about replacing him?
If the Bruins were to take the ice tomorrow, Charlie Coyle is your first-line center. Pavel Zacha is your other internal option to take that top line spot. Boston has Morgan Geekie and Patrick Brown as the rest of the center unit down the middle. It should be full blown panic mode in Boston right now.
This league has proven over and over again that the best teams win with a strong middle ice. Vegas was the epitome of that after winning the West and Stanley Cup. The VGK have insane depth down the middle while throwing Jack Eichel, Chandler Stephenson, William Karlsson, and Nic Roy as the centers. It doesn’t get much better than that and it’s a big reason why the Knights won the Cup.
I’m not sure the Bruins are a playoff team if the center spot doesn’t get addressed. That’s not even including the fact that your left wings have turned into James Van Riemsdyk and AJ Greer instead of Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi. The blue line is worse too after Dmitry Orlov signed with Carolina.
Brad Marchand is still going to do rat things that help towards winning. David Pastrnak is still going to pocket 40 goals. It still doesn’t change the fact that Boston fired their ace defensive coach (a move they should still regret) and have now lost the best 200-foot player in the history of their franchise. Bergeron is the type of guy that just covers up for a lot of sins.
If the Bruins don’t find a way to properly replace Bergeron, they can probably kiss a playoff appearance goodbye for the 2023-24 NHL Season. Something that can’t happen given the win-now window and the fact that the Bruins don’t own their 2024 first round pick because of the Bertuzzi trade.
Boston doesn’t have a ton of cap space (link for Cap Friendly). Whatever space they do have left will likely go towards new contracts for Jeremy Swayman and Trent Frederic who currently remain unsigned. There are options that could go a long way toward replacing Bergeron. Three names that come to mind include Elias Lindholm, Mark Scheifele, and Logan Couture. It’s still going to be a challenge to fit any of those guys under the cap. Not to mention that Boston has limited assets to give up in a potential trade.
Any of those three options would be massive upgrades over what they currently have. I just have no idea how you possibly get a deal done there. Both Lindholm and Scheifele are impending free agents so maybe this just has to be a punt year for Boston. It’s really hard to see a pathway toward serious contention without a trade.
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