Toucher & Hardy: Fluto Shinzawa discusses Bruins’ goalie dilemma
This morning on Toucher & Hardy, Fluto Shinzawa from theAthletic.com talked about the Bruins’ plans for the offseason. They focused on goalie Jeremy Swayman’s skills and Lena’s contract. Fluto noted that while Swayman is good, goalies generally don’t fetch as much in trades as top forwards or defensemen. They also discussed why teams don’t prioritize goalies as much as other positions.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Fred Toucher: OK. I mean, there’s no doubt Florida was the better team, and they assembled that team in a way that maybe the Bruins could look to emulate. Let’s start with the goaltending. Jeremy Swayman, you agree? I’ve read your columns. Has Jeremy Swedens established himself as the goaltender Lena saw Marks due $5,000,000 next year? He has a limited, no-movement clause. How do you see the team proceeding with this, and is it a deal? I’ve heard that different things: Is the trade of Omar going to net them something positive, or are they going to have to include something to get the figure off the books, and what will they do?
Fluto Shinzawa: No, I don’t think they would have to put in anything to package with Lena’s. I think that’s, listen, his credentials speak for themselves. Former president winner. I think he was just one save percentage point off of Jeremy during the regular season. So this is a legit really. And a lot of teams need legit. That said, if you look historically at the trade market, an impact goalie has not brought the return of an impact forward or defenseman. So that’s just the way the market is for goalies. So yeah.
Wallach: Why? Why is that? Why? That was the thing we were discussing yesterday. I mean, all sports have specialists like Major League Baseball has closers. Football has kickers, and for some reason, teams treat goalie this goalies this way. Why is that?
Fluto Shinzawa: It’s a terrific question, and I’m not sure I know the specific answer to it. I would guess that there is some volatility mixed in. Let’s look, for example, at the Winnipeg Jets. They had Hunter Hollaback, who’s going to win the Vezina Trophy? Well, I don’t know how many goals he let in during the first round, but it was too many, so it’s just not a position that is wholly dependable. Let’s look at Jeremy this year. There was a stretch after the All-Star break when he came back from Toronto where his save percentage was, I think, and it was over a pretty significant sample size. It was like it was below 900 for sure. It was 88890, not good enough, and why? You don’t know? I’m sure he doesn’t know. So it’s not a position that you can look at and dependably say like a forward. OK, this guy’s gonna get. You thirty goals. 40 assists. It’s just not so like we can all say, OK, this guy looks like a clear-cut #1 next year, but you can’t forecast that with Jeremy and say concretely. This is the. The 60 guy. A 60 game guy that’s going to carry the way. It’s just not so that I think that is perhaps the biggest reason, but it’s a terrific question. We’ll, we’ll, it’s it’s one I’m looking forward to asking Don Sweeney tomorrow in terms of why historically this has been that way, but it’s been that way historically. It’s not going to change. I would suspect that the best that you can do. Carolina still, mark, maybe a second-round pick.
Fred Toucher: Ohh OK I was more than I thought. That’s more than that’s good.
Wallach: I’ll take it all things good soon.
Fred Toucher: Well. Yeah, I mean I they don’t have a pick in the first, second or third round.
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Bruins reveal full injury list from regular season, playoffs
SUNRISE, FLORIDA – MAY 08: Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins warms up prior to Game Two of the Second Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on May 08, 2024( Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)’
The big one — and one that’s hardly a shock to anybody — is that Bruins captain Brad Marchand missed Games 4 and 5 of Boston’s second-round series against the Panthers with a concussion.
Marchand actually revealed as much in the immediate aftermath of Boston’s season-ending loss on Friday, too.
“I definitely pushed it getting back [and] wouldn’t say I was upfront about how I felt,” Marchand said following the B’s Game 6 loss. “But it’s hard to sit out and make the decision to sit out. The only reason I got pulled out of that game, the only reason I was in [concussion] protocol was because the doctors forced me into it. So, I got through it.”
The playoff absences were the first of Marchand’s career, and the 5-foot-9 Marchand went down swinging in Game 6, with a plus-1 rating, two hits, and one shot on goal in just over 20 minutes of time on ice.
But the ailments didn’t stop with Marchand.
Feb 22, 2024; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy (73) against the Calgary Flames during the second period at Scotiabank Saddledome. (Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports)
On the backend, Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy spent the year dealing with an upper-body injury that was nagging in its nature, and McAvoy confirmed that it was exactly that.
“I had an [acromioclavicular], which kind of sucked,” McAvoy revealed. “I’ve never heard that before. And that’s really an annoying injury, like, a couple of people were like, ‘You’re gonna deal with that all year.’ They weren’t wrong.”
Despite the injury, McAvoy set a career-high in goals this past regular season (12), and established career-best marks in both blocks (159) and hits (159) for the Bruins. McAvoy appeared to trust his shot a bit less in the playoffs, though, often looking for the extra pass or showing a bit of shooting reluctance when the puck was on his stick, though it’s unclear if the injury worsened or made shooting the puck more difficult as the playoffs went on.
“Like, it’s annoying, but, it’s not one of those things you can’t overcome,” McAvoy said. “Everybody deals with stuff like that.”
May 8, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) looks on against the Florida Panthers during the third period in game two of the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro/USA TODAY Sports)
Up front, Bruins superstar David Pastrnak, who finished with 110 points during the regular season, revealed that he dealt with a groin injury off and on throughout the season.
“Yeah, I had a couple of groin issues this season that were coming back a lot,” Pastrnak, whose aforementioned 110 points were a staggering 43 more than the next closest player on the Bruins, offered. “But the main thing was the groin.”
Pastrnak did, however, note that the groin issues did not affect his play in the postseason.
Jan 20, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk (48) takes a shot for an assist on a goal against the Montreal Canadiens during the first period at the TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty/USA TODAY Sports)
Elsewhere on the backend, Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk suffered an early-season injury that set the tone for what was a downright nightmarish season for Grzelcyk from both a production and consistency standpoint.
“Early in the year I just tore my oblique, so that was why I had to go on LTIR for about a month there,” Grzelcyk said. “I think that that kind of derailed me a little bit, not even just from the injury, just having to miss 10 games. I think that kind of was tough to get back from and I had a tough time finding my groove after that.”
Grzelcyk, who is a pending unrestricted free agent, has not had any extension talks with the Bruins, and the writing is on the wall when it comes to the sides parting ways.
May 8, 2024; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Bruins defenseman Derek Forbort (28) controls the puck against the Panthers during the first period in game two of the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro/USA TODAY Sports)
Another injured blue liner, Derek Forbort was a battered man throughout the 2023-24 season. In fact, the Bruins themselves thought that Forbort’s year was done when they went out and acquired Andrew Peeke from the Blue Jackets at the 2024 trade deadline, as Forbort had two surgeries on deck. To the shock of just about everybody, Forbort would work his way for some playoff appearances, and was able to finally disclose what exactly happened.
“I got both of my groins done, and there was a torn ligament in my thumb, so they fixed that too,” Forbort revealed.
Another pending unrestricted free agent, the 6-foot-3 Forbort is unsure what his future holds with the Black and Gold, but made it clear that this is where he would like to stay.
“Definitely,” Forbort said when asked if he’s interested in re-signing with the Bruins. “Jim [Montgomery] is someone that I love playing for, the way he thinks about the game and the way he explains things. I love the guys in the locker room, I’ve been on other teams and this is a pretty special group in here.”
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JANUARY 20: Danton Heinen #43 of the Boston Bruins celebrates after scoring a hat trick goal against the Montreal Canadiens during the third period at TD Garden on January 20, 2024. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Up front, versatile winger Danton Heinen missed the final two games of Boston’s first-round series against the Maple Leafs and the first three games of the B’s second-round series with Florida with an injury he has decided to keep undisclosed even with the season officially over. The most Heinen was willing to offer on the subject was that it was a ‘nagging’ injury, and that he believes it’s something that will not require offseason surgery.
This may be a business move on the part of Heinen, who is without a contract for next season. Especially when you look at how Heinen could have a decent cash-in (by his standards, at the very least) after turning a PTO into a league minimum contract last year before scoring 17 goals and 36 points in 74 games for the Bruins this past season.
Dec 27, 2023; Buffalo, New York, USA; Boston Bruins center Pavel Zacha (18) waits for the face-off during the third period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. (Timothy T. Ludwig/USA TODAY Sports)
Bruins forward Pavel Zacha also opted to keep his injury issues a bit of a mystery. Zacha admitted that he went through some bumps and bruises during the regular season (Zacha missed four games during the regular season), but left it at bumps and bruises. Zacha also appeared a bit sluggish during the postseason (his burst was noticeably lacking during the Toronto series and early parts of the Florida series), and when I asked him about his health during the postseason, he once again called them mere bumps and bruises.
In his second season with the Bruins, the 27-year-old Zacha matched a career-high in goals this season, with 21, and established new career-highs in both assists (38) and points (59).
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JANUARY 15: Hampus Lindholm #27 of the Boston Bruins skates past Tyler Toffoli #73 of the New Jersey Devils during the third period at TD Garden on January 15, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
After suffering a broken foot during the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm got through the 2023-24 season relatively healthy and without any residual effects from the foot surgery.
In fact, Lindholm’s lone run-in on the injury front came in February and on a knee-on-knee collision during a matinee against the Dallas Stars. Lindholm would miss nine games with the knee ailment, and sported a knee brace upon his return to the B’s lineup, but found that it didn’t have any lingering issues beyond getting used to playing with a brace.
