Bruins need a center (and badly)
Nov 30, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Pavel Zacha (18) celebrates his goal with center Charlie Coyle (13) and defenseman Charlie McAvoy (73) during the third period against the San Jose Sharks at TD Garden. (Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports)
Let’s make this absolutely, crystal effin’ clear: Charlie Coyle, Pavel Zacha, and Morgan Geekie gave you absolutely everything you could’ve expected out of them this season. It’s not easy replacing Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, and it turns out that it’s even harder when you’re wrecked by cap overages and stuck in a year-long sentence in cap jail.
But as the playoffs dragged on, it became more and more apparent that the Bruins need another high-end center added to the mix if they’re going to elevate themselves beyond ‘second-round hopeful, third-round challenger’ status.
One could argue that the Bruins were lucky to escape the first-round given the center matchup of Auston Matthews and John Tavares against the Bruins’ group. And potentially getting out of a second-round showdown with Aleksander Barkov and Sam Bennett would’ve been downright miraculous. But when this series shifted into high gear, and Barkov became more and more of a factor in crunch time, it was evident that it was downright impossible.
The Bruins were simply on the wrong end of a key faceoff, offensive-zone carry, or offensive contribution from the center position too many times in their second-round showdown. You actually lost count by the late stages of it, really.
Now, the truth is that the Bruins are unlikely to acquire a center that successfully bridges the gap between whatever they have and the three-zone monster that is Barkov, or the 69-goal scorer that is Matthews. But all true Cup contenders begin down the middle, and it’s a ‘must address’ for the Bruins this offseason.
“I mean, we pride ourselves on being two-way players. That’s what I strive to be. That’s what we’ve had here [with] Bergeron, Krejci, those guys,” Coyle said when asked about a potential addition down the middle this offseason. “That’s what you want: Someone who’s played both ends of the ice, produces, meshes well, and is a good team guy. You can always add in that department and make it better. If that’s the plan, we’ll welcome a guy like that with open arms.”
Notable free-agent centers that may fit that bill include Elias Lindholm, Chandler Stephenson, and Sean Monahan.