It is widely understood within the league that Boston’s top priority will be upgrading the center position in what is expected to be a busy summer for the Bruins.
This past season, Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha have been exemplary in filling the void left by the retirement of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci by stepping up to the plate. While manning the middle of the top 6 for the Black and Gold last season, they combined for 46 goals and 119 points, surpassing the 43 goals and 114 points Krejci and Bergeron had combined for during the 2022-23 season.
There was, however, a noticeable lack of dominance at the center position during playoffs, as the Bruins were unable to move the puck from their defensive zone to their offensive zone or be able to match up against opposing star centers like Sasha Barkov, when it came to faceoffs. In short, it felt like they were one frontline center short of a true contending roster that really didn’t have enough this spring to fully push a dominant Florida Panthers in the second round of the playoffs.
“There are some things we need to address, and I need to address from the standpoint of free agency and or internal growth, I think [Charlie] Coyle, [Pavel] Zacha, a bunch of guys were able to step forward. And they were cast as a little bit of misfits in that in that regard,” said Sweeney. “We didn’t see it that way. And I think they stepped forward and several other guys did too. We have to conquer that I have to be able to find some players that can come in and provide secondary scoring for us and key opportune times.”
“Misfits” is probably too strong of a word for what anybody considered Boston’s center situation this past season, but there’s little argument that adding a frontline pivot would slot everybody into a more comfortable spot.
If the Bruins were to add a top-line center, Coyle could move down to a second-line center position where he’d probably be a better fit, and Zacha could be moved from wing to center if that was the best fit for their plans. Then the Bruins could allow talented, playmaking Matt Poitras to compete for a third-line center spot coming off shoulder surgery and have a host of other pivot candidates like Morgan Geekie, Jesper Boqvist and Johnny Beecher ready to man the third- and fourth-line center spots at the bottom of the forward group.
Some of those players could be considered center candidates, but most of them did not shine in the faceoff circle, with Geekie (44.1 percent), Frederic (45.4 percent) and Boqvist (35.7 percent) all struggling during the regular season. Poitras wasn’t much better at 43.7 percent on faceoffs, but the expectation is such a young player will improve in that category with more seasoning at the pro level.
When Poitras returns to the NHL next fall, Sweeney was not discounting his chances of winning an NHL roster spot again.
“We are in a situation where we can look to add to our core group of guys, and that also includes some of the younger guys, as Cam [Neely] mentioned, I think [Matt] Poitras was another one that we’re going to hopefully come back as he’s healthy next year and see what he’s capable of doing,” said Sweeney of the 20-year-old that finished with five goals and 15 points in 33 games as a rookie last season. “Moving forward he has to come back in and earn his spot like all of our young players and incoming returning players and [we will see] how much they can push the group internally. But we’re going to be aggressive [in free agency] to be able to complement what we currently have in some areas.”
