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Can Matt Grzelcyk handle an increased role on Bruins blueline? |
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It appears that the Bruins blue line in 2020-21 is going to look a little different than it did when bubble hockey came to end earlier this month.
According to Rear Admiral of Barstool Sports, the Bruins will be trading Torey Krug’s UFA rights before free agency opens up October 9.
TSN’S Frank Seravalli later confirmed that teams have expressed interest in trading for Krug’s UFA rights and believes the Bruins latest offer to Krug was for six years at $6.5M per season.
Krug may not be the only hole the Bruins need to fill on the left side of their defense as they’ve yet to come to terms on a new contract with captain Zdeno Chara who is also a UFA.
While Chara has made it clear he wants to continue his career and wants to continue it in Boston, even if Chara does return for his 15th season in Boston, it may not be in the top-pairing role we’ve seen Chara in since signing in Boston as a free agent.
So with two potential vacancies on the left side of their top-two defensive pairings, could the Bruins look within to fill those vacancies?
If they do, it’s expected that Matt Grzelcyk will get the first look to skate on the Bruins top d-pair alongside fellow Boston University alum, Charlie McAvoy.
While Grzelcyk too is in need of a new contract, his status as one of two Bruins RFA’s shouldn’t be an issue as the Bruins look to retool a roster that needs to improve after what was a disappointing ending to the 2019-20 campaign.
If Grzelcyk’s brief time playing alongside McAvoy is any indication of what he can do in that spot in a full-time role, the Bruins top defensive pairing should be just fine.
Grzelcyk at least thinks so.
“I've gotten thrust into that opportunity quite a different number of times, just a short stint, but I think that whenever I get in that position it's a little different animal,” Grzelcyk said during the team’s end of the year availability earlier this month. “I think it gives me a lot of confidence as well to go in there and know that I can I can do that job when called upon, and it's only been for a couple games at a time, but I think it gives me confidence just growing from the rest my game.”
Since the start of the 2017-18 season (Grzelcyk's first full season in Boston), Grzelcyk and McAvoy have been paired together for 455:54 of five-on-five ice time. In that span, the Bruins have had the advantage in shot attempts, (502-339) shots on goal, (282-196) scoring chances for, (257-157) high-danger scoring chances for, (110-69) and goals (25-18).
Among Bruins d-pairings during that span that have logged at least 200 minutes, the Grzelcyk-McAvoy paring ranks first in corsi for percentage, (59.69%) shot for percentage, (59%) expected goals for percentage (62.63%) and scoring chances for percentage (62.08%).
As head coach Bruce Cassidy alluded to at his end of the year presser, he would like to see more offense coming from his blue line, especially five-on-five. A pairing of Grzelcyk and McAvoy would provide the Bruins with a much more offensively potent top pairing, and one that can produce offensively without sacrificing much defensively.
“Yeah I mean obviously I would love to welcome more offense into my game. I think I have more to give there for sure,” said Grzelcyk. “You feel more comfortable the more you get involved in the offense in general, so I think that a lot of that has to do with kind of your confidence in general, conference in your own game, your ability, so that’s something that I think that I can break out once in a while but I would like to add more consistently into the offense and into our team.”
When the Bruins were searching for offense during the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Cassidy wasn’t afraid to use the Grzelcyk and McAvoy pairing in hopes of an offensive spark, pairing the two together for 67:01 of five-on-five ice time across 12 different playoff games.
In that 67:01 of five-on-five ice time with Grzelcyk and McAvoy on the ice together, the Bruins held the advantage in shot attempts, (75-52) shots on goal, (44-24) scoring chances (35-23) and high-danger scoring chances (17-6)
The Bruins scored three goals and allowed three goals in that span.
More offensive production from the blue line begins with the Bruins doing a better job of getting pucks through. Whether that’s getting pucks on net from the blue line, or getting pucks into the right places in the offensive zone so that their forwards can go to work, Grzelcyk knows it’s an area he, and the rest of the Bruins defensemen need to work on.
“It's something that I can work on and something that I want to apply going forward, so I have that kind of ingrained in me, especially you know the way the last series went, I think Tampa did really good job of getting pucks through from the blue line and getting their defense involved, so it's something that I can certainly learn from,” said Grzelcyk.
“I think our defense in general would generate more, even just putting pucks in better areas so that our forwards can have more space and time to operate. I think as a D corps in general those are things that we can work on.”
Jumping up to the Bruins top d-pair is not the only area where Grzelcyk will potentially have an opportunity to grow his game as Krug’s—soon to be—departure will open the door for Grzelcyk to quarterback the Bruins top power play unit.
Grzelcyk does not come close to packing the same offensive punch as Krug does on the power play, but in his brief time spent atop the Bruins top unit, the 26-year old has done a solid job in the role.
Since the 2017-18 campaign, Grzelcyk has logged 58:25 of power play minutes with Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak, all of whom have found consistent success on the Bruins top power play unit.
In that span, the Bruins have outscored their opponents 11-0, outshot opponents 54-15 and generated 64 scoring chances with 27 of those being in high-danger areas.
If you take those 11 power play goals scored and break it down to a goals scored per 60 minutes rate, you’ll find the number to be 11.29
In that same time span, if you replace Grzelcyk with Krug, you’ll find the Bruins have scored 82 power play goals in 412:46 of power play time, a rate of 11.92 goals scored per 60 minutes.
Although Grzelcyk’s sample size on the power play is very much a small one in comparison to Krug, those numbers should lead you to believe that the Bruins power play won’t take a complete nose dive without Krug in the lineup.
For a team that has it’s issues scoring five-on-five, they surely can’t afford for their deadly power play to lose its production.
For now at least, it seams like the Bruins will be relying on Grzelcyk to keep their power play motor moving.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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