With the
signing of Jake DeBrusk last week, the Bruins checked off their final RFA box for the offseason.
Now, with the calendar about to flip to December and hockey hopefully to start in January, the Bruins are left to patch up any remaining holes before the season kickoffs in the new year.
After inking DeBrusk to a two-year contract with an annual cap hit of $3.675M, the Bruins are left with just shy of $3M in cap space.
When presented with the question of what’s the one thing the Bruins need to be complete, a few answers come to mind.
Top six winger?
Top-four left-shot D?
Resigning Zdeno Chara?
While I do think it’s very important for the Bruins to solidify their top-six and find a winger to play to either the left or right—DeBrusk can slide to the right side if needed—of David Krejci, I think what makes the Bruins more complete is a legitimate top-six left-shot defenseman.
The addition of Craig Smith and more time in the system for Ondrej Kase potentially provides the Bruins with two options that can lead to consistent minutes on the Bruins second line.
As of now the Bruins have three left-shot defensemen on the roster in Matt Grzelcyk, Jeremy Lauzon and John Moore with Urho Vaakanainen and Jakub Zboril knocking on the door for NHL minutes next season.
While the Bruins are impressed with Grzelcyk’s development and his numbers alongside Charlie McAvoy have been encouraging, Grzelcyk lacks the defensive upside needed to be a top-pairing defenseman.
The Bruins were reportedly in it until the end for a potential trade for Coyotes captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson, but it certainly seems like that ship has sailed. A trade for Ekman-Larsson would certainly have filled the hole left by Torey Krug when he signed with the St. Louis Blues earlier this offseason.
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has said multiple times of late that Chara is waiting to see what the upcoming season looks like before making his decision on his future. It seems and sounds like that if Chara decides he wants to play once again in the upcoming season, Boston is where it will be.
The Bruins have the cap space and the roster spot for Chara to return for what likely will be his final NHL season. But even if Chara does return to the Bruins in 2020-21, can the 43-year old be relied upon for top-pairing minutes?
Bringing Chara back will help ease some of the worry on the Bruins blueline, but it’s still not a move that I think saves the Bruins revamped blueline. A Chara reunion next season would provide veteran stability to a d-core that could be very young next season.
While Chara was solid in his usual role atop the Bruins top d-pairing last season, he very much struggled in the bubble and especially so in the Bruins season ending series with the speedy Tampa Bay Lightning.
Now how much of that is Chara showing his age? Or how much of that was a 43-year old quickly ramping it back up after an unexpected pause, and a pause that didn’t allow him as much ice time to prepare for a return to play as he would have liked?
If Chara calls it a career, or decides to finish his career elsewhere and the Bruins look to within to replace Chara on their top pair, could Lauzon get the nod over Grzelcyk?
While Grzelcyk has more experience than Lauzon, the latter his more size and brings a more physical game to the table.
The 6-foot-1, 204 pound Lauzon plays a heavy game and has been impressive in his 35 career NHL games across two seasons with the Bruins.
Although Lauzon saw mostly bottom pairing minutes last season when he was on the ice, he was a reliable piece to a bruins d-core that was a positive last season.
Among the eight Bruins defensemen that logged at least 250 five-on-five minutes last season, Lauzon’s 56.25 GF% ranked third behind Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy.
Among those same eight defenseman, the Bruins allowed 1.67 goals per 60 minutes of play with Lauzon on the ice. Only Grzelcyk had a lower rate at 1.63.
Although his sample size is small, and his numbers are against team’s weaker lines, the numbers do show that Lauzon has the potential to succeed in a larger role with the Bruins next season. Just how large that role will be remains to be seen.
The Bruins could also turn to the trade market to fill their void and could use Vaakanainen, Zboril or even Lauzon to help them acquire a more experienced defenseman and one that can log 20-plus minutes a night.
But at the end of the day, whether it’s Chara, Lauzon, Grzelcyk or someone outside of the organization, in order for the Bruins to be a complete team in 2020-21, they’ll need to find someone to play key top-pairing minutes alongside McAvoy.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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