Bruins give GM Don Sweeney a 2-year extension to lead rebuild after first playoff miss since 2016
BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Bruins have signed general manager Don Sweeney to a two-year contract extension, trusting him to rebuild the roster after the team missed the playoffs this season for the first time since 2016.
The move comes a month after team president Cam Neely said he needed to think about whether to keep Sweeney around after a decade in which the Bruins have seen unprecedented regular-season success followed largely by playoff flops. Sweeney fired coach Jim Montgomery, who led Boston to NHL records of 65 wins and 135 points in 2022-23, in November, then sold off the roster at the trade deadline when it failed to respond under interim Joe Sacco.
'Don has navigated a disappointing period for our club with conviction, purpose, and a clear vision toward the future of the Boston Bruins,' Neely said. 'He made difficult decisions around the trade deadline with the confidence they will pay dividends as we craft a path back to contention.'
In 10 seasons under Sweeney, the Bruins have a 458-233-91 regular-season record, with eight playoff berths. The team's 1,007 points and .644 point percentage are tied for the best in the NHL in that period.
But the Bruins have made it past the second round of the playoffs just once in Sweeney's tenure, reaching the Stanley Cup final in 2019 under Bruce Cassidy. Cassidy was fired three years later and then took the Vegas Golden Knights to the Cup championship in his first season there.
Montgomery replaced him in Boston and won 112 games in two years, but just one playoff series. He was fired 20 games into this season, and with the team unable to challenge for a playoff berth Sweeney traded captain Brad Marchand — the last remaining player from the 2011 championship — in a roster purge that signaled the end of the franchise's most successful era since Bobby Orr laced up his skates in the old Boston Garden.
Neely said Sweeney has been searching for a new coach while also preparing for the draft.
'I am confident in the plan he has followed these past few months — and excited for what's to come for our team,' the former Bruins forward said of the former Bruins defenseman. 'The expectations in Boston have always been clear. It's about winning championships.'
A veteran of 16 seasons in the NHL, all but one of them in Boston, Sweeney took over the Original Six franchise's front office in 2015 and was given the league's General Manager of the Year Award in 2019 after the Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Final. He has also served as GM for Team Canada in its 4 Nations Face-Off victory this winter, and will serve as the country's assistant GM for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
'It's an honor to be part of a franchise with such a storied history and passionate fanbase," Sweeney said. "I fully understand and embrace the responsibility that comes with this role. Our fans have high expectations for this team, and so do I. The collective goal is to build a team that makes Bruins fans proud and ultimately brings another Stanley Cup back to Boston.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
29 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Zdeno Chara was surprised to be elected to the IIHF Hall of Fame, but he shouldn't have been
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Clearly, if not Chara for such an honor, then who? Advertisement The Slovak-born strongman played his final NHL game three years ago at age 45, his 1,680 regular-season games ranking seventh in league history and No. 1 among defensemen. His name is on the Stanley Cup as a Bruin (2011) and he was awarded the Norris Trophy in 2009 as that season's top blue liner. He spent 14 years as Bruins captain, instilling and curating a culture woven into the club's three trips to the Cup Final (2011, '13, and '19) during his tenure. Advertisement Chara also captained two Slovak national squads that won silver medals at the Worlds, and three times wore his country's colors at the Olympic Games (2006, '10, '14). So it should have been zero surprise when International Ice Hockey Federation president Luc Tardif called a couple of months ago to welcome Chara to this year's class. Yet it was a surprise, to Chara. 'I said, 'Whoa! I mean, are you sure?,' said Big Z, chuckling as he related his back and forth with Tardif. 'And he said, 'Yeah, of course … it's been voted on … you're in!' ' Related : To help understand that response, understand Chara — not only for his genuinely unassuming nature and presence, but particularly for the unconventional path he traveled to the summit of his profession. Decades ago in Trencin, as a gangly and athletically awkward young teenager, his dream was not to play in the NHL or one day see his name placed next to the game's greatest European players. 'I was cut … and cut again … all I wanted to do was make my hometown team!' recalled an animated Chara. 'You move up by age groups, right? And that's automatic … good or bad, you move up. But as you progress, teams bring together two or three age groups [different birth years], that's where the cuts start and I didn't make it. Not good enough.' In part, that underappreciation of his game and skills was what led Chara, at considerable peril, to defect to North America in the fall of '96. After the Islanders took a third-round flyer on him (pick No. 56) in the '96 draft, Chara thrived in his one season of top-level Canadian junior hockey with WHL Prince George and made his NHL debut some 18 months later. Advertisement 'Nov. 19th, 1997,' he said, recalling his NHL debut, with Mike Milbury then the Islanders' coach. The date sticks in Chara's head largely because his ascension to the league, just over a year after departing Slovakia amid zero fanfare, by his description caught the Slovak national team by total surprise. 'Everybody at home is like, 'Who?! … We have a Slovak defensemen in NHL?!' ' he said, again chuckling, this time over how he ultimately was invited to play for Slovakia in the 1999 Worlds. ''We gotta bring him back to play for us.' Remember, I didn't make any youth national team, right? They had no data, no track of me.' A complicating factor in Chara suiting up that first time for his country was that he had defected, opting for a shot at big-time hockey in North America instead of serving mandatory military service. 'I'd call home,' recalled Chara, 'and my dad would say, 'The military police were just here, looking for you … you better not come home or they'll lock you up.' ' Before flying out of New York for his return to Bratislava in the spring of '99, he had to be assured he wouldn't be hauled away once landing on Slovak terra firma. 'I swear, it was like a scene from a movie,' he said, recalling how he felt after he got off the plane back home. 'There's this one belt going around with my bag on it and I see this glass sliding door … and it's opening and closing, opening and closing. And I see this officer behind those doors. I have my passport in my hand, and I'm thinking, 'OK, this could be it … I pass through that door and somebody puts handcuffs on me and I'm done. Are the Islanders going to bail me out? Maybe, who knows?' I knew I had papers from the national team … I knew I should be OK, but…' Advertisement He made it through the door just fine, and nearly three decades later, his name has been added to the IIHF's honored section at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. The HHOF votes on its candidates for this year's inductees June 24, and Chara is a virtual lock to be named to the class that will be feted in November. 'If it happens it happens,' he said. 'Obviously, I'd be very, very grateful, But again, like IIHF, I know there's so many names that deserve to be there and, rightfully, they have so many great candidates that should be there. If I am there … we'll see, that's up to others to decide. Right now, I'm just enjoying my life, being a dad … but yes, it would be a tremendous, tremendous honor.' Chara played his final NHL game three years ago at age 45, his 1,680 regular-season games ranking seventh in league history and No. 1 among all defensemen. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff LONG DROUGHT Canada Cupless since 1993 The question in the 1980s and '90s of whether the NHL would thrive in the Sun Belt faded into the twilight by the end of the 20th century, Dallas winning the Stanley Cup in 1999 (six games vs. Buffalo) in what remains Texas's lone star Cup. If anyone still held the romantic notion that the game is best served cold, the state of Florida has smashed such thoughts to smithereens. With the Panthers clinching the East for a third straight year after Advertisement Canada, largely due to the Oilers' powerhouse squads throughout the '80s, saw one of its teams reach the Cup Final in nine consecutive seasons, 1982-90, culminating with Since that last Oiler triumph, a Canadian team has squeezed through to the final only eight times, with the lone win in those 35 years by the Canadiens (1993). It may be Canada's game, but this drought of 30-plus years is by far the longest in its history. The list of Canadian runners up since '93 consists of: Vancouver ('94), Calgary (2004), Edmonton ('06), Ottawa ('07), Vancouver ('11), If the Oilers can close the deal now, it will be the longest distance a Canadian team has gone to get the job done. Air miles, Edmonton to Sunrise, Fla.: 2,546. ETC. Verhaeghe worth the wait Former Bruins captain Brad Marchand , wearing No. 63 for the Panthers, is headed to the Cup Final for a fourth time (with Boston in '11, '13, and '19). The Li'l Ball o'Hate, 4-10—14 in 17 playoff games this year, has suited up for 174 postseason games. Among active NHLers, his four trips to a Cup Final leave him short of only Edmonton's Corey Perry , about to begin the sixth championship round in his career. Carter Verhaeghe , Marchand's fellow Sunriser, also will be playing in his fourth Cup Final, his third with the Panthers. His first came in his 2019-20 rookie season, when the Lightning won the title. Advertisement Verhaeghe, originally a Maple Leafs draft pick (No. 82 in 2013), didn't break through to the NHL until he played four full seasons in the minors (AHL/ECHL), his talents underappreciated or ignored by three organizations — Leafs, Islanders, and Lightning — before he finally secured a full-time spot as a low-budget UFA (two years/$2 million total) with the now-powerhouse Panthers. All players develop at different rates. Some just need time to grow their game. Sometimes it's simply about right team/right fit. It was some of both for Verhaeghe, who'll possibly have his name on the Cup for a third time when he celebrates his 30th birthday in August. A left-shot center able to play the wing, he has become a consistent, vital piece of the Panthers attack. Verhaeghe in the fall will enter the first season of an eight-year, $56 million deal he signed with Florida in October. He has full trade protection for the first five years. Just the kind of glue guy Toronto so desperately needs. But the Leafs gave up on him early, bundling him into a package with four others in exchange for Michael Grabner in September 2015. Grabner played one season with Toronto, collected 18 points, then signed with the Rangers as a free agent. Carter Verhaeghe gathers the loose puck against the Carolina Hurricanes during Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Karl B DeBlaker/Associated Press Swayman high on Warsofsky Jeremy Swayman's read on Ryan Warsofsky , the Team USA bench boss at the world championship that concluded last Sunday: 'Since [the time] I walked through the door, he was incredible.' Warsofsky, who'll begin his second season as the Sharks coach this fall, was raised in Marshfield and played high school hockey for his hometown Rams, followed by a season at Cushing Academy. He moved into the top job in San Jose last summer after two years as one of David Quinn's assistant coaches. Related : With Swayman in net for Warsofsky, 'I've got nothing to say but great things about Warsy,' offered Swayman, 'the way he carried himself and he's just so well spoken. I think he takes over a room very well. Every one of the guys in there would do anything he asked — and it takes a special kind of human to get 25 or 30 guys all on the same page within three weeks. That's a testament to his coaching ability and his style.' Credit, too, added Swayman, to the entire Team USA staff for such a successful effort, including adapting to the bigger (200x100 feet) European/Olympic ice sheet. 'And you're playing against guys, a lot of them who've been playing with each other for a long time,' continued the Bruins' backstop. 'They have their game plans, know how to play on the [bigger sheet]. To see [Warsofsky] articulate the game and get us to play to our strengths … every one of us knew that we could have a serious chance of winning with him at the helm. 'That's something I'll never forget from him — and he's stuck with me for life now. We're pretty tight … that's pretty cool.' With Swayman in net, the US won its first World gold since 1933. Petr David Josek/Associated Press Shopping list The July 1 unrestricted free agent list includes 17 players, including Marchand and the Oilers' Trent Frederic , who were once property of the Bruins. The list also includes Ryan Lindgren , drafted by Boston at No. 49 in 2016, but dealt to the Rangers (for Rick Nash ) before ever wearing the Spoked B. A look at the pending UFAs, including their most recent team and cap hit (by descending order): Forwards: Marchand, Florida $6.125 million; Reilly Smith , Vegas, $5 million; Sean Kuraly , Columbus, $2.5 million; Frederic, Edmonton, $2.3M; Ryan Donato , Chicago, $2 million; Pat Maroon , Chicago, $1.3 million; Craig Smith , Detroit, $1 million; Curtis Lazar , New Jersey, $1 million; James van Riemsdyk , Columbus, $900,000; Tomas Nosek , Florida, $775,000; Cole Koepke , Boston, $775,000; Justin Brazeau , Minnesota, $775,000. Defensemen: Dmitry Orlov , Carolina, $7.75 million; Lindgren, Colorado, $4.5 million; Matt Grzelcyk , Pittsburgh, $2.75 million; Derek Forbort , Vancouver, $1.5 million; Mike Reilly , NY Islanders, $1.25 million. It's not out of the question that two or three alums could be offered deals to return. Keep in mind, the Bruins were negotiating with Marchand before Donato, 29, is coming off a career season (31-31—62) with the moribund Blackhawks (five consecutive playoff DNQs). That kind of goal production should bring him at least $4 million a year for 3-4 years. The Bruins need goal production, and Donato, who played at Harvard, was still on good terms here when dealt to the Wild for Charlie Coyle ( Grzelcyk, 31, delivered 1-39—40 (career bests for assists and points) this season with the Penguins , who are yet to name a new coach to replace Mike Sullivan . He would not answer the Bruins' need for a power-play quarterback, but he's a good puck mover and defends well with his feet and stick. Maybe two years/$5 million total? Kuraly, 32, left to go home to Columbus in the summer of '21 for a sweet four-year/$10 million deal. A solid citizen with size (6 feet 2 inches, 215 pounds), he'd be a good, heavy bottom-six addition on a one- or two-year deal at, say, $1.4 million per. Maroon, by the way, announced his retirement as his season came to a close with the Blackhawks — his eighth NHL employer over a career that included 848 games and three Cup rings. Loose pucks Marco Sturm , then 27, proved to be the best of the three assets (along with Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart ) the Bruins acquired from San Jose in the infamous Nov. 30, 2005, deal that sent Jumbo Joe Thornton to the Sharks. Also known as 'The German,' Sturm remained in Boston for four more seasons, then was dished to the Kings early in 2010-11, in what was the season the Bruins won the Cup. Among the candidates believed to be interviewing to be the next Bruins bench boss, Sturm, 46, in the spring wrapped up his third season as coach of the Ontario (Calif.) Reign, the Kings' AHL affiliate. They were knocked out, 2-0, in a best-of-three vs. the San Jose Barracuda in the Calder Cup playoffs … Thornton, like Zdeno Chara , has been out of the NHL for three seasons and likely will be a first-ballot shoo-in to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Jumbo (1,539 career points) never won a Cup. His only trip to the Final was in '16, Henri Richard (Montreal), Jean Beliveau (Montreal), Red Kelly (Detroit, Toronto), Maurice 'Rocket' Richard (Montreal). Henri Richard, aka The Pocket Rocket, took home a ring from 11 of those 12 visits … Former forward Jeff Halpern (976 games) just wrapped up his seventh season as one of John Cooper's assistants in Tampa. Seems the Lightning's two Cups and three trips to the Final with him on the beat should be getting the '99 Princeton grad some head coach looks … The rumor mill in recent days has had Mitch Love (Capitals assistant), Jay Woodcroft , and Sturm all certain to be the Bruins' next coach. With apologies to Chief Brody, looks like you're gonna need a bigger bench. Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Is it realistic for the Boston Celtics to trade for Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo?
Is it realistic for the Boston Celtics to trade for Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo? With the Celtics currently a second apron ball club staring down the largest payroll and tax bill in the history of the NBA, a trade for a player making as much as Giannis does makes very little sense at first glance. But what if the deal involved multiple teams, and also sent out other players to help Boston get cheaper as well? Would such a deal need to include one of star forwards Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown? Such scenarios quickly get very complex from a cap rules point of view, but it would not be impossible to get the Bucks star on the Celtics roster. The question is more about whether it would make sense. Advertisement The folks behind the "NBC Sports Boston" YouTube channel put together a clip with Chris Forsberg and Trenni Casey on "Arbella Early Edition" to talk it all over. Check it out below! This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Is it realistic for the Celtics to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo?
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Maple Leafs' offseason to-do list: Cement Matthew Knies into core, upgrade at centre
The Shanaplan is out. In its place? Well, that remains to be determined. That's what this offseason for the Toronto Maple Leafs will establish: a new direction for the franchise after 11 years with Brendan Shanahan at the helm as team president. What needs to be done with general manager Brad Treliving now leading the charge? A lot. Advertisement All indications are that Marner intends to go elsewhere July 1. 'We'll have to see,' Treliving said when asked about Marner's future Thursday, noting Marner had his 'say' in a process that had yet to really start. The Leafs already know Marner was unwilling to sign an extension during the season. Will they — will Treliving — try to change his mind in the coming weeks? Try to sell him on coming back and finishing his career at home in Toronto? And if they manage to do so and/or Marner reconsiders, how much are they prepared to pay him? We know the Leafs, when they were still run by Shanahan, were determined to keep Marner. Has that changed now that he's gone? Is Treliving as desperate to bring him back? While noting, not for the first time, Marner was 'a star' at his year-end media conference, Treliving didn't come out and state his desire for Marner to return. It might not matter if Marner has already made up his mind, which seems to be the case. Can the Leafs squeeze anything of value from Marner's exit in a sign-and-trade? Adding an eighth year to Marner's contract, the maximum term possible, should have some value to the team he decides to sign with. Maybe that team even needs to clear salary to bring in Marner and would send a player(s) of value back to the Leafs. Or maybe there's a team out there, on the eve of July 1, that wants to keep Marner from even getting to market and is willing to give up something (a draft pick?) to acquire his rights. The Tampa Bay Lightning paid a third-round pick to the Carolina Hurricanes for Jake Guentzel's rights last summer. More imposing for the front office is procuring a replacement for Marner. Not an actual replacement per se, since there will be no replacing all of Marner's varying contributions with any one player, but a top-six winger who can maybe play with Auston Matthews. Advertisement One of the interesting wrinkles of Marner's presumed exit is what it means for that top-line right wing spot. Craig Berube was openly against playing William Nylander with Matthews in his first season coaching the Leafs. Will he give it a chance if Marner isn't around and Nylander is the clear-cut top option? Or does Treliving need to find a right winger (or two) who could conceivably line up with the two Arizona boys, Matthews and Matthew Knies? Treliving seemed to allude to his front-office staff's already beginning to look at options. The Leafs had their pro scouting meetings this week. One intriguing short-term fit: Patrick Kane, the player whom Marner grew up emulating and who could replicate the playmaking dimension Marner brought to Matthews. The Leafs have almost all of the leverage here. John Tavares will be 35 in September; he has a young family and seems to have every intention of finishing his career (and continuing his pursuit of a Stanley Cup) at home in Toronto. To what degree can the Leafs use all that if not against him then to their advantage? How much of a discount is Tavares willing to take to stay? In 2018, it was suggested that Tavares took a discount to join the Leafs as a free agent. However, that 'discount' still had him drawing one of the biggest cap hits in the league at $11 million — still tied for the ninth largest this past season in the seventh and final year of the deal. Tavares is still too good to take a Jason Spezza-like discount (i.e., the NHL minimum), so what's the number and term he's willing to accept to stick around? And how hard will a Shanahan-less front office push to get it? The Lightning had a line they wouldn't cross with Steven Stamkos, the captain of their Cup-winning teams, last summer and ultimately let him walk as a free agent. Will the Leafs be similarly cutthroat? Advertisement Anze Kopitar signed a two-year contract, with a $7 million cap hit, with the Los Angeles Kings two summers ago when he was turning 36 and coming off a 74-point season. Joe Pavelski signed a three-year deal with the Dallas Stars, with a $7 million cap hit, in 2019 when he was almost 35 and coming off a 38-goal season. Both had much stronger playoff resumes and all-around games than Tavares. The cap is also going up. The Leafs could try to bring the cap hit down by stretching the contract out as they did with Chris Tanev last summer (six years, $4.5 million cap hit), though there are definitely long-term downsides to that approach. What if they can't agree? What if Tavares won't dip below, say, $6 million on a multiyear deal? What then? Are they prepared to let their former captain walk? And if so, what's the plan to replace him? That's Tavares' leverage in all this: It would be difficult (though not impossible) for the Leafs to replace him. The big question with Knies at this point: What's his ceiling? The floor might be what he showed this past season: A 29-goal, 58-point physical top-line monster who kills penalties, dominates around the net on the power play and elevates his game in the playoffs. Knies told me once he hoped to become like Mikko Rantanen one day. That's top-10-player-in-the-league territory, a pretty grand aspiration for Knies. The biggest obstacle to his getting there might be his playmaking. Rantanen, who scored 55 goals in one season, has six seasons of at least 50 assists. Knies hasn't shown that kind of creativity as a passer yet, not even close, really. He had six primary five-on-five assists this past season playing on the Leafs top line — the same amount as David Kämpf and tied for 328th in the NHL. He did leap from 20 assists overall as a rookie to 29 as a sophomore. A straight-line battering ram at this point, Knies figures to improve as a passer as he grows in the league, but to what degree? It will be the difference between his becoming a perennial 60-70 point player or an 80-90 point superstar. At minimum, this is already a special player, an 'important' player in Treliving's estimation and someone set to headline a changing core of the Leafs. Advertisement The team's leverage in contract talks? Knies is a restricted free agent with no arbitration rights. Knies has the threat of an offer sheet, but he has to actually be willing to sign that offer sheet, and risk going elsewhere, to get what he wants from the Leafs. How hard does management try to push someone so foundational to the future? Given how high his floor is, do they simply get him signed as long as they possibly can in a rising cap environment? Or will the two sides agree on a bridge deal, which would allow Knies to build up his value even more and allow the team to pocket some extra dough for next summer? The crease is set with Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll signed, and though the front office might look to upgrade on the back end (more on that in a second), everyone in that bunch is under contract for next season. It's up front where there are holes and/or positions in need of upgrades or alterations. Upgrading at centre ice should be the biggest priority. Treliving went out of his way to rave about Tavares' performance last season, noting the 38 goals he scored in the regular season, but added, 'Centre, it's a priority. It's a priority. Having said that, there (are) probably 26 other teams that are saying it's a priority. 'Yeah, you'd always like more centres,' the GM added. It's a position the organization has struggled to improve over the years. It gets no easier this summer with a thin pool of free-agent centres. Whether they bring back Tavares or not, the Leafs need an improvement in the No. 2 spot. Tavares' 38 goals were impressive but also kind of beside the point. He struggled again to produce and drive play in the playoffs, particularly against the Florida Panthers. It was part of why the Leafs unraveled in that series: Their second line, Nylander included, was increasingly outplayed by the Panthers' top three units. Advertisement Matt Duchene is one potential free-agent target. Sam Bennett could be another. Does either one want to play in Toronto? And if so, for what? Does a trade for a new 2C make more sense? Is it even feasible? The Leafs need to adopt a more creative approach to solving this puzzle, especially now with Tavares about to enter his mid-30s. More creativity, more bold thinking in general, is what this franchise needs. They'll need to procure a more legitimate 3C on top of that so that swinging Max Domi back there doesn't become the answer once again for Berube. (There's no chance the Leafs give Nylander another run in the middle … right?) Maybe that's Tavares, with someone else coming in to play directly behind Matthews. The front office and coaching staff can probably pencil Bobby McMann into a third-line left wing position and Scott Laughton into a fourth-line role of some kind. All bets are off otherwise. Paying $4.5 million cap dollars for Kämpf and Calle Järnkrok to play with Laughton ($1.5 million) on the fourth line doesn't make a lot of sense. The Leafs probably need to look at moving at least one player this offseason. Injecting more size, physicality and bite into the forward group, to better align with the Berube Way, figures to be part of the equation for Treliving. It's a group that needs a lot more utility, too, forwards who can play all over the lineup and contribute in multiple ways. Not in the forward department but worthy of a look for the front office this summer: Adding a right-shooting defender who can move pucks and create some offence. That someone would allow Oliver Ekman-Larsson to slide back to the left side where he's much more effective as, well, a puck-mover and creator of offence. If another defender comes in, who's going out? Robertson sought a trade last summer, didn't get it, and eventually returned on a one-year deal. It didn't go well. Though he scored 15 goals, seventh most among Leafs, his impact was marginal otherwise. Advertisement Robertson registered only seven assists in 69 games and lost his job in the playoffs. So what do the Leafs do now? Try as hard as they possibly can to move him for something before qualifying offers are due at the end of June. If they can't get anything of value — what's that bar even? — they can decline to make him a qualifying offer and let him walk as a free agent. The fact Robertson is a restricted free agent, with arbitration rights, could make trading him a tad more difficult. Letting him walk for nothing doesn't feel like good asset management, but does it make sense to bring back a player who doesn't fit this roster and clearly needs a fresh start? It was only last summer the Leafs tried hard to trade Timothy Liljegren, failed to do so and then signed him to a two-year contract. Liljegren promptly lost his job and the Leafs were eventually forced to trade him to the San Jose Sharks for whatever they could get It's worth noting Robertson won't turn 24 until September. And it's not as if this team has lots of young talent coming at forward. That's the argument for keeping him a little while longer. Steven Lorentz and Max Pacioretty are the other forwards set to hit unrestricted free agency. Though Pacioretty seems destined to play elsewhere, if he decides to keep playing at all, Lorentz warrants a discussion for Treliving and company. He was pretty close to the ideal fourth-liner last season. His motor was always running. He packed a physical punch. He defended well. He killed penalties. And he kicked in some offence, scoring as many goals (eight) as Domi in about 200 fewer minutes. And he did it all with a smile on his face for $775,000. To keep him would require a raise, and paying that much more for a fourth-liner, when fourth-liners are easily replaceable, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The Leafs also have to be mindful of the fourth-liners they already (maybe) have — Laughton, Kämpf, Järnkrok and Pontus Holmberg. They don't exactly need Lorentz back, even if he brings his own distinct dimension. Advertisement The Leafs do need to qualify Holmberg, a pending RFA, and get him signed to a new contract. Part of the discussion with Holmberg: deciding whether he's better off playing centre or wing. Related to that discussion perhaps is what happens with Kämpf. If Holmberg is playing centre, it should be on the fourth line. Now that he's No. 1 on the front office depth chart, Treliving might want to tweak and/or trim the group in his image. Shane Doan and Derek Clancey were Treliving hires. Brandon Pridham, Hayley Wickenheiser, Darryl Metcalf and Ryan Hardy, all of them assistant GMs, were not. Meanwhile, the Leafs might be inclined to alter their designated leadership group. If Marner departs, does the team simply continue with Morgan Rielly and, assuming he stays, Tavares as alternate captains? Or is it time for something different, if only as a symbolic gesture to change? Given that he's under contract longer than anyone else (2032), Nylander belongs in the discussion and so might one of Tanev or Jake McCabe if the Leafs do decide to go in a different direction. — Stats and research courtesy of Hockey Reference, Natural Stat Trick and Puckpedia. (Top photo of Matthew Knies: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)
