Blaine Lacher Passes Away At 53
- Former Bruins goaltender Blaine Lacher passed away on Friday at the age of 53, the team announced (Twitter link). Lacher made an immediate impact in the NHL, coming up as Boston’s starter in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 campaign, putting up a 2.41 GAA in 35 games to earn him a top-five finish in Calder Trophy voting. However, Lacher only made seven appearances at the top level after that. No cause of death was revealed.
Trade Deadline Primer: Boston Bruins
With the All-Star break approaching, the trade deadline looms large and is about a month and a half away. Where does each team stand, and what moves should they be looking to make? We continue our look around the league with the Boston Bruins.
Not quite as dominant as last season, the Bruins are still looking like one of the best regular season teams in the NHL, currently knocking on the door of back-to-back President’s Trophy victories, an accomplishment that has not been done since the 2016-17 Washington Capitals. Unfortunately, even though Boston has been one of the best regular season teams over the last several years, they have failed to move past the semi-finals in the postseason since their 2018-19 Stanley Cup Final loss to the St.Louis Blues. Nevertheless, with some long-term cap flexibility created this past summer, the Bruins could look to acquire players with term; something they have been unable to do for the last several years.
Record
31-9-9, 1st in the Atlantic
Deadline Status
Buyer
Deadline Cap Space
$862.5K on deadline day, 0/3 retention slots used, 47/50 contracts used, per CapFriendly.
Upcoming Draft Picks
2024: BOS 1st*, BOS 4th, BOS 5th, BOS 6th
2025: BOS 1st*, BOS 3rd, BOS 5th, BOS 6th, BOS 7th
*On March 2, 2023, Boston traded their 2024 first-round pick to the Detroit Red Wings with a top-10 protection placed on it. If the pick falls within the top 10 of the 2024 NHL Draft, the Bruins would then send the Red Wings an unprotected 2025 first-round pick instead. On July 9, 2023, Detroit conditionally traded the draft pick to the Ottawa Senators, with the Red Wings having the option of trading Ottawa their own 2024 first-round pick, or the Bruins’ 2024 first-round pick, with the original top-10 protections still in place.
Trade Chips
Having only eight draft picks over the next two years, it is unlikely that the Bruins will use their draft capital to make any major additions to their roster come the trade deadline. With Boston more than likely not picking until the fourth round of the 2024 NHL Draft, it would not be a surprise to see the Bruins acquire an obscure fourth- or fifth-round pick in any trade over the next few weeks, even as a buyer.
Furthermore, with a need for young and cheap talent, it would be unlikely to see the Bruins part with any of Matthew Poitras, Mason Lohrei, Georgii Merkulov, or John Beecher, given their long-term importance to the continuing success of the organization. The one asset that Boston does have, however, is long-term cap space beyond this season. If they were to pursue a player with term on their contract, the Bruins may be able to dangle pieces off of their active roster, without sacrificing too much of their future.
With many teams in desperate need of goaltending, Boston is in the envious position of having two All-Star goalies able to start for them every game, and the Bruins could certainly dangle one of them to improve other weak spots on their roster. Signed for this season and next at $5MM a year, Linus Ullmark has put together another quality season, securing a 15-6-2 record in 24 games, holding a .913 save percentage and 2.78 GAA. On the flip side, Jeremy Swayman will once again be arbitration-eligible next summer and has been one of the best goaltenders in the league with a 16-3-7 record in 27 games played on the year, also achieving a .924 SV% and 2.30 GAA.
Outside of their excess between the pipes, the Bruins may also be willing to listen to offers on Jake DeBrusk, who becomes an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. Once again being an effective goal-scorer for Boston, DeBrusk has scored 12 goals and 25 points in 47 games this season. It would not be a major surprise to work out a deal to improve their roster with DeBrusk as the centerpiece going the other way, especially if DeBrusk is willing to sign an extension with the acquiring team.
Team Needs
1) Center Help: Ever since the retirements of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, it was a foregone conclusion that the Bruins would need to improve their center depth if there was any hope of a serious playoff run. The team has played well with the combination of Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle centering the top-two lines, but with a team faceoff percentage of 49.3% (19th in the NHL), Boston will need to improve down the middle to win big draws in the playoffs at the very least. All three of Elias Lindholm, Sean Monahan, and Adam Henrique would allow the Bruins to add more punch down the middle, as well as strengthen their ability in the dot.
2) Stay The Course: Losing in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs after breaking the record for wins in a regular season will be a blight on the Bruins’ history for years to come. However, it is important to remember that Boston was only two shots away from reaching the second round, losing in overtime in Game 5 as well as Game 7 to the Florida Panthers. Outside of the need for help down the middle, it is tough to point out any point of the game that the Bruins are truly lacking. Rather than deal out any of their remaining draft capital, or move on from young prospects ready to make an impact, Boston should trust in his team to get over the hump, as they have shown they can beat nearly any team they play against over the last several years.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Bruins Recall Patrick Brown
The Bruins play their final game before their bye week and the All-Star break today and they have opted to bring up an extra forward for that contest as they announced that they’ve recalled Patrick Brown from AHL Providence.
The 31-year-old is in his first season with Boston after inking a two-year, $1.6MM contract with them on the opening day of free agency back in July. He was expected to land a spot on their fourth line but things didn’t exactly go as planned. Instead, he didn’t make the team out of training camp and cleared waivers. He cleared them a second time as well back in mid-November.
This is Brown’s sixth recall of the season and he has played in ten games so far with Boston, collecting one assist while logging just 8:29 per night. He also has suited up in 15 games with Providence where he has been much more effective, notching 11 points in 15 contests.
The Bruins had an open roster spot so they didn’t need to make a corresponding move to bring him up. With Jakub Lauko missing last game with an undisclosed injury and Jake DeBrusk and Matthew Poitras out being banged up, Brown should suit up this afternoon against the Flyers. That said, with the long break approaching, there’s a good chance he’ll be sent back down to the minors on Sunday.
Bruins To Activate Brandon Carlo And Derek Forbort
2:03 PM: The team announced that they have officially activated Carlo and Forbort. To get into cap and roster compliance, center John Beecher and defenseman Mason Lohrei were assigned to AHL Providence.
Beecher has been up with Boston all season, picking up seven points in 39 games. The 2019 first-rounder has also won over 53% of his faceoffs while averaging a little over 10 minutes a game. Lohrei, meanwhile, has been up and down between the two levels. He has six points in 27 games with Boston plus six assists in 10 contests with Providence.
1:48 PM: The Bruins will welcome back a pair of injured blueliners to their lineup tonight against Montreal. The team announced that Brandon Carlo and Derek Forbort are both set to return with the latter being activated off LTIR.
Carlo has missed close to two weeks with an upper-body injury sustained earlier this month. The 27-year-old has played in 39 games so far this season, picking up two goals and eight assists. Of course, Carlo isn’t known for his offensive output but rather for being a sound defensive defender; he’s logging 3:28 per game on the penalty kill – second-most on the Bruins – while blocking 71 shots.
The one player who is ahead of Carlo in shorthanded ATOI is Forbort who was averaging a few seconds more per night in that department before being injured back in early December. The 31-year-old played in 20 games before the injury, picking up four assists while logging a little over 18 minutes a night. He’s in the final year of his contract and if Boston wants to try to add an impact player before the deadline, his $3MM cap charge could be used as a potential offset.
Meanwhile, Boston also welcomes back two other injured players tonight who weren’t on injured reserve, goaltender Linus Ullmark and center Matthew Poitras.
Ullmark missed a little over a week after being injured in overtime against Arizona. He has once again formed a high-end platoon with Jeremy Swayman this season, posting a 2.75 GAA with a .915 SV% in 21 games. Poitras, meanwhile, has missed a little more than a week with a shoulder injury. The 19-year-old has fared nicely in his first NHL season, notching 15 points in 30 games so far.
The Bruins still have some work to do before Carlo and Forbort can officially be activated. They need to clear around $1MM off their books in order to satisfy the cap-compliance portion of taking Forbort off LTIR. They also need to send at least one player down as they only have one open roster spot at the moment with two players to activate. They have a few more hours to figure out what those moves will be.
Derek Forbort, Brandon Carlo Could Return Tomorrow
Both Brandon Carlo and Derek Forbort could return to the Bruins lineup in tomorrow’s game against the Canadiens, says Joe Haggerty of the Boston Sports Journal. The Bruins’ bulkiest two defenders have missed five and 20 games with their respective injuries.
Carlo is on IR, while Forbort is on LTIR. With the Bruins carrying 22 players on the active roster, they will need to assign at least one player to AHL Providence today in order to activate both while keeping their roster at 23 players or less.
Carlo has been by far the more impactful of the two this season. His pairing with Hampus Lindholm has seen the most of any Bruins duo on defense at nearly 400 minutes together, and the 27-year-old continues to solidify himself as a bona fide top-four shutdown defenseman. His 2-8–10 stat line through 39 games isn’t awful for a player boasting his role, and he’s managed to keep an even expected plus-minus rating despite receiving a sky-high 76% of his even-strength zone starts in the defensive end.
- Making progress in his return but unlikely to play tomorrow is Bruins rookie Matthew Poitras, who head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters (including Haggerty) today “has a few more boxes to check” before he can play again. The 19-year-old last played on Jan. 9 and has missed four games with a shoulder injury. He’s played in only three of eight games since returning from representing Canada at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship in Sweden. The 2022 second-round pick has provided great value for the Bruins earlier than expected on his entry-level contract, posting 10-5–15 through his first 30 NHL games.
Afternoon Notes: Ullmark, Sergachev, Fleury, Kochetkov
NHL.com reports that Boston Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark is set to return in a backup capacity when the Bruins take on the Colorado Avalanche this evening. Ullmark hasn’t played since a 4-3 overtime loss to the Arizona Coyotes on January 9 as he has been dealing with a lower-body injury. Ullmark will backup starter Jeremy Swayman who has been excellent in his absence. Swayman had a 31-save shutout on Monday over the New Jersey Devils and continues to put up terrific numbers. Ullmark on the other hand had cooled off in early December but was able to finish off 2023 strong capping off a historic year for the 30-year-old. No word yet on when Ullmark is expected to start again, but given that he is backing up Swayman this evening one would think it should be soon.
Other notes from around the league:
- Both Haydn Fleury and Mikhail Sergachev are likely to miss a few more weeks, as Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper shares that neither are expected back before the break for February 3rd’s All-Star Weekend. Both players are on long-term injured reserve, as Fleury deals with a hand injury and would be eligible to return as soon as January 25th, though he hasn’t recovered fully just yet, while Sergachev nurses a lower-body injury that’s already held him out of 11 games.
- Carolina Hurricanes fan-favorite Pyotr Kochetkov is getting better from his concussion, returning to team practices for one-on-one work with the team’s goalie coach, shares team reporter Walt Ruff. But despite the return to the ice, Ruff shares that there is still no timetable for Kochetkov’s return to the lineup. Kochetkov last played in January 11th’s matchup against the Anaheim Ducks, saving 10 of 13 shots before leaving the game early. Ducks goaltender John Gibson also left that game early with injury.
Brandon Carlo, Linus Ullmark Nearing Return For Bruins
- The Boston Bruins could be welcoming back two of their bigger pieces, as Conor Ryan of The Boston Globe reports both Linus Ullmark and Brandon Carlo are nearing a return to the team. This news does not come as a tremendous surprise, as the Bruins sent down goaltender Brandon Bussi, clearing the way for Ullmark’s return. Carlo, on the other hand, has missed the last four games for Boston with an upper-body injury but should be able to return this weekend against the Montreal Canadiens, or even sooner in the Bruin’s rematch against the Colorado Avalanche.
[SOURCE LINK]
Brandon Bussi Assigned To AHL
The St. Louis Blues have announced that they’ve recalled forward Nikita Alexandrov from his conditioning assignment with the Springfield Thunderbirds of the American Hockey League. Alexandrov was loaned to Springfield back on January 4th after he had been a healthy scratch for ten straight games with the Blues.
Alexandrov made the most of the demotion and was very productive with the Thunderbirds as he tallied two goals and five assists in seven games. The 23-year-old has no points in 10 NHL games this season with St. Louis and is a -2. He has averaged 7:28 of ice time per game with the Blues and has struggled badly at even strength.
In other morning notes:
- The Boston Bruins have announced that they’ve returned goaltender Brandon Bussi to the Providence Bruins of the AHL. Bussi had been recalled on an emergency basis back on January 11th, although he didn’t see any game action during his recall. The 25-year-old has put together an impressive AHL career thus far but has yet to see any NHL action despite being recalled on a number of occasions. This year has been a struggle for Bussi as he has seen his save percentage fall dramatically to just .901 on the season while his goals-against average has climbed to 2.94.
- Sammi Silber of The Hockey News is reporting that Washington Capitals star forward Alex Ovechkin will be a game-time decision tonight when they take on the Anaheim Ducks. It will make the fifth straight game that Ovechkin is a game-time decision as he tries to battle through a lower-body injury that has kept him out of the lineup since January 11th. Ovechkin has missed two games at this point but did take the entire morning skate with the Capitals today, although he sat out of the power-play reps. Ovechkin has just eight goals this season after tallying 42 last year. The 38-year-old had been heating up leading up to the injury with a goal and five assists in his last five games.
Afternoon Notes: Bruins, Cates, Senators
The Boston Bruins saw a quartet of players return to practice, including rookie forward Matthew Poitras, defensemen Brandon Carlo and Derek Forbort, and starting goaltender Linus Ullmark. All four players were held out of the team’s Monday afternoon win over the New Jersey Devils. Of the four returnees, Poitras and Ullmark are the two who have avoided an injured reserve placement. Poitras is working his way back from a shoulder injury that’s held him out of the Bruins’ last three games, while Ullmark is coming back from a lower-body injury suffered in Boston’s overtime loss to the Arizona Coyotes one week ago. Carlo is facing an upper-body injury, while Forbort is facing an undisclosed injury that’s troubled him since training camp and earned him a placement on long-term IR in early December.
The Bruins are also missing forward Milan Lucic with injury – but they’ve progressed nicely regardless, going 2-0-1 in the three games they’ve played since losing Ullmark last Tuesday. Roster holes have been plugged by Jesper Boqvist, who is seeing his first NHL action since December, and Brandon Bussi, who is currently backing up Jeremy Swayman and could make his NHL debut if Swayman needs a breather before Ullmark is ready to return. Boqvist has managed two points in seven NHL games this year, while Bussi has operated as the starter for the AHL’s Providence Bruins and managed a .901 save percentage in 20 AHL games.
The Bruins also saw the return of Pavel Zacha on Monday. The 26-year-old missed the team’s Saturday win with illness.
Other notes from around the league:
- Noah Cates is set to return to the Philadelphia Flyers lineup on Monday evening, as the Philadelphia Flyers take on the St. Louis Blues. Cates has been out since November 25th with a foot injury. He was off to a slow start to the season, managing just four points in 21 games – a step down from the 38 points he recorded in 82 games as a rookie last season.
- The Ottawa Senators have promoted Justin Peters to the role of goaltending coach and assigned Zac Bierk to a scouting and development position. Peters is an 83-game veteran of the NHL, setting a career .901 save percentage. He also played in 301 career AHL games and managed a career .907 save percentage. He has been a goalie coach with the AHL’s Belleville Senators since the 2021-22 season.
Bruins Place Brandon Carlo On IR, Recall Brandon Bussi
The Bruins placed defenseman Brandon Carlo on injured reserve retroactive to January 8, according to a team release. In a corresponding transaction, the team elevated netminder Brandon Bussi from AHL Providence on an emergency basis. Head coach Jim Montgomery said that 2023 Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and will not play tonight against the Golden Knights, so Bussi will back up Ullmark’s tandem partner, Jeremy Swayman.
Ullmark isn’t the only player who sustained an injury in Tuesday’s overtime loss to the Coyotes. Rookie Matthew Poitras suffered a shoulder injury and will also miss tonight’s game. He, too, is listed as day-to-day.
Carlo left the team’s game on Monday against the Avalanche in the second period with an upper-body injury, although it wasn’t clear what caused the premature exit. As a result of the IR placement, the 27-year-old has been ruled out of the team’s next three games. He will be eligible to return next Thursday against the Avalanche.
In 39 games this season, the Bruins’ top shutdown defender has two goals, eight assists, ten points, and a team-high +15 rating while averaging over 20 minutes per game. AHL call-up Parker Wotherspoon, who has two assists and a +2 rating in 13 NHL appearances this season, is projected to remain in a second-pairing role alongside Hampus Lindholm in Carlo’s absence.
Luckily for the Bruins, it doesn’t appear anyone else’s absence is extremely long-term, either. It’s a tough loss to go without Ullmark for a stretch, who’s again been one of the better goalies in the league with a .915 SV% and 8.1 goals saved above average in 20 starts (21 appearances), but Swayman has put up slightly better numbers this season in the same amount of action.
In his place for now will be the 25-year-old Bussi. Named to the AHL’s All-Rookie Team last season after he posted a .924 SV% in 32 appearances for Providence in his first season after completing his collegiate career at Western Michigan, he’s taken a significant step back this year with a .901 SV% and 10-6-3 record in 20 appearances. He’s been recalled on multiple occasions over the past two years due to short-term injuries to Swayman and Ullmark, and although he’s solidly third on Boston’s depth chart, he’s still yet to make his NHL debut.
Poitras, 19, was injured in his third game back after representing Canada at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship in Sweden. The 2022 second-round pick has five goals and 15 points while averaging 13:46 through his first 30 NHL contests.