2019-01-16 Bruins at Gritty

LogansDad

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Nice! I am excited to see if Cehlarik can provide a spark. Backes seems like a great teammate, but he is providing nothing right now (though I thought he was fairly effective earlier in the season).
 

cshea

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Backes was benched Saturday and Monday, so this was coming. The 2nd line experiment failed, so the only spots left for him are 3rd or 4th line. The current 4th line has gained enough traction that Bruce wasn’t going to shake them up. The 3rd line has been good enough to keep together. And so out Backes goes.

They’ll have to figure something out with Backes in the summer. Buyout is probably likely, but that would provide very little cap savings for next year (buyout cap hit is $5.667 AAV for next year, $2.667 AAV in 20-21 and then $667K for 21-22 and 22-23). His NMC moves to a NTC in the summer where he can submit an 8-team trade list. That’ll be difficult to work with. Any trade would probably have to be bad money-for-bad money which could leave them in a deeper hole. Maybe just ride it out through next year and hope they get a compliance buyout at lockout time?
 

veritas

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Jan 13, 2009
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I'll have to dig deeper into the numbers, but I still think Backes is a more effective NHL player than Acciari/JFK and probably Cehlarik.

He's also old and I'm fine with him getting some nights off, but I don't think he's completely cooked or anything. I think he'd be pretty useful adding some skill to the 4th line and getting some PP time.
 

Salem's Lot

Andy Moog! Andy God Damn Moog!
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I'll have to dig deeper into the numbers, but I still think Backes is a more effective NHL player than Acciari/JFK and probably Cehlarik.

He's also old and I'm fine with him getting some nights off, but I don't think he's completely cooked or anything. I think he'd be pretty useful adding some skill to the 4th line and getting some PP time.
I disagree. He’s too slow for the league right now. Accardi is what he is, a 13th forward/AHL tweener. I’d rather see if guys like JFK or Cehlarik can get better with NHL minutes than watch Backes get older and slower out there.
 

cshea

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Acciari/JFK/Cehlarik is a pretty low bar to clear. Agreed that he’s probably useful in a 4th line and special teams role, but having $6 million AAV on the 4th impacts their ability to upgrade other areas of need on the roster.

It may be impossible, but they should be exploring a way out of that deal.
 

Salem's Lot

Andy Moog! Andy God Damn Moog!
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Jul 15, 2005
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Acciari/JFK/Cehlarik is a pretty low bar to clear. Agreed that he’s probably useful in a 4th line and special teams role, but having $6 million AAV on the 4th impacts their ability to upgrade other areas of need on the roster.

It may be impossible, but they should be exploring a way out of that deal.
The good thing about that deal is that even though the AAV is $6 million, the actual cash is only $4 million x 2. Maybe a team looking to get to the floor with a lot of young players would want some leadership in the offseason?
 

cshea

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$3 million of the cash remaining is a bonus due 7/1. So hypothetically the Bruins pay that and trade him after 7/1 when he’s only owed $4 million over 2 years, which would be fine for a budget conscious team that could stomach the cap hit. The problem is the NTC. He can OK 8 teams, it’d be pretty easy for him to put up a roadblock.
 

PedroSpecialK

Comes at you like a tornado of hair and the NHL sa
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They can always threaten him with waivers if he blocks a move, knowing one of those teams would grab him to reach the floor
 

TFP

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Terrible support by donato on that goal. He was basically flying the zone with the puck going the other way.

Halak needs to save that too.