The 2024-25 season is at long last at an end, and the Cup stays out east.
Welcome back everybody, hope we’re enjoying our mid-week, and the first day where the offseason applies to all teams in the league.
First, let’s all take a quick second to congratulate Brad Marchand, Tomas Nosek, Jesper Boqvist, our friends over at Litter Box Cats (and no one else) on winning the Stanley Cup! Truly a helluva series from two absolutely phenomenal squads, even as the difference in goal and on defense finally began to take it’s toll, and ended with the Panthers absolutely embarrassing Edmonton. I know a lot of people will whine about ratings and whatever (in which case double check your pocket protector, poindexter.), but frankly I really enjoyed the entire final; it was dramatic, it was fun, it had a bunch of close games, and it got a former Bruin his second cup.
Sure, I would much have preferred Brad Marchand to have gotten his second cup in Boston, 1000%. But at his age? I’m just glad he got a chance at a second cup. You only get so many kicks at the can at this, and it is really, really, really hard to do it once you’re over the age of 30. If nothing else, I’m glad he could find space for himself on the reigning cup champions and was allowed to be himself rather than be overburdened for a player of his kind and at his stage of career.
Boston has plenty of experience with the latter, we might as well let some of our homegrown guys try it for themselves.
But now that the cup has been awarded, it means that all the fun stuff about the offseason are now fully in-effect. The draft of course is upcoming in a little more than a week; Boston has a high pick, and Free Agency will almost certainly begin with a bang. What interests me personally is that multiple teams seem to be astonishingly okay with moving on from some of their younger talent. JJ Peterka is definitely understandable; I certainly wouldn’t want to be a Sabre right now, especially since the entire world is wondering how Florida kept getting so good off of their backs specifically. But teams like Dallas are considering shopping Jason Robertson. Minnesota and Marco Rossi are at loggerheads, and New York is heavily considering moving on from K’Andre Miller. There are young, talented players aplenty that you can pull off of rosters if you’re willing to be creative and flexible with your assets. I think I’d like to do a little more research on the rumored names, but I’d certainly love to see a Peterka type in Boston.
There’s also the yearly “IS MCDAVID GONNA LEAVE?!?!??!?!” clickbait swarming around, but I’ll believe it when I see it.
In international news: David Pastrnak, Pavel Zacha, Charlie McAvoy, have all been chosen for the olympic preliminary rosters for Milan. One could imagine one of the Lindholms to get that honor in short order once the season starts, and Dans Locmelis should be considered a lock for the olympics even if they haven’t made an official announcement on it yet. Hell, it’s anticipated that the B’s gave Locmelis a pass on dev camp just so he can get ready for that. I’d say he’s more than earned it.
Otherwise? Solid choices all around. I adore the olympic tournament; it’s been a hot minute since my last olympics primer, but I love making stuff like that. I can’t wait to get into the thick of that next year. Otherwise, it’s all just waiting on parades and DQ Blizzards as our summer begins in earnest.
What’s on tap? Is there a player you haven’t heard much noise about that you think the Bruins could make a stab at offer sheeting this offseason?