Connor McDavid to the BRUINS? | Pucks with Haggs

Connor McDavid to the BRUINS? | Pucks with Haggs

Pucks with Hags is brought to you by Prize Picks. Welcome to the Pucks with Hags podcast, a proud member of the CLNS Media Network. Make sure to hit subscribe on the R to the Bruins Ringside YouTube channel and turn on notifications for when a new video drops on the channel. The show is also brought to you by Prize Pix, the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. Download the Prize Pix app today and use the code CLNS and get $50 instantly when you play five bucks. That’s code CLNS on Prize Pix to get $50 instantly when you play $5. You don’t even need to win to receive the $50 bonus. It’s guaranteed. Prize picks run your game. Uh, welcome into the Pucks with Hags podcast. This is the 209th episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast. I’m your host, Joe Hagerty. You can find my work at joehagerty.substack.com. Subscribe and get yourself a premium membership. Get all my Bruins and NHL writing sent straight directly to your inbox. I also write columns three times a week for the Boston Sports Journal and do a weekly Q&A with the uh subscribers over there. So, make sure you get a subscription to the Boston Sports Journal as well. With me today, longtime friend and colleague Mick Collagio. Mick, please tell everybody where they can find your work, my friend. I blog on Rinkap, a link to it on X and Twitter, uh, which is, um, well, X is Twitter, uh, and Facebook is what I meant to say, and the way you see my name spelled on the screen at, that’s how you follow me. Um, the Hockey News will come out with its yearbook before the season begins. and I did the Bruins chapter for them on that. So, um, other than that, I’m lying pretty low. Excellent, Mick. Uh, lying low in the summertime from July 15th to August 15th. Nothing wrong with that. That’s kind of, uh, what you do, uh, when you cover hockey. This is the lie low part of the, uh, off season for sure. Um, with that in mind, um, I think it was last week, uh, the schedule came out. Um, any thoughts on the schedule, what you saw? I mean, I went over it a little bit over the weekend. I did a mailbag episode, but not not too much because it it, you know, it seemed fairly standard to me. Um, backtoback to start the season in Washington and then coming home against Chicago, they’ve got a Black Friday game against the Rangers. Um they uh there was a couple other things. Obviously the stadium series thing was interesting in Tampa on February 1st. Um and it might have been one other thing I was looking at. I can’t remember what it was, but like for the most part um seemed pretty standard to me. Um and you know the the the I guess the one interesting thing uh overall this is kind of the state of the Bruins Mick is that they’re not playing opening night. you know, usually they were a staple or quite a bit of the time they would be one of the teams that would play uh on on national TV on opening night on ESPN when they do that like triple head or whatever. And that’s not the case this year. Um, but I think that’s just kind of, you know, the state of things with the Bruins going into the season and with the expectations uh and the fervor being uh down from what it usually is. And that’s just the way it goes. You know, you’re not going to get as many national games if your team’s not expected to be that great. Well, it just occurred to me who’s the Winter Classic. Is it the I don’t even remember who it is to be honest with you. I don’t because I’m thinking I’m thinking the Bruins got the Tampa game probably because Florida didn’t want it. Unless Florida gets the Winter Classic and I’m trying to remember who gets the Winter Classic. I don’t even I’ll look it up while you give us I didn’t even check. I guess that’s something that says a lot right there that I didn’t even check. I’ll look it up while you give some thoughts on the schedule. Mick, my initial takeaway was is the Bruins don’t have to wait till faking April to get to Montreal. It’s out and they’re going there in November and and uh they’re playing them four times, two home and two away instead of one game at the Bell Center. That was just unacceptable. uh you know that the the Montreal Canadians should not be the Kansas City Scouts to the Boston Bruins. This is this is uh it’s ridiculous. Um the NHL uh has has sacrificed u a fair system on the altar of we want to get McDavid into every rink. Um, and they insist that the that the the teams want it this way and that the uh fans want it this way. Yet the fans I talk to uh maybe I only circulate around old car marginly types. Maybe that’s the problem. But everybody I talk to hates the fact that the Bruins and the Montreal or any division rival play so seldom. They don’t care that they that they they know already know it’s a crapshoot that that certain players are going to make it to TD Garden for their scheduled appearance. Uh so the idea that that um you got to play everybody uh in every situation the league is getting too big and rivalry they they promote promote promote rivalry promote rivalry promote rivalry. tons of commercials for it and rivalry night and all this and all that and yet uh the schedule speaks volumes to how they really look at rivalry. They, you know, the rivalries are being uh thrown out the window. Um and that’s been the trend and and so just because of a rotational aspect, other teams, the Bruins in their own division will only play three times, either one and two or two and one. and Montreal this year goes back to two and two. So, at least you get them four times and it’s and then with the Canadians trending upward these days, uh that makes it a little more juicy that that’s going to be the case. Uh but I can’t believe that I’m thinking of that as a positive thing. The last time I think the Bruins only played them uh three I mean four or even five times a year was back in the mid70s during a ex similarly large expansion. And by that era scale 50 years ago the NHL had uh added Kansas City who would eventually become the New Jersey Devils through Colorado and the Washington Capitals and it became I think a 16 team or 18 team league. So they went to four divisions and um and the divisions were were fraudulent divisions because the schedule was completely balanced. But the way they did the playoffs was if you won your division, those four teams would get an opening round buy and then they would take the next eight teams stacked according to points and play them 1827 3645 in a best of three. And that’s how they did it for the rest of the 70s until the uh World Hockey Association uh disbanded, merged, joined, whatever you want to call it. Um and the four surviving franchises join the NHL and it became a 21 team league. So there there you have it. Yeah. Um, I when I first started covering the Bruins or very early in the time when I was covering them, I remember them playing Montreal like seven or eight times a year. And I think that I like that better. I think fans like that better. I I like them playing their divisional rivals like along the lines of between six to eight games a year. And then maybe some teams you see once a year either at home on the road, but you don’t play them at home and road. And I think going that was the case for a little while. That was a case for there was a point in the schedule in the new arena era where you only saw a team either home or away. And it wasn’t the case for many teams, but it was a case for a few. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. um that that portion of the arrow when I covered towards the beginning of when I was covering this team, I thought that worked better. I liked that better. I thought that was better for everybody. um when they were playing the teams in their division a lot more and it was a weighted schedule towards that and you missed some of the you know Vancouver you Vancouver you’d only go to Vancouver and they wouldn’t come to Boston or whatever and you would end up playing some other teams in the other division in your conference more than you know two or three times as well. You play like the Rangers or the Flyers three times or the Capitals or whatever. I think that worked better. I I I liked that better. I think that was much more conducive to uh building rivalries and having games get really heated between teams in the division and h and building up to a crescendo in the playoffs when you played each other. And I I would much rather them go back to that. I think you just hit to that part of the reason it’s not that way. The NHL doesn’t want they want to talk it up. They want to promote it. They want fans to think it, but it’s they don’t want it to actually happen. They don’t want the playoffs in the middle of the season. They don’t want the bloodshed that used to get between Montreal and Quebec, Nordics, you know, they don’t want that stuff. And uh it’s unfortunate about that though. I do think I do think it’s about being able to sell every team and and I think maybe it’s a concession to the teams that aren’t very good and don’t draw very well to have Conor McDavid in your building once a year, to have Sydney Crosby in your building once a year. A guarantee of it. You know what I mean? So, like some of those teams will have some guaranteed decent gates where like maybe some of those players will bring it in. I feel like that’s much more of a consideration. I don’t think this is about the NHL sideststepping rivalries or being afraid that things are going to get too hot or too intense during the regular season. Um, that one doesn’t make sense to me. Like that one I think why would you run away from that? That I don’t get that. Yeah, I guess I don’t know. Maybe maybe it was the knee-jerk reaction away from the 80s mayhem that typify the eight nine times a year schedule uh for some of these uh games. You know, you’d get these guys would it would get crazy and uh I think nowadays um they’re they’re a star system league. That’s what they want to be. Um and spreading you’re right spreading that out. But I do think too that at some point in as much as teams don’t want a centralized draft because they don’t want to spend the money for the take an entire troop of staffers to a certain destination, put them up in hotels for a week uh or part of a week and and all those flights and everything and that that’s a lot of money. Yeah, sure. That’s a lot of money is true. and it doesn’t do anything for them because it’s not part of the of the sale of the game. It’s just an event. Um so they don’t want to do that anymore. Yet all of the travel that comes with the balanced schedule, um that’s I still feel like there’s got to be some gravitational pull back to the division centric schedule at some point here because of the travel cost. I think that that’s going to come into play at some point. right now the NHL is relative to its own history at least an embarrassment of riches. So, so I think that um you know we’re actually entering a period of time that as Elliott Freriedman uh hinted at in one of his 32 thoughts podcast with Kyle Bicoscus that we may be entering a point of time where the cap is going to go up so high that some markets won’t be able to keep up with it. We haven’t had that in a long time. No, I think that’s a definite uh and we’ve talked about that like I think we’re going to enter a space in the next few years where it’s going to be similar to it was right before we lost that full season um to the strike lockout where like the cap needed to be instituted because not many teams could spend with like the Rangers and the Maple Leafs and you know there were some teams that could just spend and spend and spend and the small market teams couldn’t compete because they couldn’t keep up with those other teams and they couldn’t spend outspend them. Meanwhile, Toronto and New York could make mistakes with and keep just keep spending and spend more money to replace the mistakes that they made and spend tons of money to get the star players in. Like I I think we’re entering a space, Mick, where it’s going to be some teams are probably gonna have a hard time just getting the salary cap floor uh that they need to get to, you know, never mind trying to spend all the way to the top of the ceiling of the cap and spend with Toronto and New York and some of these other teams. I I think it absolutely is going to happen where there’s going to be easier to get rid of bad contracts then. Yeah, probably. Um anyway, uh the 2026 Winter Classic is the Florida Panthers hosting uh the Rangers on January 2nd, Friday, January 2nd at Lone Depot Park in Miami. So, you were right on about that one, Mick. Well, let’s see if the ice uh if the ice stays frozen. Yes, that will be the nice challenge. Uh it’s not exactly like tropical uh in January in Florida, but it’s still pretty warm to have ice and have it be playable. But didn’t they do one in Vegas um at some point in the recent past, right? In outdoor games, and they were able to get They did one a long time ago. The first the first NHL outdoor game of the modern era was a preseason game between the Kings and the Rangers at Caesar’s Palace in a makeshift arena. Yes. similar to where they were holding outdoor boxing matches. Uh or did they do LA or something? They did something somewhere or no, it was it was um Texas. That’s where it was. They did an outdoor game in Texas. Yeah. I think the big problem with with Florida is going to be the humidity. That’s the enemy of hockey ice and and and that’s where they need the right kind of weather and there in order to make this work. Um I mean what are they going to do? Close the dome there if it doesn’t isn’t cooperating? I mean would then it be would it then be a valid Winter Classic? I mean, at this point, I just feel like it’s such an overplayed thing that, you know, I mean, the Bruins Raymond James is no dome. So, and it’s not Miami, but Tampa Tampa can still get pretty warm. Yep. It definitely can’t. Um, one of the things I guess since we’re on the schedule, Mick, one of the things in the CBA uh that’s going to uh be upcoming, the CBA extension that gets signed between the players and the uh owners between the NHL and the NHLPA is that they’re going to uh extend the season to 84 games. They’re going to cut some preseason games, I think, down to four or five maybe. Um, which I’m all for. Uh, I thought the last half of the preseason as far as games go or at least there there’s like they could trim the fat of three or four preseason games um that were pretty useless that just uh were, you know, easy cash grabs for the owners, but you know, you didn’t see many NHL players on the ice. It wasn’t a great product out there. I don’t think you need eight preseason games to get a look at the people uh on your roster for the NHL. like really like with the salary cap and the way it is now, like pretty much all your roster spots except for maybe one or two are accounted for by contracts you sign uh in the off season and guys you have locked into play. So, I think it makes a ton of sense to just widen the regular season to 84 games, extend it by two uh and get rid of some of the, you know, three or four preseason games that uh nobody really cared about anyway. Well, I think that the season ticket holders in the in this era, and I mean like maybe the last several years, it seems as though the rosters, it used to be that the home team had to stack up with veterans to showcase to their fans, please their fans, get them to come. And then the road team can throw you their their prospects and it be fine. And and that’ll be fine. So, it’s designed, it’s stacked, everybody gets to look at players they want to see, and uh you know, it’s so let’s just say that that’s what you what you do. Uh not anymore. These last several years, the Bruins home preseason games, the rosters have been nowhere near an NHL or even prospect compelling kind of lineup. It hasn’t been a real It’s kind of like you’re not getting your NHL team and you’re looking at maybe one or two guys instead of like four or five or six. And um so the the home teams com lineup has not been compelling in these games. And and and the and here’s the kicker. The season ticket holders at least of the Boston Bruins uh have been have been commit being asked to commit to 44 home dates. That’s three home preseason games at the same price that they pay for the regular NHL schedule. What this does for them is take one of those preseason games and stack it with NHL meaning and roster and they will take that all day. Yep. Yep. No, it it comes out of the preseason. Yeah. And the NHL, by the way, as a as a footnote, the NHL had two 84 game seasons right before that 0405 lockout. I’m not not that one. Right before the 9495 lockout that I’m sorry, the early 90s, that’s when they had it. Yep. No. And yeah, the basic point is that, you know, people were paying a lot of money and it was a cash grab for the owners to have so many preseason games. it. You didn’t need that many, especially in this day and age where like players come into training camp in very good shape and really don’t work themselves into shape in training camp. So, you don’t even need a long training camp. You already know who’s basically going to be on your roster based on the contracts that you have. So, like training camp doesn’t need to be that long and you really don’t need this that many preseason games. Um, those are more about getting a look at your prospects and your guys that you’re going to send back to junior that you drafted and all that stuff. Um, but it’s really not anything about like competing for jobs or anything like that. So, um, it makes sense sad because the Bruins have a situation this year. They’re going to go into camp with a real competition. Yeah. And but not for many But you’re right, not many spots. What is it like maybe two spots and probably like 10 candidates for two spots? That’s really what we’re looking at here. But the good news for the Bruins is that that doesn’t kick in for a few years. So this year they will get their full slate of meaningless preseason games and the long preseason to get a look at those preseason games will finally be good and allow Yeah. and allow somebody Dave Schultz trying to go Mike Milbury into a fight. Exactly. And allow somebody to win a job. So uh you know, good for them. They’ll uh they’ll actually make use of the preeason. All right, let’s get in uh let’s get in our uh ads right now to thank our sponsors, Mick. Uh first of all, we got to talk about prize picks. 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You didn’t even need to win to receive the $50 bonus. It’s guaranteed. Prize picks run your game. Uh let’s also uh let you know that for those of you listening to this episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast, we ask that you subscribe to the podcast, like and leave a review. And for those watching the show on CLNS and enjoying all this hockey talk, go ahead and hit that like button and subscribe to the Bruins Ringside YouTube channel where you can find our show and a lot of other great Bruins content with fellow Bruins talkers like Connor Ryan and Evan Marinowski. There’s also the CLNS Media Network and Celtics All Access on CLNS, the NBA History Channel, Patriots Press Pass, and Bruins Rankside YouTube channels as well. Also, please make sure to turn on your notifications so you know the instant a new Pucks with Hags podcast video drops on the interwebs. All right, let’s get into some of these questions, Mick. First one’s a little cuckoo crazy. Uh, but I’ll I’ll throw it out there for you. Uh, Bruins will try to will try to compete, but this season is a wash. This is from Freedom Mike 1776. They know that they will be lucky to make the playoffs. Even if they do, they aren’t going anywhere. The plan is to bring Conor McDavid east to the original an original six team, and that original six team is Boston. Makes the most sense for Conor McDavid, the Bruins, and the league. Um, I mean, I Conor McDavid to the Bruins. Yes, let’s do it. Like, I’m on board. Like, I’ll have what he’s having. Exactly. Um, and like the greater point, Mick, is that uh I do think the Bruins kind of this is a bit of a bridge sort of stop gap year and they’ve got enough money saved through the cap through expiring contracts uh through what they did that they could go after a big fish uh next year. They’re going to have like 20 million in cap space uh next summer as of right now. Um, so they could go after anybody they want. And McDavid, uh, Jack Eel, um, Cap Capri off, uh, Kyle Connor, I think Kale Mar, like there’s a long list. There’s like 10 to 15 and and not all of them are going to get to free agency obviously, but there’s a list of 10 or 15 guys right now. And no, even if a bunch of them sign, it’s probably going to be some kind of a stacked free agent market or stacked NHL trade deadline where guys are going to get dealt that are going to be free agents and it could be like a trade and then you sign an extension kind of kind of deal. I could see that kind of stuff happen at the trade deadline and I also could see some of these guys just get hitting the market next summer and getting Boku Bucks. But do you envision any scenario where it would be the Bruins that would win the McDavid sweep stakes and he would end up coming to Boston? I guess they have as good a chance as anybody um and they might have more cap space than some of the other contending teams or teams that he would potentially go to. Um and it would be interesting if he comes here. There’s no doubt about that. It would be a great a huge coup for the Bruins. But is there any shot in your mind, any remote like morsel of a chance that Conor McDavid uh would come to Boston and be on the Bruins uh two seasons from now? No. No. No. Um no. I’m I’m smelling the coffee here. I just think the recent turbulence with the New York Rangers and their re uh starting over here again with Mike Sullivan and having made a couple of trades, significant trades that they will be uh at the forefront of such a game. I mean, that’s the one that makes the most sense to me. That is the one that makes the most sense to me, Mick. No question about They’re the trump card on anything that the Bruins try to posture this way, then they’re they’re going to look at second or third banana here if they’re lucky. They’re not going to get the prize. They’re not going to get the generational player. That’s not going to happen. Um, and I’m not so sure I even wanted to. Um, I kind of feel like their best their best acquisitions have always been super meaningful to them. um but not necessarily the type who already had made their bones in the league before they got here. Um you know Charara had been in the league uh but he had not established his legacy as a great player who found his potential. It happened as a Bruin. It happened here. Um I don’t I think that that’s the best scenario for the Bruins is to get that kind of player. um not that kind of nobody’s like Charara but that kind of career situation. So, y I I like I like the idea of them of them positioning themselves to so that if the opportunity is there that they can make a decision to compete and try to get somebody here that they think at that time when they’ve revised their viewpoint toward their center position at the end of the coming season uh and their wing positions at the end of the coming season. Um, I don’t think they if if unless there’s some surprises along the way, it won’t be a defenseman or a goalie. It’ll be it’ll be a um it’ll be a forward and uh who that is really depends on how the season plays out, I think, as far as what they’re eyeing, what to be t uh looking toward because they’ve got lots of irons in the fire, but the timeline for some of those irons is not just yet. Yeah. I I yeah, I I there’s no way to know for sure right now. Uh because that a lot could happen between now and then. And I think you do have to gauge some of it on, you know, what you see out of the team this year. But I I I don’t think anything that any anything that anybody is going to do this year on this Bruins team would change a potential gradea big fish acquisition of any of these guys that are going to be free agents. I think those guys are better players than, you know, especially the centers are better centers than what they are going to have this this coming season. And I think ultimately you project a couple years down the road that Elias Lynhomem would definitely be a second line center and and even a few years beyond that a third line center like ideally when the cup cap really goes up. Um but like it’s not ideal I think that he’s your first line center. I I just don’t think that even maybe it’s a okay with a line driving wing like David Posternneck to have him as your topline center, but I think ideally you want somebody that can drive a line. Um, and I don’t think Alind Holm is that guy. And he’s really not even that much of a puck transporting center in my mind either. Um he’s more of sort of a complimentary center who’s got some great defensive skills and I think the defense that he plays allows Geeki and Posteneck to you know play offense a little more and sort of cheat offensively a little bit because they know he’s there to take care of uh the stuff uh in the Dzone and and some of the details uh of that line. I think that’s why they work really well. But to your point, I think the Rangers make sense for McDavid. I’ve always envisioned that as probably the place he was going to go if he ever left Edmonton because I think the NHL wants their marquee guy in New York. I think that makes sense. I think he would want to go to New York uh to be to bring a cup to the Rangers to be in like the biggest market in the US. Um to be, you know, I think the Rangers just feel like the fit for Conor McDavid. McDavid if he leaves and gets traded. It’s very Messier like or be Yeah. becomes a free agent, whatever. I I think it just you you can see it coming. It makes so much sense. Ekeel is the one that I think you look at and the Bruins would make sense for him and you could see him potentially maybe wanting to come back and get a bring a cup to Boston and finish off like what’s been an excellent career as a member of the Bruins, play for his hometown after he’s checked the boxes, you know, uh in Vegas and done a lot of really good things there. Like that’s the one if they’re going to go after a big fish that I think makes a lot of sense. I think that’s the one they might have a realistic uh chance of getting and and just like just like McDavid to the Rangers feels like it’s gonna happen. I could feel Eel going to the Bruins. It just feels like something that would make sense and be a good fit all things considered. Uh or could be a good fit all things considered. Especially like if you’re bringing in Hagens, he could be a guy that like shows Hagens the way and kind of like tutors him and brings him on and he’s the older superstar sort of showing Hagens, you know, how to do things and stuff. Like there’s a lot of things there that I think make a lot of sense um for that to be the guy they would go after. But I do think they’re going to have to make a run at somebody. like they need to bring another star player into this uh system and into this uh what they’re doing if they want to be have Stanley Cup aspirations. And if you’re looking at a two to threeyear timeline of like bringing them back to a Stanley Cup contender, I think getting a big fish like that has to be part of the whole thing. An established big fish has to be a part of the whole sort of movement of what they’re doing and the whole part of the long range plan. Um, but it it’s it’s not Conor McDavid. Like, as much as Freedom Mike 1776 tries to um, you know, uh, manifested to happen here with this question to us, I just I don’t feel I don’t feel like McDavid to the Bruins has any shot of happening. I just don’t feel like there’s a disturbance in the force that that’s going to happen at all. He makes so much sense going to the Rangers and I feel like that’s where he’s going to go if he leaves. And and you said Messier, it’s kind of like Gretzky leaving uh Edmonton to go to LA too. He wanted to go somewhere where like you want the star player in a star market or a place where you can maximize his star ability and his his you know being the generational talent of the NHL and being a household name. And I think the best place to do that or one of the best places to do that is going to New York. It’s it’s certainly not uh going to Boston over New York. I don’t want to downplay, you know, the the city that I work in and the city I love in the state I’m in, but like if you’re McDavid and I think you have the choice between going to the Bruins or going to the Rangers, I think the Rangers makes most sense for star players as far as endorsements, as far as lifestyle, as far as all that stuff. There’s there’s more to uh to be made, I think, uh going there instead. But for Eel, let’s face it, we know where the league would want him. I mean, it’s kind of like Gretzky to LA, Messier to New York. These things, these things really helped the NHL. So, if Conor McDavid is going to jump and leave Edmonton, does it make NHL sense for him to go anywhere but New York? It doesn’t. And New York needs an identity right now. They don’t really have one. Um, I mean with all respect to Adam Fox and and uh some of the other fine talent on that team, the bread man, but you know, and then those are great fans in New York. I love going to games in MSG. They’re great over there. It’s it’s uh it’s it’s awesome. I just But I but I I just think that this just looks to me like, hey, it worked out last time, you know, in as much as the NHL can manipulate these things. Um, I think all of those secret silent forces would be leveraging it that way if it ever was going to happen. Yeah. The only thing that’s stinks with the Well, the only thing if I were Conor McDavid where I would think twice about going to the Rangers is the ownership situation there. That’s been the same the case for a long time. Like I just think it’s not not a great situation there. Hasn’t been. And that’s something that would give you pause if you’re McDavid for sure. But like I think beyond that, everything else set up there right now is is pretty good. Um, and if if the owner can stay out of the way, I think everything else will um take care of itself uh with the New York Rangers. Um, all right. Uh, this is not really a a question as much as a comment. This is from Ed Senior on Twitter. He says, “Uh, nice podcast. Finally, someone looking at the Bruins roster and short-term outlook with some actual realism and it’s not just doom and gloom for once. Thanks, Hags. And I’m gonna include you in this, too, Mick, because you’re not a doom and gloom guy either. You call it like you see it. My pal Louise Cornetta uh retired from ESPN radio. I don’t know if anybody ever had a rolodex like that girl, but she’s down in uh Naples and she’s an actress now and she’s awesome. I’ve seen her perform. But anyway, she she always refers to me as the eternal optimist, which I think has always been sort of like, “Oh, come on. Stop it. I know I can be way more negative than that. No. No. Yeah. I mean, and when it’s called for, you can be negative, but like, you know, I think I think I think the dial is turned too far this way with this team where everybody’s just looking to hammer it because like they had a terrible season and they basically like steered the ship into the iceberg at the trade deadline and bottomed out. People forget they were in the wild card hunt when they did moved all those guys at at the deadline and that’s when the ship really sank. That’s when they decided, all right, we’re going to try to get a lot of repick. We’re going to get assets and and we’re really going to sink the ship. Uh they did that on purpose. That was a plan. They knew Makavoy wasn’t coming back. Yes. They shut down Lynholm. And then from that point forward, they sent their prospects to Providence and and they put together a lineup that they knew was going to tank. They didn’t have to tell it to tank. Yep. Yep. Um All right. And okay, this is from Mal Bernie Mark Allred at B&G Productions, Black and Gold 277 on Twitter. uh watching the latest mailbag and couldn’t agree more on the market for Corpusalo. I have no clue why so many believe he’s attractive leaguewide. Mick, there’s been a lot of people assuming or throwing out there, hey, just trade Junis Corposalo. Uh dump the salary cap and salary and you’ll have enough money to go after one of the re uh restricted free agents that hasn’t signed yet. Uh and you can try to bring somebody like that in. and they just put it out there as an automatic that you’re going to trade Junas Corposalo. Like my question is who’s trading for him and how much are you going to have to give up in addition to trading him to get somebody else to take that contract and to take that player? He had an eight I think it was an 893 save percentage last year and the year before that he had an 890 save percentage in 55 games for the Ottawa Senators which people said was the worst season by anybody that year as a goalender. You’re not nobody wants Junis Corposal right now. He needed to play better last year consistently if he was going to get traded and he needs to play better if he wants to get traded somewhere. or if the Bruins are going to trade him, you you’re not going to be able to do it right now based on his performance, you know, and and in fairness to him, he did say after the year was over that he wanted to play more and that that was, you know, that maybe played into it that he either got out of rhythm or got discouraged because he didn’t play more when Swayman was struggling early and then he got caught up in just what was going on with everybody not playing well in the second half of the year. But like if he wants to get traded, if he wanted to go somewhere, if the Bruins wanted to trade him, he needs to perform better in order to create a market for himself where another team’s going to want him to be part of their goalending picture. Why are you going to give up assets to bring in a guy that you don’t even think is playing as well as the guys you have in your own system? That makes no sense. The other thing I would pile on to that by saying that that um that at the beginning of the season everybody likes their own guys. So the idea that the Bruins can all of a sudden take a turn here and until you get an injury nobody’s going to be interested. That’s not going to happen. I think Corposalo was a victim uh and way more of an effect than a cause. And to me, he played well in points where kind of like uh Tuka often took crap because he never won the big one. Well, I don’t know. I think sweeping Pittsburgh was his statement series in the 13 conference final. And I think that that that he did win some big ones. He just didn’t win the ultimate big one, but that’s so easy to focus on one player when it comes to that stuff. And I look at Corposalo as a goalie who is really victimized by a Can I say that in this uh Yeah. Can I say blank a blank show? Yeah. show. Go ahead. Yeah. It was last season was last season was the biggest show that the Bruins have had um in 20 years if not since 97. And um and it uh and and he and a goalie, nobody ever looks worse than a goalie in a show. Uh and Corpusalo to me was an innocent bystander who actually played some good hockey. So I don’t think the statistics accurately reflect the situation that he faced. And yeah, could he stand on his head and save the Bruins from themselves in those situations? Nah, not not entirely. Not really. He didn’t do that. So, I wouldn’t exactly call him a precious commodity right now. And I that’s why I agree with you that teams are not going to be interested from afar. They’re not going to look at this and say, “No.” But I look at him and say, “What a perfect backup for Swayman. This guy’s a veteran. He’s quality. He’ll push him. He’s dissatisfied with his situation. He wants to compete.” You read the 1979 book, The Game, by Ken Dryden. This guy’s been in the league in the entire decade. He’s been a premier goalender and he’s won six uh he’s on his way to winning his sixth championship in eight seasons in an eight-year NHL career. and and yet his his backup for most of those seasons, Michelle Bunny Lorac, in the book, Dryen describes how long he stays on the ice, game day skate, to take shots before relinquishing the net to Lorac just to reinforce to Lorac that it’s his net. And this is near the end of that career. It sounds ridiculous, but these guys are so competitive. To me, this is a good backup goalender. Maybe the perfect backup goalie for Swayman right now. To me to And then the idea that the that was one side of my MIAA uh tennis ref coin, that was heads tails is okay. You think that you can just flip him and go get If you think you can flip him and go get because you value corporal and if you do then why are you doing this? Right now, the Bruins cannot compromise their back end and be any good next year. They have to get this right. You have Mason Laai to worry about. You resigned him and you need him to be protected. You need not only his matchups ahead of him to stay healthy and protect him and and allow him to develop his game and and reconstitute a solid two-way uh game, which he completely lost last season near the end. But uh you need a goalie to do it, too. And I don’t think Swayman’s in the best situation he can be in if he doesn’t have a veteran competitive backup. And I think Corposalo is that guy. I think you’re right. And I think yeah, this is the other part of the consideration I think that people want to trade Corposalo is that they’re afraid they’re going to lose Michael DPro on waiverss when he has to get sent down at the end of training camp. He’s coming off a year where he’s 26 years old, was a draft pick of the Vancouver Conucks, has done really well in the Bruins organization, was the AHL goalie of the year last year. um you know kind of edged Brandon Busy out as the young guy that could be you know a guy that an option if something happens with your goalies at the NHL level. Jeremy Swayman coming off the year that he had last year going into this year. I think this is not the year to just to put a guy like DPro in as his backup and have a young guy trying to go the through the NHL for the first time as a backup goalie to sway in after he struggled big time last year. I don’t think that’s of enough of a challenge for Swayman. I don’t think that’s enough of a competition or a guy that’s gonna, you know, get the best out of him and sort of push him to be better. I think you need a guy like Corbos that’s played over 300 NHL games that is an established NHL guy. Even though he’s struggled, he’s a guy that’s going to be able to push Swayman and that’s a guy that Swayman is going to view as competition. I think that’s a healthy good thing for the Bruins to have. I think that’s what they want to have. I think that they realized last year was a little bit of a mistake that they didn’t place Corposalo enough and that it should have been more of a competitive situation where Corpal I get why they wanted so they wanted so hard to get Swayman going. They wanted to give him every opportunity to find his groove after missing his camp. Not only not only that, Mick, but when you’re paying a guy $8 million a year, you want him to be the guy and you’re gonna, you know, put him in situations where he’s going to play more. And I think that was part of it too is is, you know, to to give him what he sort of earned with that contract and what they were paying him. I think it’s a multiple things going on there. And I I think it’s not it’s not what’s going to bring out the best in him. I think he needs somebody to push him and take some maybe some playing time away from him and make it into a competitive situation as most NHL players and goalies do. I think that’s the best situation you can have is when it’s really competitive and a guy feels like he’s fighting for his time and fighting to get it the net as much as he is. I think that’s always the way it’s going to bring out the best in highly competitive, very accomplished athletes like this. I think it’s the best way to go and it’s natural. I don’t think it says anything bad about Swayman that he needs competition in order to bring out his best. I think that’s the way it is for everybody. And I I think, you know, that’s a healthy situation and it’s the way he performed best was when it was him and really competing for the net. I think the Bruins see now that that’s what kind of what he needs or that’s what they’re going to how they’re going to get the best out of him. It makes total sense. Um, all right. Uh, last question, Mick. Does drafting Hagens address the offensive questions sufficiently given he’s closer to being ready than the other potential prospects were? And this is from Duncan Su Insuk. Um, and I answered this a little bit last week, but I wanted to ask you as well. Do you feel like longterm the drafting of Hagens answers enough questions offensively for this Bruins team? I think it’s I’m very excited by it because when I watch him play, I see a guy who can do a zone entry with speed, with shiftiness, with hands, and with courage. And I see a guy who goes in there who’s not afraid to to to get in the puck into the zone, to skate it in. He’s got the moves. He’s got this. He’s I just feel like this kid’s got it. And And um I don’t I I don’t want to start thinking I’m gonna see Gilbert Perau here anytime soon, but but I but I do think that it reminds me of Craig Janney when he joined the Bruins after the 88 Olympics and how much it changed their team. It gave Cam Neely a centerman. Um, it gave Bob Joyce a role and it propelled the Bruins into a trajectory that was entirely different than where their season might have gone. Instead, they wound up going to the Stanley Cup final. Um, and they went again two years later. Um, you know, uh, this guy has that kind of ability. can think on his feet and he’s willing to try and and um I also I mean you know hey when you’re watching somebody at development camp and they’re thinking of 15 ways to try to carry the puck around in threeon-ree game themselves and finally pass it because they run out of ideas and they’re getting a little tired, then that’s obviously not what you want to see from a centerman. You want to see him moving the puck. But um you know what uh let’s see him play his senior season at BC um without having the talent that was there last year um and taking on and being that talent this year and and let’s see how that goes. Let’s test take this in very patient stages. But I love the pick. I love that he fell to them. Um and I’m I’m I’m pretty excited by by the possibility potential there. Um, does it solve anything? Way too soon for me to to throw my hat into that ring and say yes, it does. I don’t think that. But I am but I’m very encouraged and excited by it and and now I’m just going to take it in stages and try to enjoy this journey and see what it yields. Yeah, I think that’s the right answer. I mean, you can be optimistic about him, but I think uh way too soon to see we got to see at least we got to see him dominate college hockey really before you can get that excited about him. I think he looks really good. I think he’s going to help them. There’s no question about that. But to view him as this really sort of move needlemoving gamechanging kind of thing kind of talent, we got to see him really dominate at the college level and then parlay that into signing with the Bruins moving forward. Um, but I I and I also think you want to bring in another star player that can kind of help shepherd him along. Maybe preferably even a center that can help uh show him the ropes and bring him along when he gets to the NHL level as well. That’s why I talked about EK before. Uh, but like make no mistake, the future is bright. This is an extremely talented kid. I think this is somebody you look at uh and should get excited about the possibilities and that kind of a possibility that he could really like, you know, help boost the offense where they’re not going to need much else uh moving forward. But he’s still a teenager, still a young kid. We’ll have to see what he can bring at the NHL level when he first arrives. Anyway, um thank you Mick for uh joining us. Everybody else out there, thank you for listening. Uh you’ve been listening to the Pucks with Hags podcast. We are a proud member of the CLNS media network and you make sure to hit subscribe to the Bruins Ringside YouTube channel and turn on notifications for when a new video drops on the channel. We’re also brought to you by Prize Pix, the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. Download the Prize Pix app today and use the code CLNS and get $50 instantly when you play $5. That’s code CLNS on Prize Pick to get $50 instantly when you play five bucks. You don’t even need to win to receive the $50 bonus. It’s guaranteed. Prize picks run your game. Mick, thank you very much for joining us, my friend. Thanks for having me, Joe. Fun way to break up the summer. That’s it. Bring in a little hockey talk in the summertime. Uh, everybody else out there, thanks for listening. We’ll see you at the rink.

Pucks with Haggs host Joe Haggerty and guest Mick Colageo discuss the Boston Bruins schedule, and answer a number of fan questions including whether or not the master plan is for the B’s to take a run at Connor McDavid in free agency. 

⏰️0:00 – EPISODE TIMELINE⏰️
1:54 – Takeaways on Bruins schedule release
14:57 – Thoughts on NHL making season 84 Games
19:28 – Prizepicks
20:28 – Subscribe to the podcast!
21:07 – Could Bruins sign Connor McDavid?
28:24 – Could Bruins sign Jack Eichel?
29:53 – Could Bruins sign Connor McDavid?
32:41 – Pucks with Haggs mailbag
47:06 – Wrapping up

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