Is Bruins Development Pipeline IMPROVING? | Pucks with Haggs

Is Bruins Development Pipeline IMPROVING? | Pucks with Haggs

Welcome to the Pucks with Axe podcast, a proud member of the CLNS media network. Make sure to hit subscribe to the Bruins Ringside YouTube channel and turn on notifications for when a new video drops on that channel. Uh 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 cls and get $50 instantly when you play five bucks. That’s code cls on prize picks 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. All right, everybody. Welcome in to the 218th episode of the Pucks with Hags podcast. Thank you as always for joining in, for interacting, for listening, commenting, rating, all that good stuff. Uh I have with me today longtime friend and colleague Mick Collagio. Mick, please tell everybody where they can find your work, my friend. When I write, which hasn’t been a ton lately, rank rap and I link to X and Facebook and when the hockey news yearbook is in your hand, then the Bruins article is uh authored by MUA. Now, now world when you’re writing more. That’s right. That’s right, D. Now, now is also the time for Mick to be writing less, though. I guess if it’s late August, this is the time to be kicking back and relaxing because it’s going to get I just I wrote I wrote a fourball championship golf story for the Standard Times in New Bedford and I’ve written about four tennis features this summer um for the Wanderer and uh Southeastern Mass. So, uh beyond that, um u you know, I think a lot about writing. It’s always there in the forefront of my mind. It never stops. You know, you could be late at night and thinking, “What if Marco Sturm doesn’t keep the first line together? Then what?” That’s right, Mick. Uh, we also have, uh, the Boston Globes, Kevin Paul Dupont, Dupes, thank you very much for joining us. Well, are you uh are you in Buffalo? Are you home? Where are you at these uh days in the summertime? I’m I’m home and I and I I’m home here in the in the Boston BBS. And I have to tell you, I’m not obsessing about Marco Stur. No, I mean I I’m definitely I think you’d be fine, but I I’m not worried about the first line. I I am not worried about Marco Sturm. I am not worried about the first line. I continue to think this Bruins team is probably going to be a little better than most people are anticipating based on last year and based on what they have together. So, I I am not in that uh camp that is is really worried about the chicken littleing uh the the Bruins off season or feeling like the sky is falling going into the season. And and kind of in that vein, guys, um I I wanted to start us off with uh The Athletic came out with their pipeline uh rankings, the draft and development pipeline rankings uh across the NHL. And this is always an interesting conversation piece every summer. It’s one of those summer things that they do to stir up conversation and get people reading the site when there’s not games going on for hockey. And in from a Boston perspective, uh it had been much talked about the last three, four years because back-to-back years, the Bruins were ranked dead last, 32nd in the NHL, uh in terms of draft and development. And it really caused a lot of I think upheaval with fans and um you know piling on uh with the draft and development for the Boston Bruins and rightfully so. There was a long stretch where they didn’t have a lot of players they developed. They didn’t have uh a lot of first round picks. There’s a lot of different reasons for why the things happened that they did. I think it’s a combination of several things, but the bottom line was they weren’t producing enough good young players and good young players on entry level contracts and a salary cap system. U but the rankings came out this year and the Bruins were ranked 20th. Um and this they they came out I think yesterday. Um and this is what they said. Uh this is sort of the the top of the uh you know summary for the Bruins pipeline. Recently, Boston was backtoback in the 32nd spot in the pipeline rankings. A couple years later, with some non late first round picks developing well, and especially after drafting James Hagens, the system is now respectable. Outside of Hagens, though, there isn’t much in the system that has upper half of the lineup potential. Um, uh, Dupes, I’ll start with you. Is is this do you feel like that’s just a byproduct of Hagens and drafting him and finally getting into the top 10 and getting that star potential prospect? Or do you legitimately believe the last maybe couple of years, two, three years, we’ve started to see a trend with the Bruins where they’re drafting a little bit better, they’re developing a little bit better, and we’re starting to see like some young players uh push through a little bit where, you know, the previous I’d say five years you weren’t seeing much of that at all. Well, it’s certainly good fodder here. Hags, is that a flu Shinszawa piece, by the way? That was Corey Prawnman uh at the Athletic. He does he’s their like prospect guru uh guy for the NHL. Yeah. So, he he writes about the prospects and the draft picks like across the league for that for the Athletics. So, this is the rare non uh Fluto Bruins uh piece of uh content. Yeah. Oh, I just, you know, I I I I think we all respect Fluto’s work and and and I respect the athletics work at large. I think they they do an excellent job. Yep. Um, so I don’t have a definitive answer for you. I I will say this that uh it feels better, right? So to to so to go from dead last to the high upper bottom third is I mean they’re not dupes. They’re not going to be screaming like uh we’re number 20 from the rooftops of the garden. We can definitely say that for sure, you know. Yeah. You really I mean what what history shows and as you guys well know is the only guys really to get excited about are are are guys in the top 10, 12, 15. And even 15 is a stretch of each respective draft. Occasionally you get a college free agent who wiggles through. Uh even even those college free agents are are a dicey lot. And we can go into all the reasons about how difficult this is for all organizations, but if you want to have a really good pipeline, then to be blunt, have a horshit NHL team. Yeah. Because that’s the only way you get into unless you really make some prudent trades and get into that top mix. And yes, there are great exceptions. And we saw one of the greatest of all time here in Berseron and one of the greatest of all times in Charara. Now, he was he he wasn’t their pick, but you look at where Char was picked. Two guys headed to the Hall of Fame. You could even make that case for Criti to a degree. Yep. And Marshian and Marshand. Right. So, uh and in each of those cases, I think Cretchie might be an exception in terms of what if we were to dial this podcast back 20 25 years and and sit here and would we have been saying, “Oh, you know that Charara and that Berseron and that CR?” We wouldn’t have. So, I got a call I got a call one night one one morning from Cap Raider who was still scouting for the San Jose Sharks at the time. He had attended the Providence Bruins game the night before and watched Crerache and Christopher Stig playing together on the same line and he said, “You got a couple of NHL players down there, you know, and he’s like that creature, he could play right now.” And I’m thinking this was during the 06 07 season, the one where they called up Crye for that one game and Adam Mayor knocked him out cold and when he when he handled the puck too uh contemplatively at the edge of his own goal crease and um his welcome to the AHL moment for sure. That’s exactly what Cap said to me when I called it a predatory hit. I won’t say the rest of what he said, but we had a bit of a shouting match at the next Bruins home game. So, but but in the long in the long uh and short of it, uh you know, it takes an NHL scout to see some things that that frankly I know I’m never going to see and players, no matter how disciplined and I I think I might have. Yeah, no doubt. Um it’s a great point, Mick. Um and I I was when you were talking about that dupes, I was thinking Crerachche, too. like he’s definitely somebody I would put in that category of a non-firstround pick that turned into you know top six player high impact guy uh that was part of the the you know the structure of that team. Uh let me go to add to add to that pile. If indeed Jeremy Swayman is a franchise goalender look at where he was drafted, right? Yep. So it’s it’s really it’s it’s really you know trying to pan gold here in a creek that people don’t see the gold. Uh, and it’s like baseball. That’s us. What’s that? It’s like baseball. Both both baseball and hockey have a long curve for development. You’re you’re deciding very at a very young age that players are going to project over over you in most cases at least three years if not five to get them before you really know what you have. And uh and then still you’re projecting what they’re going to become from there. So yeah, I I I think it’s a crapshoot to a large extent once you get past uh you know, six picks. Yeah. So if we so if we we apply this abundant knowledge of his three gurus here, uh what what does what what do we think today about Hagen’s his trajectory and and and why the excitement? Well, the the the excitement is the skill and the skating level that he has is so and and the hockey IQ I would say too is so far above the norm of what you see from these young players and he’s been doing it for years against older year players against older you know not just his peers against older players dominant against his own peers dominant against those kind of players uh that are older than him and he’s been doing it for a long time. And like I I they needed somebody that stood out at development camp the way that Posternneck did when he was there, the way Sean did to a degree when he was there. They needed somebody that when you looked on the ice and you saw them with the other guys in the 18 to 25 year old range that were at these development camps that you noticed them right away and it just it flashed at you and it it it completely it was screaming neon lights. watching him handle the puck, watching him shoot, watching him you just go through regular drills. He’s that player. Like I only watched I was there for one day, but you could see it right away in the things that he was doing. Much in the same way with Posteneck, you could see how different he was than everybody else he was on the ice with in the in that setting. Now, introducing, you know, NHL strength men and size and skill and and meanness and all that other stuff is going to be like there are going to be tons of hurdles for him. uh to jump over. I don’t think there’s any doubt about it. And I’m a little concerned that a lot of people compare him most to Jack Hughes, who I’m not the hugest fan of. Um just because he’s smaller and he plays on the outside a lot. And there when I feel like when things get to like playoff level intensity, you don’t notice him as much. Uh there’s certain things like that that I think we’re going to have to watch in Hagens, but like you know I feel like when you watch him even in just routine drills and routine things, you see things that he does that nobody else does and it immediately jumps out at you. Mick, I hope that Hagens won’t someday lose two races in overtime of a championship game resulting in an icing for his team, a tired lineup, and an overtime goal by Conor McDavid. Uh but that’s what happened at TD Guard to uh Jack Hughes uh when he lost that second race. I just blurted out Hughes has just lost the second race and those guys are tired. This could be the game. Well, you’re talking about the Four Nations, right? That’s right. And Canada won the faceoff and Mc McDavid scored. Well, that was it. One of my big takeaways from that Four Nations from watching that tournament was that Jack Hughes looked like a boy among men. like playing with those other players. He looked out of place a lot of the time like he didn’t belong there and he wasn’t ready for that yet. Yeah. Yeah. So, I don’t know. Like I think of um and people like to hammer at me for this, but I I I I see Hagens and I think of Craig Janney. Um I remember when Jany joined the after we have the Craig Janney reference from Mick. Uh there he’s got a streak going of about 10 uh podcasts in a row where he’s mentioned. No, I actually No, there’s actually two in between where I I purposely laid off, but we’re at the 1310 mark. Mark it down. that that Mick compared well left-handed center uh Boston College and the thing that I remember when Janney joined the Bruins with Bob Joyce from Canada after the 88 Olympics was the zeal with which he carried the puck into the offensive zone and had so many new wiggles and he had some speed and he backed up defenses or he faked them out and went around them. Hagen shows me vision, wheels, hands, and hoods. And that’s a great combination. I will never compare him to Joel Bear Perau, who used to, you know, stand my hair on and when I had hair, uh, you know, or entering the zone, he would just turn any team in pylons, uh, the way he could go and, uh, you know, and he’s gone. Uh Haggins has the the only thing I didn’t like that Hagens was doing when I was watching the threeon three uh the end of the threeonree the day that I went to development camp was he was trying to do everything himself until he ran out of options or energy and then passed the puck. And I hope he’s not like that in in in the real hockey games. I I I don’t want to see that in the real hockey games. But but I saw a little bit of that in the threeon three. it just seemed like he was turning it into his own show and um and you know and that’s when he moved the puck afterwards. It was kind of like okay my turn. It’s kind of like NBA basketball at its worst. So um yeah, but I I I’m excited by that player. He has those that combination of those skills and that’s what stands out to me. Um I didn’t realize Will Moore is as tall as he is. So, the fact that Don Don Sweeney kind of advised us, look, this guy’s had a lot more uh appropriate competition and uh than Dean Lerno did or or more experience at appropriate levels to be in the position he is now joining BC. This is a guy who’s going to have more success in the immediate than LNO was possible realistic for LNO to have. I think too’s gangly body puts him on a much longer curve and who knows where that ends up. It might be really good. Um because I like a lot of his game if he can just start winning some 5050s against more solid, compact, hard-nosed college hockey players. Those guys with their more developed bodies, uh he he just he’s like a giraffe trying to battle a lion. And uh and when a giraffe gets enough on him, maybe the giraffe becomes formidable. will see because there’s an awful lot about that kid’s game that I otherwise like. So, I mean there’s there’s I I feel like there’s um you know, Gasso, Yelvic Vic, I mean BC’s got a lot of reasons to make me want to watch this year. Yep. No, they definitely do. And I think you’ll see a lot of Bruins media, Bruins fans at those games just based on all of the draft picks and prospects that are going to be playing on that team. I think it’s up to like six uh players that uh the Bruins are associated with are going to be on that team. Um, dupes, what about you? Reasons to either be enthused or not enthused about Hagens from what you’ve seen of him and gathered talking to people, all that stuff. Uh, encouraged for sure. Um, and mostly on the IQ factor because that’s kind of all I can go on at the moment. Y the the trick to this is um as you guys well know the the trick of it is you you don’t know how it projects into real life day-to-day NHL especially on the and I’m not saying this and anything I’ve seen of his game because but I’m just saying the standard the standard questions are uh does he have the courage bodywise I think he’ll get there you know he he does have a college sophomore body, if you will. So, you’ve got to got to add muscle, got to add endurance, got to put in the work ethic, all the things that we’ll use exhibit A in in Berseron. Uh, you know, you just don’t know where that goes. You don’t know if it’s there. You don’t know if it’ll be teased out. You don’t know if it’ll be the right coach. It’s a very dicey market in terms of picking these kids and projecting them because some of these kids go to junior and the jun some of the junior the junior kids are kind of the same age that helps. Yeah, I’m talking about USHL. Uh but even in the college game you get, you know, let’s go with uh the kid at Harvard, Jimmy you know. Yeah. Right. nephew nephew to the former Jimmy VC on the Bruins in 1991. Son of Son of Jimmy. Son of Okay. Son of Again, excellent college career. Hobie Baker winner. Looked like was was going to take it by storm. Then you find out, well, you know what, bigger body, four years older, three years older than much of the competition he was against, and it hasn’t projected. So I I was excited about VC and his chances. So now I I and believe me, I’m not looking at every prospect through the VC prism, but it ju it just underscores there’s there’s it’s not that there’s no knowing you get Eric Lindros. Yeah, Eric Lindros is a plug-andplay, right? Conor McDavid is a plug-and-play. There’s there’s probably not not even probably there’s maybe three of those guys every draft. But so much of this comes down to uh in the endurance, application, commitment, all of those things. And I don’t know. I don’t know. I I I hope so. I mean, because that’s what they need. You can get that out of a whole lot of kids in rounds two, three, four, and five. Honest try adds adds their body size. And we’ve seen a lot of these kids come through, but that doesn’t do it either. Uh so you’ve got to have the gifts and then you’ve got to have the tenacity, the uh the uh smarts, all of it to apply it and carry it through. Ryan Spooner was an explosive forward in the development camp. He was making good defenseman just spin like a top and everybody including myself pretty excited to see what was going to become of him. Obviously, he became too much of a perimeter player in the NHL and it never really panned out for him as a pro and uh he wound up being a journeyman as a result uh on the fringes of the game, no pun intended. And um and I think of Sammy Pollson who I thought in was the second coming of Peter Forsber when I saw him at development camp. It took him a few years to, you know, to make the Bruins as a as a fourthline center. Anaheim picks him up. He winds up winning the Stanley Cup with them in a shutdown role and he wound up being a very good player in the NHL, but it took a while for him to get there and figure it out and develop into what he was going to be. It’s so hard to decide against the competition that they’re playing against that this guy’s going to be that. How do we really know? It’s I mean, when you It’s no wonder that the NHL gravitates toward people call it a good old boy club because GMs hire coaches that they worked with before and stuff like that. Fine. But when it comes to players in the bloodlines, I can totally understand why they go there because it gives him a window to try to project try to give him a little bit of an edge in projecting that somebody’s going to become. Why was Jimmy Vi so salivated over? Because his father played in the NHL. That gave people an extra sense of confidence that this guy is going to be better than his dad. and his dad was a decent fourth liner with a Bruins team that was a went to the conference final against a team that was terrific for three years. Yeah, I mean these are all good points for sure. And I totally agree that like you know ages 18 to 22 23 like that’s where they definitely have to show that commitment to fitness and nutrition and you know the courage aspect that Dupes is all the different things that have to come together for a player to not only be an NHL player but to be a standout NHL player or potentially an impact guy. But like the one thing I will go back to and I mentioned it with Hagens and when you talk to a lot of hockey people, the one thing that they say they feel like is a great indicator and probably maybe the best indicator of somebody that is going to be able to do special potentially do special things at the NHL level is somebody that is dominant and is really noticeable against players older than them when they’re like, you know, coming through the teenage years and developing. whether it’s the national development program, whether it’s the USHL, like whatever it is. And Hagens was one of those guys and has always been one of those guys. That’s why he was talked about as a number one overall pick um leading into that draft. And obviously, he went down a little bit based on the year he had at Boston College on a loaded team. But, you know, I still think that’s a very good indicator of a player that uh is going to be able to figure it out because he’s been able to do it against bigger, better, stronger competition throughout. And the NHL is a different thing. But I my confidence level is pretty high based on what he’s done, based on the programs where he’s been, and based on sort of the precedent of a lot of players that have done similar things to him at the national uh program uh before him. you know, there’s sort of a a pathway for some of those guys. And it’s fairly indicative, I think, of of what they’re going to be able to do at the NHL because there’s been a lot of players before them that have done the same thing um that when they’ve done it. So, you know, I feel like the confidence level has to be pretty high on Hagens based on all of that stuff in addition to the obvious talent uh that you see on the ice. Let me go through this list real quick uh of the rankings and and who they have here. Um, Hagens is number one. Uh, Fraser Minton is number two. Uh, Dons Dons Luck Schmemell is number three. Uh, William Moore number four. Dean Lo number five. Matt Potra number six. Uh, Andre Gassau seven. Fabian Lysel eight. And then um they mentioned just as sort of honorable mentions uh Frederick Brun, Elliott Grwald, Jonathan Mel, Christopher Pelosi, Liam Peterson, Carill Yamalenov, and William Zeers. Um Mick, any thoughts on any other names that uh you hear are on that list? Growall would be my my eight. There’s no way he would be off my list. I That kid is doing what you just said, Joe. He’s playing man hockey against guys that are got a couple years on him at critical ages and he’s handling it with a plum. And I see NHL there. He’s got a good two-way game. Um I think that I think that uh Growald is tracking in a way that makes me think that people are going to be talking about him the way they talked about Noah Hannifan. Um, I don’t think that it’s necessarily going to be uh grow to that level, but it’s uh but I see a kid who’s really looks to me. I remember meeting Mark Bavaro when he was at Notre Dame um up on the Northshore and uh he just seemed like a guy who even though he was really a large person, he seemed so well proportioned and comfortable in his body, he didn’t look freakish in any way. and that guy became a tremendous tight end with the New York Giants and winning the Super Bowl and you know so uh what’s the ceiling is so hard but I see grow I met Gromald and uh I grew up in Springfield Vermont and uh you know he’s it just talking about growing up in the in in the the cold winters and the and the hockey and the staying out and and uh it just it just just seemed kind kind of Johnny Boydchuckish to me and I just feel like this kid’s got it and and I feel like we’re going to keep hearing that name. That’s the one that stands out to me there. I think there’s other guys here that belong in that list that were in the honorable mentions that be I would have ahead of the guy names that I see in there. And where’s the love? No. Lo Johansson, where is he? You know, they didn’t even recognize him. And uh so there’s another guy, you know, I mean, and is is Frasier Minton a prospect? I he’s an NHL, right? I know he’s awfully young, but I think he’s in an NHL right now if they want him to be. Yeah, but I think it’s based on what they’ve done to this point. And I would still, I guess, put him in that category. I think it’s kind of the gray area who was considered and who wasn’t. I mean, just based on the the NHL experience that Potra’s had over the last couple of years, too. I don’t know if I’d put him in that category either, but um Dupes, any thoughts on any names you heard on that list? No, the name the what strikes out to me is where Lizelle and Patrus are. Yeah. Uh I think we you know, Lizelle, they took him because of his speed. We haven’t seen much more than that in terms of his development. Uh, and again, you roll back to what Mick said from the outset is is that, you know, 18 year olds, you know, it’s three to five years before you can start to really form an opinion. I think Lizala is about there. Merkel not even on that list, right? Or no. Okay. M. No, he’s not on there. Yeah. Um, Potus, you know, many of us, hand up, thought he he was going to be one of these kids who could step in and handle it. Hasn’t. That’s been a physical thing. Some of its hockey IQ in terms of the inability to sense when he’s going to get clobbered and he’s he’s he’s taken some he’s taken some big hits and, you know, some of that. Think about Hagens that way, too. What’s going to happen the first time he gets thunked? You know, how’s he gonna respond, right? Yeah, that’s the that’s the that’s that blend of courage and IQ and just basic street smarts out there. Um, so I I don’t know. I don’t know what to the the the one that I’d say if I’m going to be intrigued like u brother Collagio here with with Grunwald would be with the the the Latafian kid from UMass Lis. Yeah. Yeah. You know, because he’s he’s he’s been in the international mix. He’s been in the men’s mix. Yep. uh he shows a little something when he’s there. Uh and he was really really good in Providence for the handful of games he was there at the end of the year too, which you know, if I if I if I was going to throw a nickel on on one of them popping, he’d be my candidate at the moment. You know, now I will be at the prospects camp or the prospects uh challenge in Buffalo. Yes. Early early in September. I’ve I’ve probably done 10 of those in a row now. And and you know, no one you call it the the KPD memorial prospects challenge at this point. No one more guilty than me than going to that thing and and being just jacked about two or three kids. By the time I’ve driven home from Buffalo, their careers are over. So, uh yeah, I’ll give you one. Carson Kman. I watched Carson Kman in that thing. I said, “Geez, they, you know, the C captain at UMD, uh, nice kid, honest player, eager to get to it.” So, at his at his best, he was like a right-handed Marshian, you know, he just uh he really had a lot of that body type, strong skater, compact uh winger, worked the boards well, but you know, with quickness and with sturdiness, but he never had the breakthrough offense. And so, he was forever re relegated to the the the dregs of NHL society. It it’s fascinating to me um how after you start covering the NHL for a long period of time, you just notice the same trajectories in training camp when it comes to like some of those young players, when it comes to the veterans that are sort of conserving and and and working to get themselves back up to like the NHL speed to start the regular season. like it it it plays out like that so many times where a lot of those young guys come in hot right off the you know their summer workouts and everything else and look really good and as time and the grind wears on and as the NHL lineups uh start returning to the training the preseason uh you know how things change and how all of a sudden certain players look really good and certain players don’t look like they did uh in the beginning stages and it makes you realize you know sort of what’s really going on there. Um let’s take a break real quick. 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You don’t even need to win to receive the $50 bonus. It’s guaranteed. Prize picks run your game. Uh, and for those of you that are listening to this episode of the Pucks with Hacks podcast, we ask that you subscribe to the podcast, like and leave a review. And for those watching the show on CLS 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. Uh there’s also the CLNS Media Network and Celtics All Access on CLNS, the NBA History Channel, Patriots Press Pass, and Bruins Ringside YouTube channels as well. Also, please make sure to turn on your notifications so you know the instant the very instant a new Pucks with Hags podcast video drops on the interwebs. All right. Uh I’ve got some uh questions here from some of the listeners, and these are good ones. Um are they listening live? Uh I I I don’t think No, they’re not listening live. I wish they were. Um but these are these are not about like what we’re talking about. These are like questions during the week that I get sent in. Um I also take a couple of questions from the Q&A that I do at Boston Sports Journal. So we get some good questions there as well. Y um this one is from Mhall 3333 on Twitter. Does Zaka serve the team better at wing or center next season? Is it possible Mintton and Potra both start the year simmering in Providence? And we see Lindholm centering line one, Zakal centering line two, and Middlestat centering line three. Thanks, guys. Uh Mick, you want to take that one first? I think the Bruins really want to see Potra make the team in which case they’ll have a decision. Does Mintton play Potra’s left wing and become the defensive conscience of his line? most likely with Tanner as you know because Don Sweeney did allude did you know being here on long-term to protect the emerging prospect pool. So that’s one thing I envision as a third line. I think that’s the one the Bruins want to see. I do think it’s possible that the Bruins at the long table will have a debate as to whether or not Minton is better served by being in Providence where he can develop his offensive game. something that isn’t really there. Even though his defensive side of the puck right now is NHL quality, he plays like a 30-year-old and he for checks like Berseron. Uh, and he’s he’s just got so much there that they got to make a decision about what they’re doing with those two guys. Potra, does he merit it? Minton, where do they want him? And then I think that yeah, the Zaka question is always there and and it’s fair question because two years in a row now Zaka has started the season as a centerman playing uh on the in the top six and by the end of both seasons he had been demoted to the third line to try to get confidence back and or sent back to left wing in the top six. So Zaka last year along with Hampus Lynholm before his terrible injury were the Bruins two best players by far as and when the season began and uh second third efforts on pucks. Zaka always seems to hit the wall at the twothirds pole of the season and they have to sort of reinvent him, back him off a little bit and that’s two years in a row that’s happened. I’m not sure what they’re thinking about him now, whether he has a fit anymore. It really depends, I think, on what they think the second line needs and if he’s integral to that. I think he is because right now you’re saying Middlestat. You know, we need effort. We need intensity. Uh it hasn’t been there for him. Uh Arson is there to bring that in on a mercenary basis. That guy’s a little prick and and the Bruins love him even though he’s on the back nine of his career. Uh so that’s def, you know, so they they love that. They’ll put him on the power play, too. And um so but but is Marco Stern going to leave the front line alone? I don’t know. And if that could affect everything. So there’s a lot of moving parts here depending on what the new coach thinks. If we didn’t have a new coach, there’d be a lot less questions in my head about how this is going to shake out. Yeah, it’s it’s going to be an interesting camp in preseason just because there are a lot of moving parts, a lot of new faces in because a new coach really brings all of everything into question as to what exactly uh they’re going to do. dupes, your thoughts on this. And I’ll also let you know that uh this person on Twitter calls themselves uh the seven-year Kurst Stitch. So that that’s also a How about that guy? He’s always tweeting at me. Yes. Uh I I I’ll be relatively short because I know you want to get to some other answer some other questions here, Hags. But um I I you know, as always, I agree with much if not virtually all of what Mick is saying here. Uh here here’s my here’s my I I I guess my overlaying point is I think Sturm’s trick to success early is going to be putting people in the positions where they feel great about their games because he doesn’t we we’ve got a we’ve got very few true top six players and a whole lot of guys who are in that you know uh middle six to to nine down to nine. So, uh, it’s it’s wherever Zaka feels good about his game. Nick’s Nick Nick’s point about identifying twothirds of the season is is is right on. Uh, so I I don’t and I don’t know that answer. I think I think Pasta Knock always feels good about his game. Clearly, Lindholm in the middle, he didn’t last year. It took Geeky to feel the best about his game in his career, right? So, we got to hope for his sake, their sake, that he that that’s where he is again. But there’s there’s so much in this lineup where Sturm’s going to have to figure out at exactly what position and at what line and what responsibility. And that said, I like Zakamore in the middle just because, you know, that’s a that’s a high-skilled position. Not a lot of guys can play it in the top six. He has shown that he can. I’d like I’d like him personally I’d like him to be there, but if in the end he doesn’t feel good about it about his overall game, then that isn’t the answer. Yep. I I think one thing that that will be interesting to watch as far as Zaka goes is I it was noticeable that Don Sweeney talked about um the penalty kill and introducing Mikey Isamont and Tanner Jano and some of the new guys as key penalty kill guys and bringing that as part of their game. And maybe the thinking is in part that too much riding a guy like Zaka too much on the penalty kill is part of what might be wearing him down. Um you know in game and also over the course of a long season and maybe you you know hand some of that off to some of the other guys that u that could do the job and not wear down some of the guys that you know are going to have to play top six roles and be counted on for offense and you know have put their energy in different places rather than constantly killing penalties all the time. And you know, maybe that’s, you know, maybe that’s some of their thinking as far as conserving him, making sure that doesn’t happen again, what’s happened the last couple of years with him. It’ll be interesting to watch how all of that plays out. And, you know, part of it is also because, you know, they traded away Brad Marshian and Charlie Coyle, and those are two huge penalty kill guys. Uh, that leave a gigantic void in that category as well. So, all that stuff is going to be really interesting to watch and see how it plays out. Um, I I’ll add one little thing here if I could. Methodology of the PK. What’s the methodology of the PK? As as our colleague Mick would say, go-kart hockey, right? Get it in the defensive zone and get rid of it. Yep. Well, you know, how about get it in the defensive zone and hold on to it. Look to make a play. Get player change your philosophy on how to kill it. Now, again, this goes against the the mentality of 32 teams in the league. You know, maybe they’ve got that. Maybe they’ve got guys who actually can think about taking possession short-handed and playing with the puck, right? Move it out. Get guy get try a conditioning or uh implement a different style of play on the PK. Maybe that leads to something, right? Uh, and this is kind of handinhand with an argument about how do you play on the power play, too. Uh, you know, what they what they haven’t shown on the power play is the ability to get it up to a point man and drive pucks to the net, get it on. Uh, that’s got to change, too. So, some of this, I think, and again, maybe Stern will fall right into boilerplate go-kart hockey to quote. Uh but I I’d like to see a little more patience on the PK. Yeah. And and it’ll be it it’s going to be an adjustment for the penalty kill as well because the one guy that did look to create offense on the penalty kill in Brad Marshand is now gone. You know, he’s the franchise all-time leader in short-handed goals. He was definitely somebody that had that mindset about doing damage uh at the other end of the ice and trying to make something out of nothing on the penalty kill. Uh, so they’re going to need people to replace that to potentially make the the PK dangerous at points. Um, because I think that’s part of an effective penalty kill too is is the other team feeling and knowing right that that danger is there on the counter danger factor. And again, it’s counterintuitive. Okay, but the idea here is I want to kill seconds off the clock, right? I’ve got 120 seconds I have to kill. I get it. I fire it down, which essentially is handing it back to the team. Yep. you know, if you hold on to it, if if even if you get clogged up in the middle, you get clogged up in the it’s it’s more time that the the offenses on the ice, so that’s wearing on them and it’s burning down the clock. It’s it’s again it’s one of those things within the game I I I find hard to understand. Well, it’s I mean, it’s hilarious to me being a part of youth hockey now. um watching traditional hockey coaches, traditional hockey people lose their goddamn minds because of what the rules are now at the youth level on the penalty kill where uh you are not allowed uh to ice the puck. If you ice the puck, they call icing and they bring the puck right back down. Um because of that reason, I think they USA hockey wanted to get youth players and younger players and all the way up to high school. I think it’s changed into like U15 now. uh and it’s going to they’re going to start allowing them to ice the puck on the PK at U15, but at the lower levels now you cannot ice the puck and you are forced to hang on to it, play with it, make something happen, you know, kill time by with puck possession, whatever. Um, and it’s great. I I totally understand the reason that they do it. I understand the thinking behind it. It’s it’s sort of training the players to think a different way on the penalty kill and think more what you’re talking about. But like there is also uh you know Vinnie from Ravier dupes that’s coaching his team and he absolutely loses his mind when you’re not allowed to just mindlessly throw the puck down the other end of the ice. Right. Hammer on the penalty kill. Hammer. They want people They want kids to to develop skills. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And that’s what it’s about. um in all situations and and in some of these in many of these cases the guys who are killing are the most skilled guys on the bench in terms of what they what they can do with a p you know again Marsh exhibit A you know it it just it’s so it’s so and again the game is get it get rid of it change the bench fresh legs fresh legs fresh legs but uh to me it’s it’s countless countless missed opportunities ities. No question. Um, all right. This is from Sprov 1. Uh, this was one of the, uh, Boston Sports General Q&A questions. Uh, time for any of the bees prospects to switch it up and try and become a West Walls Sammy Pollson type, Lysel or who’s Nadino and use that speed potentially? Um, dupes, any thoughts on that? U transforming any of these uh, prospects into a different kind of player that you could use in a different role? I think they have to figure that out for themselves or the coaching staff has to figure it out for themselves. It could very well be. Uh I had this conversation touched a little bit when I had a a conversation with Johnny Beecher at that at that uh benefit thing, the volunteer thing over at the garden. And he he was saying, “Listen, I’m I’m I’m loving my life here. I’m in the NHL. Uh I’m on a fourth line.” Not that he was necessarily satisfied with that, but he did say, you know, you can be a valuable player on the fourth line. And he’s right, especially in a 32 team league. You can find your niche. I’m s I’m surprised more guys don’t do this. And they can stay in the league for 12 14 years. Uh, you know, make a million million.5 a year and and get get upward of a thousand games. Just be the best you can be. Even if the best you can be is a third or fourth line support guy, you don’t make the money, you don’t get the headlines. And this is not what Johnny Beecher was saying. But when when you listen to it, that’s what it translates to. Uh that that you know, you may have big league skills, big league body, but for whatever reason, it doesn’t translate into top six. There’s there’s a lot of valuable uh careers to be made, time to be spent if you if you dial it in right, and there’s places you go with that. You be you’d be a forche guy, you’d be a faceoff guy, all of that. Again, it underscores how difficult it is to be all of that. It’s tremendously difficult. And I think it’s very difficult, too, for players to sort of retrain themselves on how they think the game and how they approach the game when they’ve played it a certain way their whole life. and then they’re asked to do something when they get This is why I like players when they’re younger playing in all kinds of different roles and doing all kinds of different things because you’re going to hit a level where you’re going to be asked to do things that you know you have never done before, you’re not accustomed to. And if you’re not like you don’t have any experience doing it or have never done it before, it becomes really difficult when you get older to all of a sudden, you know, transform your thinking, your muscle memory, like all the stuff that you’re doing there. Not not to mention being willing to jump in front of a 100 mph slapshot, you know, and and the kind of courage that that takes uh not knowing what’s going to happen to you. Um uh Mick, your thoughts on any prospects becoming the next West Walls Sammy Pollson? And I was I I when you said Sammy Pollson earlier, I knew we were getting to this. I was like, “Wow, Sammy Pollson’s gonna get a lot of love on this podcast today.” Yeah. Um I I don’t know. I guess my brain is going to MC right now. I’m thinking of Merkel. Yeah, Gorgi Merkel is a very intelligent, dedicated professional. They love him. The only issue with him is physical. He gets to the NHL and the game’s a little too fast and a little too big and a little too strong and he doesn’t have the speed point A to point B to mitigate what he lacks in Brawn. And it may be that if he can find one or two more miles an hour that he could be the guy who turns into a defensive widget, you know, because it won’t he’s one of those guys who try like hell the puck’s not going to he’s not going to be able to make plays at the speed or with strength that he needs. He tries he gets everything out of himself. He’s a terrific pro. People love him. Mark D calls him an NHL player. And I think and I know what Mark means. He is. He’s done his work. He’s he’s he’s he’s good a pro as you’re gonna find and and uh and it’s just u it’s just a hard bridge for him to do it in the NHL and be impactful in an offensive role. Maybe he’s a guy who can do it in a defensive role. U the other guys mentioned uh who’s Nadino off? Uh no idea. I mean is he’s still pretty young but he’s an exciting he’s got speed natural speed. And the question for him is, is he gonna be like that guy who played for Detroit who was very flashy, but then he wound up playing for three other teams, and I don’t know if he’s in the NH NHL anymore. I wish I could find the name in my head. Flamboyant name, flamboyant player, or is he Nadino going to be a guy who finds a groove here and that that talent translates into something special? I’m not sure. Um, Lysel, uh, he’s the elephant in the kitchen because we don’t like talking about him because there’s nothing good to say. Um, if he could just do the normal things that make him make a a player like Merkel become what he has in the AHL, then Lysel has the talent to be in the NHL. But the only time he’s been here other than that one mid-season game uh at Christmas is that stretch with the Bruins tanks and and Potra goes down. Minting goes down and they make them part of a team that’s playing for something that’s in a good place and is looking forward to a playoff run and Lysel’s not part of that. They put him on the NHL team for the tanking and I’m thinking, “Wow, that landed with a thud to me and it tells me what they think of him.” Yeah. And and not only that, but like you get that 15 game taste at the NHL level for Lysel and then he’s back with the Providence for the playoffs and he’s a healthy scratch during those playoffs and he ends with like two assists I think in seven or eight playoff games. Um that’s not not good at all. like that just is not just a very poor reflection on uh his own um performance on kind of what they think of him. Um you know for a player like that of that magnitude to get scratched in playoff games in the AHL it’s just not good. Um, you know, just Martin Samuelson very similar to me when they one of the guys that got in the Ray Borg trade very very ski you know lots of individual skill great speed and um and just never ever made he had the ingredients on a table he never made pizza. All right, last question here guys. Um this is from R&DC2. Not sure I can remember a year with such low expectations around here. Scoring has been a problem and now they have less. Dmen should be improved just by being healthy. That won’t matter if Swayman plays like last year. What can I be excited about? Thanks. And enjoy the last of summer. Mick, let’s start with you. What What can Bruins fans be excited about in your estimation? Wayan won’t be like last year. Swayman’s going to have a training camp and he’s going to be back to where he was the year before. He’s already given us an indicator through how he developed throughout the season and and it was in a very negative atmosphere, but he did shut out put a shut out to win the world championship in overtime uh with USA in the first time in forever. So, that was huge to me. I think Swayman’s got the mojo back. I think he’s going to be good. I think he’s going to get pushed. Uh and I think that’s going to be good. I think the goalender is going to be great. I I’ll always be worried about the next injury for Charlie Makavoy. I don’t consider him porcelain, but I do consider him a targeted player who has gotten his shoulders pretty beat up. Hopefully, and and maybe that’ll influence, you know, the repairing instead of assuming Lynholm with Makavoy and and Zidorov with Yokiharu. Maybe it gets flip-flopped so that Makavoy gets more protection on the retrievalss. I’m not sure, but uh he he’s been taking a beating and they need to change that. If one if he goes out of the lineup then that that throws everything off. But I with presuming health and that’s shaky then I feel like that back end is great. Great. And then I feel like yeah they got some snarl. They got they they got some uh PNV out there. I think Corali we haven’t talked about him. I think he’s gonna be a great to bring back. I predict he’s gonna wind up with the with the other A and um and uh and I think that they got some uh you know top guys. Geeki’s been in there. He’s working out. He’s very dedicated. Um I think they’re going to be okay. I just don’t think that the middle of the lineups just give us that jumble of question. So what do we got to be excited about? You’re going to see Castle not have to be the guy that fights all the time. There’s gonna be other guys doing it. And uh and I think that you’re going to have a defensive tough out. They’re gonna be, you know, gonna see this Bruins bend bend and then break at the end of every period at the end of every game. That that that’s gone. This is going to be a much uh more solid start. Bruins going to be a pain to play for other teams to play against. Uh yeah, I think I mean I my in a nutshell, uh Mick, I would say the Bruins I feel like are going to be playing meaningful meaningful games in March and April with a shot to potentially be a wild card. That’s what I foresee this team being. Are they going to make the playoffs? Uh probably not. Maybe. Would they benefit from the playoffs? Maybe, maybe not. like uh you know I I think this is going to be a gradual two to threeyear thing but I also think they’re going to be in the mix late in the year which is a lot more than you felt than Bruins fans felt uh last year and I think that’s something to be enthused about as they add some of these young players dupes. Um what do you think uh Bruins fans have to be excited about going into this year? I would say clip this vid and put it on the fridge. They they get a wild card spot. No question. All right. I that that’s where I am. Both of you both of you neglected to mention that they have one of the premier goal scorers in the world. Yep. Uh and David Pastnak doesn’t make the team, but again, if you look at individual talents here, they’ve got a handful of players that every team in the league would love to have. Yep. Okay. So, Pastnack being right there. Makavoy, mixed points, all valid. You know, Makavoyy’s got his shortcomings, history, the rest of it. Lindholm is a better player than I think a lot of people think. I’ve got fingers crossed there for that knee because we’ve seen those go very bad places. So, defense, the forwards, the goalending, I think Swayman is a franchise goalie. So, if you look at those four or five parts, there’s a whole lot of teams that aren’t going to make the playoffs that don’t have those four or five parts. So, I do think they’re in there. I think it’s going to be a more interesting winter than it has been and a lot of people anticipate just because they’ve got a they’ve got Sturm who’s a a rookie coach in the league in terms of wanting to prove himself. He is a bright guy. Uh I think there’s there’s there’s like an IQ in this lineup and an ability in this lineup that we’re going to find intriguing. I I I don’t think we’re going to go, you know, oh for December on the power play. watch them go oh for December on the power play O for January. You know they’ll figure something out there. Uh and he doesn’t come in Sturm doesn’t come in with the presupposition that Charlie is the point man. Uh I think they’ll experiment there. I think they’ll experiment method. So there’s a there’s a lot to play with here and in some ways the low expectations gives them the ability to play with it. Right. So, uh, no, I I, you know, obviously I don’t I don’t see them as a cup contender, but I do see them in in the top eight. I do. I think I think if you look at their overall talent against 32 teams, they’re somewhere it in in a league landscape, they’re somewhere in the 14 to 21 mix, I think, on on overall talent. Now, they play in the conference. They got they got to qualify within the conference. I I think they’ve got enough talent to do that. Yeah. and and they have the talent in the right areas to your point. Like if you’re gonna have a talented defense and a really good goalie, you’re going to be competitive and you’re going to be in the mix. I I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. Um you know, the scoring you that the scoring is the one thing like if you have that top drawer score in postck and you’re trying to piece it together with the rest of your players that you can get by and be a playoff team with that kind of a situation. There are plenty of teams that get into the playoffs in that same sort of category, but you have to have the defense and the goalending and I think they’re going to have that as long as they stay healthy. Um, so that’s, you know, it’s it’s an underpromise and overd deliver type situation for the Bruins going into this year, which is ideal, which is a really good place to be for them because they’re going to surprise people and I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised uh by this team, especially when they’ve clipped Dupes’s playoff guarantee on the the refrigerator. They’re going to be really excited about that. Um, where is it? Right there. It’s going right there. Doops, Mick, thank you very much for joining us. Uh, thanks for listening to the Pucks with Hacks podcast, a proud member of the CNS Media Network. Make sure to hit subscribe 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 Picks, 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 and prize picks 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. Dupes Mick, thank you very much for joining us. There it is. Dupes is over by the fridge. He’s got the spot all ready to go. Stick itself right there. Everybody else out there, thank you for listening and get your spot ready on the fridge. We’ll see you at the ring. [Music]

Pucks with Haggs host Joe Haggerty and guests the Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont and Mick Colageo discuss the B’s coming in ranked No. 20 in the most recent NHL Pipeline rankings done by the The Athletic, and whether that means good things are coming for the next crop of B’s prospects.

0:00 ⏰EPISODE TIMELINE⏰
2:44 The Athletic ranks Bruins No. 20 in NHL Pipeline Ranking
9:24 Why Bruins fans are so excited about James Hagens
23:01 Bruins prospect rankings
30:03 PrizePicks
30:54 Subscribe to Bruins Rinkside!
31:33 Is Zacha better off playing wing or center?
38:21 What will be Bruins’ penalty kill strategy?
42:40 Should any of the Bruins prospects adjust their games?
49:17 What can Bruins fans be excited about heading into the season?
55:54 Thanks for watching!

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