Boston Bruins Training Camp PREVIEW with Cam Stuart of Locked On NHL Game Night!

Boston Bruins Training Camp PREVIEW with Cam Stuart of Locked On NHL Game Night!

Boston Bruins training camp is just around the corner and there’s a whole bunch of unanswered questions about this team heading into a new season. So to have a bit of a training camp preview, I’m going to be joined today by fellow Bruins superfan and host of Locked on Baylor, Cam Stewart. Your Locked On Bruins, your daily podcast on the Boston Bruins, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What is up, Bruins fans, and welcome back to the Locked On Boston Bruins podcast. I’m your host, Ian McLaren, and this is a daily show where we discuss all things spoke to Beat. Today is Friday, September 12th, and as I said off the top, I’m going to be joined today by Cam Stewart of Locked on Baylor, who also happens to be a huge Boston Bruins fan, and we’re going to have a bit of a training camp preview here. The Bruins prospects will be taking part in a couple games this weekend in Buffalo. Big camp opens up next week. There’s a lot we don’t know about this team. Who’s going to score? Who’s going to be the captain? if they’re gonna have one at all this season. How’s Marco Sturm gonna fair as head coach? Can Jeremy Swayman rebound? All kinds of stuff. We’re gonna discuss this coming up today with Cam Stewart. Very excited to get to that conversation. Before we do, a quick reminder. You can find the podcast on social media. Locked NHL Bruins. That’s on Blue Sky XT Threads, Instagram, Tik Tok. You can find me, my hockey thoughts and dad jokes at Ian C McLaren. I am a lifelong Boston Bruins fan. Been covering this team and the NHL for various outlets for about 20 years now. Very intrigued about a new Boston Bruins season. Again, training camp begins next week. Their first preseason game is only nine days away. Uh hard to believe the summer is over. We’re getting back into legitimate hockey talk. And what do the Bruins have in store for us this year? Well, let’s get to my chat here with Cam Stewart of Locked on Baylor and fellow diehard Boston Bruins fan and uh yeah, see what this team might have in store for us this season. All right. I am pleased to be joined today by a fellow diehard Bruins fan and a fellow Locked On. Uh Cam Stewart, host of Locked On Baylor, is joining me today to discuss, I don’t know, some of the things we’ve all been, I think, thinking about over the summer and as we get ready for training camp. Uh Cam, thanks so much for for jumping on and uh how are you doing this morning? Hey, thanks for having me. It’s a day. It’s another day closer to the beginning of the season, so I’m feeling great about it. The weather here is gorgeous, but I’m starting to feel a little bit of that hockey chill, Ian. It’s coming for sure. Uh I always like when I have someone on the show to kind of discuss uh their hockey origin stories. So, you’re host of Locked on Baylor, but obviously uh a history with uh Boston sports, with the Bruins specifically. How did you get into hockey, and how did you become such a big Bruins fan? Yeah. So, I’m I’m from Massachusetts. I’m from the Southshore, about 15 miles south of Boston. So, uh always a big Boston sports fan in general. Um but what’s interesting, Ian, is and I’ll risk my career in hockey media by by saying this. I don’t even know how to skate. I I couldn’t put on I couldn’t get down up and down the ice right now. Um so, I didn’t play outside of the street. Played a lot of That makes it sound harder than it is. Uh I played a lot of street hockey uh growing up and all my best friends played hockey and so like in it was one of those weird things where I was probably a little bit too old to get into organized hockey but definitely young enough to still uh become a diehard fan and and my brothers are fans, my dad’s always been a fan. So um it’s one of those like the other Boston sports teams. It gets kind of passed down to you and like it worked out kind of perfectly time-wise. Uh my formative years were kind of the beginning of the the Bruins Renaissance um with Charara and Marco Sturm. Oh yeah, I guess Berseron and Cree and those guys too. Um and so like smack in the middle, eighth grade, 13 years old, they win the cup. So I’m already way into it at that point at I think that’s maybe the most formative age you can have for a sports team. Um so that’s I was hookline and sinker from then. Uh I mean really before then, but haven’t stopped since, man. So yeah, I died in the wool. Seen a lot of good a lot of good times, but a lot of, you know, coming up short. I mean, no shame on the skating. I’m Canadian. I can I can skate, but I’ve never really learned how to stop. And I uh Yeah, it was all street hockey for me. The college I went to, we had like a crazy competitive ball hockey league. Uh so yeah. Okay. It’s not the be all and end all. It’s I mean it’s it’s ridiculous to even try to these days anyways. Well, so you’ll appreciate this. So I just moved into a new it’s an apartment but it’s part of a house and so we have a little basement space and we have we’ve lived in really small apartments for like the last three stops. So we don’t have much to store down there and so I just bought a street hockey net to put down there and just fire pucks and balls at it just when I need to like it’s a little great way to break up the day. So yeah, you know that’s I’ve just t tailored my shot. can’t skate, but they were the rooster for sure. Very nice. Yeah, we did that up too. A lot of minist hockey in the basement. Oh man. Side note, we had a we played mini stick at school. I remember in grade five a kid got his arm broken and played minists cuz someone just came down and hacked him. Uh anyways, you gota you gota if you can’t handle the heat, man. Exactly. I know. Get off the playground. You got to know. So, the Bruins uh a big, you know, storyline. I guess we’ll just start kind of big picture. I’ve been kind of framing it as like are they going to be set up for a repeat of last year or are they going to kind of redeem themselves and look more like the Bruins that we’ve been accustomed to watching over the past uh 20 years or so? I I’m kind of leaning towards the redemption side of things. I don’t think they’re a Stanley Cup contender by any stretch of the imagination. I’m more kind of like you bring Makavoy Hemp Lin home back right there you’re already better and that should make Swayman better etc. Wildcard probably bubble team although there’s five pretty good teams in the in the Atlantic that you’d have to jump over uh what’s your sense of this team? Do you think they’re going to bottom out again or do you think they will be a bit more competitive at least than they were last season? I think they’ll be more competitive. Yeah, I do. I don’t think they’re gonna make the postseason. Um I I definitely see the vision towards it. Um it’s just one of those things where I look through it, Ian, and I’m like just for me too many things need to go right, right? Like Makavoy and Lindholm back instantly makes you better, but you still lost so much offensively even just from 36-year-old Brad Marian going out the door. Like there’s still I’m looking at you know posturdoc geeky I think can still be around a 20 to 25 goal guy even with that shooting percentage going down like where’s your next 20 goal guy is is what I’m wondering you know could be Pavlzaka absolutely I mean really could be Casey Middlestapp probably won’t be you know what I mean so Elias Lindholm could be that but you’re trying to figure out you know what is he I think he’s going to be a better player than last year you know battling the injury and everything but he’s much closer to the 40point guy than he is to the 80 point guy that probably got him that that AAV. Um, so when I look at it and I’m thinking all that needs to go right, you know, you need to have a major bounceback year from your goalie. I think you’ll have a better year from your goalie, but we need a major bounceback year if you’re going to win games with with defense and goalending. Uh, you’re going to need a bounce back from your number one center in Elias Lindholm. You’re going to need a bounce back a little bit from Pavle Zaku whose numbers dipped just a little bit last year for a team that wasn’t very good if we’re being honest. Um you’re going to need a big development from from Mason Lorai. I think I think you know if he’s able to be a top pairing defenseman with Charlie Makavoy that opens up a lot of things if you’re having Lindholm in your second pairing but yeah that’s probably not the best fit to start the year. So, I just think there’s a lot of thing, you know, you need David Posternok to stay healthy, which he usually does, and he needs to score 40 goals, which he usually does. Um, but there’s a lot of things that need to go right for for the Bruins to be in the hunt. And on top of that, they’ll need to stay healthy, which they weren’t able to do last year. Um, and like you mentioned, this is the best division in hockey. Like, you know what I mean? Um, Montreal scraped by last year. I don’t think they’ll be scraping by. I think that’s a that’s a defined playoff team. I think, you know, Ottawa is not getting any worse. You know, they they were kind of, you know, I don’t want to say scratching and clawing. Kachchuck was out for a good bit of that playoff push. Um, but, you know, Toronto’s worse, but not nonplayoff worse. So, you know, you’re and Detroit is a little bit better and they were close to the playoffs again last year. So, you know, it’s it’s not an easy division to to compete in. You’re probably looking at that 91 points. Uh that’s what Montreal got in with last year. Um and they also made the jump from 76 points the year before, which is where the Bruins are at right now. So um it it’s gonna it’s going to take a bit of a jump and I just don’t know if all of those things are going to go right, but certainly I I do think they’re going to be a better looking team. Like they’re not Last year was more or less a bottoming out. I mean you were a goal difference away from being the last place team in the Eastern Conference. So um it probably shouldn’t be that bad, right? It should not be that bad. And obviously after the deadline, you knew like that this is not going to be a good team. And it and it really did after a little deadcat bounce after a couple of games after the deadline. It was it was it was pretty bad. But um certainly I think the the best part of this and maybe this will lead into something else is it’s as good a prospect pool as you had in a long time. Yeah, it’s not great, but it is there’s definitely much more hope there. Um, so I think they’ll be better is what I’m going to say. I just don’t think they’re a playoff team yet. Yeah, I mean I would probably agree with that. I do want to touch on kind of what another bigger story, which is the Yeah, younger guys coming up, whether they’re going to go at these vets that they signed on July 1, kind of that whole philosophy. 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That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code locked on NHL. You know, Cam, I think uh Don Sweeney might want to look into Monarch Money, too, for balancing the cap because he’s made some pretty questionable signing decisions over the past couple of summers. I’m not as hard on Sweeney as some people. His trade record, I think, is pretty good. We’ll discuss that with some of these guys fighting for spots. Signing record, not great at all. You can probably put the drafting a bit in the middle, but when it comes to the Bruins for this season, the bottom six is pretty wide open and you have guys like Tanner Jano, Sean Carali, Michael Essimont, who were signed on July 1st with uh players like and a guy that I’m super high on coming into training camp, Fraser Minton, who I mean, you look at that trade with the Maple Leafs last year to get a first and Fraser Minton for Brandon Carlo is like any other G pulls that off, they’re getting like standing ovations. That was a great trade. Uh h how do you see that bottom six shaking out? Do you think they’re actually going to give kids an opportunity or do you think they’ll be like, well, these guys are waiver exempt, so we can start the season with them in Providence, see what happens. How do you see that shaking out here as as training camp starts? Well, first off, it’s jarring uh that you that you say, you know, Don Sweeny’s drafting is somewhere in the middle between the trades and the free agent signings. And I’m like, his drafting sucks. But he’s right. He’s right. It’s better. It’s better than the free agent signings. You know, just by having Makavoy and Swayman on the draft uh resume, it’s it’s better than his free agent signings. That’s for sure. Um, but looking at this, this is where I I really am am so kind of out in the wilderness with with the Bruins and Don Sweeney right now is this is such a crucial year for development as we talk about. They finally have some prospects like guys who are ready to play in the NHL or at least learn it in the NHL right now. And you saw a little bit of run for these guys at the end of the season last year after the trade deadline. Guys like Potra and Mitten and Lysel. Um, you need you need more like you need to see them for longer. Like we’ve seen it with Loai who who comes in there in a pretty favorable position in 23 24. Like that’s a good decor. It’s a good goalie. Um, and he’s still figuring it out. And I I really like Mason Lorai. Looking at these other guys, I think what is so crucial um and something that the Bruins have just not done for a long time, mainly because they were good, is these guys need run with real NHL guys. Like we still guys who can put the puck in the net. You know, I I look at Marco Sturm and obviously one of the big uh one of the big positives for him is how he developed young talent and and you look at this Kings team now and and his fingerprints are over that. Guys like Quinton Bfield and Brandt Clark and and Adrien Kempe, he was an assistant when they came up in the NHL. He was the head coach in Ontario when they would bounce back to the AHL. They all had good numbers under him. Um and I looked specifically at Biffield. When Biffield came up, he was instantly on a line with Dustin Brown, right? Which Dustin Brown was kind of at the end of his run there. He was the most gifted offensive player in the world at that point. And in his second season, there were times where he was playing on an even strength line. Quinton Biffield was on the wing. Um, Kempe was on the other wing and Copitar was in the middle. And I’m like that like that was a team in the Kings that is bringing on their prospects as they’re bringing along a team much like the Bruins are doing right now. you know, you’re not calling prospects into a strong team and for all intents and purposes, you’re not really trying to tank. So, you’re you’re bringing these guys along as you’re bringing on a decent enough team. And like that must have done wonders for guys like Biffield and and Kempe to play with a Hall of Famer in the middle and an Kopitar. And I think like, you know, if Matthew Potra has a good preseason here, good camp like we expect him to to have and he’s starting the year on the big club, like is it that much different to have him on the first line for a couple of weeks and Elias Lindholm anchoring what becomes hopefully a better second line. You know, if he impresses at camp, Matthew Potra, like I don’t I don’t see why not. You know what I mean? And I look at Fraser Mitten who, you know, is obviously known I I don’t want to put a ceiling on the kid. Uh he’s known for a defensive prowess and so you’d love to have that guy on the third line, but then it’s like then who’s he playing with? Right. Right. You know, then he’s playing with the 15 point Tanner Jano and a guy who I’m somewhat excited about him with Tay Blume, but who, you know, has played leading scorer in the AHL, not in the NHL, you know what I mean? Um or or do you put him up there with with Casey Middlest or instead of Casey Middlestat on the second line because he’s just out there getting cardio, you know, he’s not doing much for you. Uh so it all comes down to really who they’re playing with. Like I expect these guys to get a good bit of run and that’s why I was so bummed with how they handled free agency. I don’t think any one of us were expecting big moves. You know, maybe they would still spend up to the cap, pull off a Brock Besser kind of thing. It didn’t. uh that that was kind of a fantasy land, but to go out and get the Tanner Jano for five years, it’s like who are you who are you bidding against there? And you know, we all like Carali and we like, you know, Johnny Beecher. They’re nice guys, but they don’t do much offensively. And so, why are you when you have finally have some prospects who are ready to play in the NHL again, the Mittens, the Potras, the the Lysels of the world, why are you bringing up Johnny Beecher to play on the wing on the fourth line? like why why is why was the Arvidson trade there? I don’t think Arvin is that bad a player, but it it’s like where’s the direction with that? Um so you should have enough kids trying to prove something this year and we haven’t even talked about like you know maybe Don Loach Melis is up here at some point. You know, maybe James Hagens is up there at the end of the season after after the college hockey season. Um but they need to get run with with real NHL players, I think, is the thing. And I know you know this. I mean, we’ve seen this for years and it it probably didn’t help Frank Fanrano’s run in Boston. Um, Ryan, it didn’t really help. Yeah, Ryan, that’s a great one. Uh, who is a guy who was clearly just a bit of a late bloomer and now he’s a 30 goal scorer. Um, it probably didn’t help Jordan Karan either. Uh, but you know, he needed some more help. Zack Hamill. Uh, yeah, probably not. Yeah, I think it’s ruined Zack Hamill’s career. Yeah, I think that’s the thing, too. I was going to mention Arbitson and we were talking about putting young guys with Yeah. more established vets. Like if you’re going to play Fabian Lysel on the big roster, he’s like at worst he should be on the third line, but at best you put him on that second line rightwing spot with a Pavl Zaka and a Casey Middlestat maybe to see what he can do with those guys instead of Yeah, just I mean Arbitson, he could be that 20 goal scorer that you were talking about earlier. He could also be injured most of the season and then you’re having to plug that hole anyway. So, it’s like, do you want Lysel skating with Minton and Hudinov on the third line? Probably not because they’re going to be overexposed maybe. Uh, what’s the best fit? There’s just so many pieces there that it didn’t really make sense to add these veteran guys when you already have guys who can come in and try to make an impact at the NHL level. Yeah. And like looking at Lysel, if if Morgan Geeki gets hurt, like should Lysel just slot in there? Like you saw you saw what Posternok did for Geeki’s development last year. I think it was 65% of his goals came his points came from Posternok in some way. Um like you know clearly he can elevate guys and and you know what it’s probably the safer move to just say okay Pavle Zaka is going to be a firstline wing um when when Geeki’s out. But it’s like you can I mean maybe that makes Lysell a 20 goal scorer, you know what I mean? And then and then you’ve got some more. So there they’re you know I don’t want to play the game where the Bruins get a bunch of injuries again, but um but there’s there’s options there to mix these kids into the lineup. I think they I think they have done that relatively well with Lori on the defensive on the on the decor like getting him with good partners when they could. You know, obviously last year with the injuries it was tough. I just got to see more of it with the forwards. Yeah, and I definitely want to touch on uh the possibility of being sellers this year and that obviously could open up some opportunities. I know you have some strong thoughts on the captaincy as well and we’re going to touch on that here as this episode of Locked on Boston Bruins continues. All right, the NFL season is back in full force and you want to make sure that you’re ready for every kickoff with a can’tmiss offer from FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and if that bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. We love using FanDuel because it fits however we like to bet, right? player props, building a same game parlay, even jumping into live action as it unfolds. It makes every game so much more exciting. Whether you’re just following your own favorite team or keeping an eye on your fantasy lineup, it’s quick, easy, the best way to add a little more energy to your Sundays as well as your Monday nights. So, if you’re ready to play, download the FanDuel app now by visiting fanduel.com to get started. fanuel.com. Place your first $5 bet and if it hits, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets. It’s all available at fanduel.com. All right, Cam. So, I’m kind of uh working under the assumption that this Bruins team is uh kind of what they’re going to carry through this season. But of course, if they’re out of the playoffs, say just before or around the Olympic break, uh it’s very possible that they’ll go back into cell mode. We could see and we’ve seen reports of Pavlo Zaka being uh perhaps on the block, Casey Middlestat. That would open up some opportunities for some guys. Uh I think I’m I’m hopeful that Middlestat can pop this season. Uh but yeah, where do you see or what do you think is going to be kind of the the breaking point for this team? Will it be where they’re at? A lot of people use Thanksgiving as the marker. There’s January 1st, there’s going to be the Olympic break. Um like where does this team have to be in order for them to decide if they’re going to push for a playoff spot or kind of go the same way as last year and sell off some assets and get some some more picks and prospects maybe? Yeah, I I I think the barometer is going to be at um the Olympic break. Yeah. And that’s and basically because that’s how Don handled it last year um with with the Four Nations. Uh and really I don’t know if they were going to sell until the end of Four Nations until Charlie Makavoy was hurt. I I don’t know if they were going to go all in and really sell. Obviously, yeah, we hear American Thanksgiving as as the the time of like if you’re not in a playoff spot here, you’re not probably not going to be there. I think they might have had the last playoff spot there at American Thanksgiving last. Yeah, they were right in it for sure. Um, and the wheels definitely not falling off yet, although it wasn’t great. So, I think that’s probably where he looks at it. And where where it’s interesting, of course, is like like you ask where where do they need to be at? Like for me, if they’re not firmly in a playoff spot, I would probably lean towards selling just because I don’t I don’t think they they have a ton to sell, but they’ve got some good contracts that they can get some get some good capital for and obviously we know this this 26 draft class loaded even outside of Gavin McKenna. So, you know, how willing are teams going to be to to trade their first round pick? Um, this year we’ve got four first round picks over the next two drafts, which is like dreamland, man. It’s been so long. And to have all our second and third round picks, too, is unbelievable. Um, so for me, it’s going to be it’s going to be that Olympic break. And they do have some guy like Middle Stat’s a tough one. Uh, just because he hasn’t popped yet. That’s a 575 I think for another year after this one. He had a couple good seasons in Colorado, but Yeah. Yeah. and you just you just don’t know what you’re going to get one team to the next if you’re looking at that. Zaka is a really interesting one because I I just think that’s a guy that all kinds of contenders would be after. I thought I thought they would have been last year and maybe they were um but we’re hearing uh Montreal as a big one right now. They need a number two center and like Zaka obviously has um the ability to play center and play on the wing. He plays he can uh obviously he’s a penalty killer. He can play up and down the lineup. Uh he gelled well with star players like David Posternok and he’s out a good hit under five million a year. Uh that’s that’s a really good one. Um obviously we’d love to trade Corposalo for a bag of pucks if they could, but um that’s the asking price. You know that the Canadian dollar I think is is making bags of pucks really expensive. Um looking at the the kind of wild card one, are you ready for kind of a wild card one I’m going to throw at you? Yeah, please. Hampus Lindholm’s got a nice contract. Yeah. And I’m not sitting here saying, “Don, trade Hampus Lindholm right now.” But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I like Hampus a lot. I think he’s going to have a bounce back year. Uh even though it was kind of down in 23 24. Um I think he’s going to bounce back and he’s right around 30 31. He’s still got three years left on that contract I want to say and it’s about 6 and a half million. Is that is that right? Six million. Six and a half. Yeah. So, that’s that’s a really nice uh contract for a guy who can potentially quarterback your second power play unit if you’re a playoff team. He can he could he’s still, you know, a good good defensive defenseman as well, the two-way defenseman, obviously. Like, he can play on your penalty kill. Um he would be you’d be dynamite if he was on your third pairing, let alone your second pairing. Um so, you know, I think there’s a lot of teams that will be looking at a left shot defenseman. think I’d give up something and that’s and like Hampus Lindome is a big part of your team right now that’s going to be like okay we’re not even close like we’re behind Buffalo again we should maybe think about this um and and maybe you know then maybe then you’re ready to be like okay Mason Lorai you’re our first pairing defenseman you’re our second left shot defenseman um and we’ll find someone in the draft and you know or whatever it may be so Hampus Lynholm I think is a really interesting one to look at here. Again, it’s going to take them being bad. I’m not saying like, “Hey, let’s go do this.” But, right, that’s a that’s a nice contract for a contender. Yeah. Speaking of nice contracts, I spoke uh yesterday on the podcast about kind of the Capros off turning down 128 million, how good David Post’s contract looks in relation to that and how it will over the next few years as the cap goes up. But as we’re talking about kind of selling off, we’re looking at wasting another one of his prime years. And um this kind of leads us into the captaincy conversation. I think for me it’s always been it should be Posternok up next for the captaincy. Uh with all due respect to Charlie Makavoy, he’s got a great case to be made for himself as well. He’ll probably be the next next guy u if and when you know pasta leaves before him but uh wasting prime years would be devastating. He’s got to continue to lead kind of on and he’s developed as a leader off the ice. What are your thoughts on the no captain so far? And uh who do you think should get it? And uh you know, how have they done or what do they need to do to keep kind of surrounding him so that he has a best chance of winning before before he’s done with the Boston Bruins? Yeah. So I I’m I’m with you. I think it should be Posterno and and that was not like I I was kind of on the Makavoy train at first uh just kind of like 5149 but the way that Posterno played at the end of last year. Yeah. Um and and it’s it’s I’m looking at points so do with that what you will but you know the 13 straight goals where he’s involved in after the trade deadline when everyone else around him is he’s looking at a bunch of AHL guys and he doesn’t have the Hall of Famer in the room anymore. uh like that was that was I thought I thought showed a lot of good on ice leadership there. Um and and this is a guy that that wants to win and that’s that’s something that’s scary. You know, he has not won a cup and he’s come close a couple of times and you know he’s going to be 30 not that not that long from now, not that far from now. So, you know, he doesn’t want to sell off again. So that that becomes really interesting of if they’re down in 14th 15th place like he might ask out and and again he’s got a good a good contract under this new um under this new CBA and it it certainly or the new cap I should say and certainly the Capri off deal and missing out or you know him turning that down from Minnesota makes me worried about what is a pretty good 2026 free agent class Bruins might not be able to tap into. Um, but in terms of not naming a captain, I think I’m taking this a little bit more hard than most people are. Uh, like I really don’t like this. Like I get the people who say, “Well, it’s a bunch of grown men.” Like you don’t need someone to have a a letter on the sweater and like I don’t I totally understand that. But what it shows me is like you’ve got two guys in Posern and Makavoy who’ve been in that locker room for a decade. Yeah. And they can’t they can’t separate themselves. Like if not now, then when? You know what I mean? Like if it’s not now, then then they’re not captains, which is fine, but that’s kind of something you were banking on as a as a franchise, as an organization, and one that certainly takes a lot of pride in who the captain of the team is, right? And the the thing that it kindly thing that it shows me is not only is there maybe a leadership pro problem in in the in the room, um because, you know, obviously there has been a downfall. They’ve gone from the best team in regular season history to 15th in the conference in two years. Um, but what it also shows me is that there’s still a lack of commitment from this organization. You know, like even as something as small as as a captain, they can’t can’t commit to it. Um, and they have a tough time committing to a coach, right? They fire Jack Adams winners. They don’t they don’t commit to a coach in terms of letting him pick his assistant coaches. Um, there’s rumors that, you know, the coach doesn’t even have control over who’s sent down to Providence and who’s come up to Boston or who’s up on the ninth floor. That’s a lack of commitment. Who’s answering the questions there? And and comes down to also the the front office and ownership of this. Like we heard after the season, this is a makeorb breakak off season for Don Sweeney. Yeah. And then he gets a contract extension before he drafts anybody, before he signs anybody, before he hires a coach. like he’s done nothing and he gets an extension and that extension two years the smallest commitment possible basically you’re it’s just a ton of one foot in one foot out and I go back to the last time we really saw this from the Bruins was that identity 0607 when you when you go out and get Charara like and that obviously that first year was bad but it’s the first time they haven’t had a captain since uh that year between Jason Allison and Joe Thornton. Yeah, that’s right. Y and I I just feel like, you know, I’m still in the post boat and I don’t want to lump him in here, but it feels like back then you said, “Okay, well, Joe Thornton’s our franchise. He’s our best player. He’s the captain, you know, and it feels like we might be doing that with maybe that’s just a mistake they’re not trying to make again.” Um, but it does bug me. It does bug me that there’s no captain, not just And you look at the teams that don’t have captains and typically they’re not very good. Okay, Tampa didn’t have one last year. They’re still good. Okay, they had a couple of guys who have won the Stanley Cup, have won the Consmmites Trophy. So, I don’t think there’s a leadership worry there. But the other ones are Chicago dumpster fire. Uh Buffalo just named one in Dalene, right? Um but they’re usually a dumpster fire. Um Anaheim, just getting out. The fire’s been put out in that dumpster, but they’re still a dumpster. Yeah. Um Seattle, who can’t do anything, right? Like Seattle can’t pick anybody for anything. Uh, so it’s not great company to keep, I guess, in 2025 with captain. Uh, but it just speaks to, I think, more of who’s the voice in the room. And may maybe I’m just being cynical. Maybe it is Charlie Makavoy and Pasta and they’re and they’re good at this, but I see a team that really floundered last year and now they can’t pick one of those two guys to be the captain. Um, and I think it speaks to a non-committal nature of this franchise, which kind of bugs me. I think the only the one thing I would say is that um the only reason I’m not too bothered about it yet, like I might get bothered about it come the start of the regular season, but with the captaincy, the coach should have a lot or some say in that. And the fact that they haven’t named a captain before Marco Sturm hasn’t even really run a practice yet doesn’t bother me too much. like maybe they get going training camp, some preseason games, he gets more comfortable, gets to know some of these guys, and they’re like right before opening night, they give it to to uh to Posternok or or to Makavo. Maybe he just needs some time uh to get to know the guys. That’s But if they do go into the season with that, and I kind of point back to that video where they revealed the the new jerseys and they both had A’s on their jersey. Like that seemed pretty intentional that it was going to be a semi-permanent thing. Uh but you never know, maybe Sturm will be like, “No, we need a captain.” This is clear that this guy belongs in this role, so let’s let’s do it. Yeah. But again, Sweeney has a huge say. Cam Neely is always pulling some strings. Yeah. By the way, just building off that, like do you do you think Don Sweeney should should have a say in that or Cam Neely should should have a say in the captain of the team? Because I found this he kind of I kind of parsed through this when Don had that answer the other day. He said, “Oh, I don’t want it to be awkward kind of the selection process and to me that was like I think Don wants to pick one and really it should be the coach picking one.” Right. Yeah. So, I don’t know. Is that something that you would feel comfortable with? And any GM, I know I’m hard on Don Sweeney, but like any GM, I think it can be like a collaborative thing. Obviously, there’s still like some business parts of it like Well, yeah. You don’t want a pending pending free agent, I guess. Yeah. Something like that. Or you want to Yeah. And look, usually to be fair, usually it’s a slam dunk, right? Like usually you know who the next guy is like with Bar. And to your point, like this does fit the mold of a team that wouldn’t have a captain to start the season, right? They just they’re coming off a bad year where they sold a bunch of guys, they traded their captain, um, and they have a new coach. Like, I get that. Um, but yeah, I I was just interested in that part of the answer. I was like, “Oh, okay.” Yeah, I don’t know. It’s going to be interesting for sure. I I am excited about training camp. I am excited about this team coming up. I think hopefully they’re able to be at least maybe not repeating what they did, maybe not redeeming what they did, but at least relevant again. It’s just a bummer to have the Bruins like way down in the standings and not even not even competing for sure. So, we’ll see how it goes. I’d love to have you on back in the parts of the season to kind of uh see where we’re at with the Bruins. Uh before I let you go, I always like to ask people, similar to the opening question, last question. Yeah. Uh what are you enjoying uh off the away from sports these days? Do you have any like show recommendations, books, movies that you’ve seen lately? What’s uh what’s going on there? Well, I don’t do much away from sports and I really don’t. I’m not going to lie to you. Um but I I just joined uh there’s a vintage movie theater down the street from me and that’s something I’m really douchy about um is my movies. So I’ve just joined as a member. uh went saw the 50th anniversary screening of Jaws last week. Just awesome stuff. Um and we just got this new game last night that’s just poorly described um movies. Like you just read like one sentence plot of a movie. Um and so I’ve been way into that, Ian. I’ve been doing puzzles. I don’t do much outside of sports if we’re being honest. I really really don’t. Uh but it’s wedding season. I just got engaged last week. So um so that’s been kind of taking up some of my life outside of sports as well. That’s mostly it’s keeping a a look at this AL wildard race. It’s college football and getting ready for this being disappointed that we only play Montreal three times again this year when they can finally be battling for a playoff spot. So, uh yeah, man. So, now it’s now it’s now it’s we did the secret of the engagement for four months and now we got wedding planning coming up. Amazing. Congrats. That’s my life right now. Yeah, I’m uh I’m pretty big on the baseball thing right now being up here in Canada. I was at the Jay’s game yesterday actually and it was one of the best pitching performances in in franchise history which was pretty cool to watch. Kevin Gosman dealing. So hoping they can hold on to first and avoid that wild card disappointment that we’ve seen the last couple years. I’ll I’ll take a Red Sox Yankees wild card if that’s if it’ll make you happy that the Jays with the division. I think that’s a good silver lining. Yeah, it’s a good All right, Cam. Uh before I let you go, let people know where they can find you, what you’re doing here on Lockdown, and uh yeah, where they can find you on social media and all that. Yeah, so it’s realamp Stewart um on on X. That’s where I’m doing most of my most of my damage. Um I would say um if you’re into Big 12 football and Baylor, first off, we should probably link if we have these two things in common. Locked on Baylor is is what I do. also locked on NHL game night is going to be starting up again um once the se well we’re doing season previews now we actually have the Bruins one going out next week um but we will have uh the the recap of the night that was in the NHL um so after you listen the lock dot Bruins you want to see what’s going on the rest of the league uh you will have uh myself and Alex Werspiel uh going over that so check in for that and also the Cam show is live every weekday at noon Eastern time on YouTube we talk almost it’s all Boston Sports, but a lot of Bruins on there. Uh, prospect rankings, previews, all that kind of thing. So, definitely, we even did one, here’s a tease for you, Ian. We did one this past week, uh, floating the idea of trading Charlie Makavoy for Mason McTavish. You’re going to want to listen to it. You’re going to want to listen to it. Just before you get after me, you’re going to want to listen to it. So, that’s where you can find me. All right. Great. Well, thanks so much, Cam, for taking the time and uh we will definitely connect as the season uh begins, progresses, and uh we’ll see where the Bruins land this season in the Eastern Conference standings. Thanks so much again. I really appreciate it. Hey, thanks for having me. Anytime. All right, what a great chat with Cam. We’ll definitely have him back on Locked on Boston Bruins throughout the season. We will be back on Monday with a recap of what happens at the prospects challenge over the weekend here in Buffalo and get you ready for Bruins training camp. A new season just around the corner. If you have not subscribed yet, do so on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube. Check out the Locked On NHL podcast next. It’s all part of the Locked On podcast network, your favorite team every single day. Take care of yourselves, friends. Take care of each other. We’ll talk to you here on the next episode of Locked On Boston Bruins. [Music]

In this episode of Locked on Boston Bruins, host Ian McLaren is joined by fellow Bruins fan and Locked on NHL Game Night host Cam Stuart to break down the biggest questions heading into training camp. From lineup battles and prospect development to how Don Sweeney’s latest signings fit into the roster, they dig into what this season might hold.

The two debate whether David Pastrnak or Charlie McAvoy should wear the “C,” explore how Boston can balance veteran presence with emerging young talent, and consider whether this team has what it takes to return to playoff contention. They also touch on trade scenarios that could reshape the roster as the season unfolds.

With camp right around the corner, this episode delivers insights on redemption vs. repeat, the captaincy question, and the kids-vs-veterans tug-of-war that will define the 2025–26 season.

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