GM Don Sweeney assesses Bruins’ progress after free agency

Bruins’ GM Don Sweeney made a handful of moves in the last week. He obtained a top-six scoring wing (J.J. Peterka).

He picked up a pair of righthanded defensemen as promised, one in a trade (Will Borgen) and one in free agency (Connor Clifton). And he opened the door for a promising young goalie (Michael DiPietro) to seize the backup job when he traded veteran Joonas Korpisalo to the Rangers.

Boxes, indeed, were checked.

But are they appreciably better than they were last year? Right now, it is impossible to say. An answer in the affirmative may very well depend on how much of an impact young players like Fraser Minten and James Hagens and possibly Frederic Brunet will have.

But it appears as though Sweeney at least held serve.

“I can’t handicap where we are relative to other teams but we feel like we addressed some needs. We wanted to continue to improve,” said Sweeney. “Some of that’s based on ‘what is the internal growth?’ I think we’re back to being a competitive team with a little more balance to hopefully to continue to attack … and be a threat. We stood here a year ago and wondered whether we were going to score enough goals. And to the players’ credit and coaches’ credit, they found ways.

“Our power play improved. We have a different look now with a left shot on the one-time elbow (Peterka). I hope it all comes together. I hope we’re right back in the upper echelon. The challenge is, we were a 100-point team. I don’t know if any of us stood here and thought we were a bona fide 100-point team but we went out and did it. The players did it. And I try to make sure I supply all the assets in players so we continue to improve because that’s the mandate.”

There is now a glut of defensemen with NHL experience. They have four on the right side (Charlie McAvoy, Henri Jokiharju, Borgen and Clifton) and five on the left (Hampus Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov, Mason Lohrei, Jonathan Aspirot and Jordan Harris, who was re-signed on Wednesday) plus a sixth lefty in the 22-year-old Brunet, who Sweeney again mentioned as someone who could well get a look.

Is another move coming?

“There easily could be, depending on where the teams sit and the conversations I’ve had. Charlie’s (McAvoy) not playing the first six games (due to suspension). You just never know between now and when we start and injuries. It was an area where we told you guys we were going to address and that’s what we tried to do,” said Sweeney, adding he and his fellow general managers had more aggressive trade talks than usual.

Headed out the door are third-pairing defenseman Andrew Peeke, whom the B’s did not re-sign. And they lost a whole lot of competitiveness and veteran savvy in Viktor Arvidsson, who signed a two-year deal with Detroit for $5 million a season. That’s a pretty reasonable contract for the 33-year-old Arvidsson, both for the season he had (25-29-54) and some of the money that was being thrown around.

The B’s had been negotiating with Arvidsson but when they obtained Peterka, an Arvidsson extension became a lot more unlikely with the other needs that they had.

“I’ve acknowledged that I’d been in talks with Viktor for a while, so I was very comfortable with where our negotiating position was,” said Sweeney. “We didn’t have an agreement and once we made the trade for J.J. trade, it sort of changed where we might have been focusing on. And including opportunity for some of the players, we felt we wanted to make sure we provide it. And J.J. sort of changed it around so we could focus on the back end.”

Going with an unproven backup in DiPietro is a departure for Sweeney. After having subpar backups played a big part in the B’s missing the playoffs in the middle of the last decade, Sweeney made sure that wouldn’t happen again. He first signed veteran Jaroslav Halak to back up Tuukka Rask, then had a Linus Ullmark-Jeremy Swayman tandem and the last two years Korpisalo backed up Swayman.

But the B’s have chosen to move on from a couple of young goalies the past few years and they’ve proven to be capable NHLers elsewhere, Daniel Vladar with the Flyers and Brandon Bussi with the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes. Sweeney acknowledged that and feels DiPietro is ready.

“We’ve been in this position. We’ve looked at it and (goalie coaches) Bob Essensa and (Mike Dunham) in particular, they feel really confident that Michael is ready for this,” said Sweeney.

While the B’s surprisingly put up 100 points last season, the glaring area for growth is improved play in the defensive zone and cutting down on high-danger chances. Sweeney addressed it to the point where Marco Sturm and assistant Matt McIlvane can now roll out three pairs that have both left and right D-men with the addition of Borgen and Clifton. But as he’s said before, it goes beyond personnel.

“D-zone exits are going to be an area where we have to be better at. Part of that starts up the ice and Marco’s pointed out that we’re probably going to have to forecheck a little differently and create anxiety up ice, give some of our D the opportunity to surf in the neutral zone as opposed to maybe back up and retrieve,” he said. “We have to continue to evolve. Everybody does. There’s only one winner … but there are bits and pieces that have to be valuable for the group. And that’s where our group is hopefully getting to. Brunet is a good example, with mobility and puck skill that he’s applied in Providence and how is it going to translate into the National Hockey League this year. And there’s a good chance we’re going to find out.”