Haggs And Murph: Will The Boston Bruins Write The Next ‘Rebuild Letter’?

In the second installment of this unnamed podcast/vodcast for Boston Hockey Now, my colleague and I get into the latest info, or lack thereof, with the contract negotiations between the Boston Bruins and restricted free agent Jake DeBrusk. 

We also tackle what’s becoming a bigger elephant in the room for the Boston Bruins and the main question I’ve been asking Haggs ever since the Chicago Blackhawks notified their fans they’re in a rebuild earlier this week:

When will the Boston Bruins have to write the rebuild letter to their fans?

I believe the combination of the aging core of Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci, Tuukka Rask and even Brad Marchand with the sudden flattened $81.5 million salary cap and the uncertainty of the NHL’s economic climate due to COVID has accelerated the Bruins towards that dreaded moment. Haggs pointed no further than the forgettable 2015 NHL Entry Draft for the Boston Bruins getting closer to putting pen to paper on that bad news. 

“I still think they can build around Bergeron, Marchand, [David Pastrnak and [Charlie McAvoy and use some other younger pieces there but I do think they have to make some hard decisions on some other players and we’ve already seen that with Torey Krug and potentially Zdeno Chara,” Haggerty said. 

“All that is interesting and what kicks you in the Black and Gold crokies Murph, is thinking about the 2015 draft and thinking about ‘what if they had [Thomas] Chabot and what if they had Matt Barzal? What if they had Chabot and what if they had Travis Konecny? What if they had Chabot and what if they had Brock Boeser? What if they had hit on at least two of three of those three picks, in a row? If they had another impact player like that here, I’m not sure we’re even having this conversation!”

For more on that and all things Bruins, click on the video below!