BHN Daily: Former Boston Bruins D-Man Stuart Joining Coaching Ranks

It’s always a pleasure to hear good news about former Boston Bruins players, particularly those that decide to stick around the game of hockey. That’s the case with former Bruins defenseman Mark Stuart, who is poised to be named an assistant coach for the college hockey team at his alma mater Colorado College, per ESPN’s John Buccigross.

Source tells me Mark Stuart (673 NHL games/CC alum) will be one of the assistant coaches at Colorado College. Currently a volunteer assistant at UVM. Peter Mannino will be the other assistant at CC #cawlidgehawkey pic.twitter.com/PrdpDomZe8

— Bucci Mane (@Buccigross) April 24, 2021

Stuart was a 2003 first round pick of the Bruins after a stellar collegiate career at Colorado College, and became a physical, dependable “caveman strong” stay-at-home defensemen at the NHL level with a 673-game career playing for the Bruins, Trashers and Jets. He was also a young leader on those tough Bruins teams before getting dealt to the Trashers with Blake Wheeler for Rich Peverley just ahead of the B’s Stanley Cup run in 2010-11 and became a rugged leader on the blueline for a young Jets group during his time in Winnipeg.

The 36-year-old last played in the NHL for Winnipeg in 2016-17 before being bought out his contract, and last played pro hockey for the German League’s Adler Mannheim in 2017-18.

He always had the solid makeup and innate hockey sense that made for a good hockey coach during his Bruins days, so hopefully the job puts him on the road to heading his own program someday. Stuart spent this past season as a volunteer assistant coach for the University of Vermont hockey team prior to landing the gig with Colorado College.

*Michael Traikos can’t believe that John Tortorella hasn’t been fired by the Columbus Blue Jackets at this point. It really sounds like he’s not a fan. (National Post)

*Patrice Bergeron is “day-to-day” with a lower body injury for the Boston Bruins after taking a puck off his left foot. Ruh-roh, Raggy. (Boston Hockey Now)

*Larry Brooks is trying to make sense of Robin Lehner’s claims about COVID-19 vaccine promises, but the whole things seems to not add up. (New York Post)

*FOH (Friend of Haggs) Adrian Dater has some thoughts about why the Avalanche keep rolling during the season’s stretch run. I hope one of the reasons is this: They’re pretty freakin’ good. (Colorado Hockey Now)

*Good piece on undersized Nashville Predators forward Rocco Grimaldi, who has never let his diminutive size get in the way of his NHL dreams.

“For me I wanna be able to be someone who can say hey, it wasn’t easy, but you can make it one day.”

Meet Rocco Grimaldi, who has never let his size determine what is possible in the National Hockey League. 👏#Preds | @PredsNHL pic.twitter.com/ubYmcFW07V

— NHL on NBC Sports (@NHLonNBCSports) April 21, 2021

*For something completely different: Not everybody seems to have liked the final episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but I definitely didn’t have the same issues that others did. I probably liked WandaVision more on the whole, but this was MCU goodness through and through as far as I was concerned. The US Agent is a great new character. (Rolling Stone)