Boston Bruins Free Agency: Making the case to sign Alex Pietrangelo
After losing Torey Krug to the St. Louis Blues, the Boston Bruins must turn their attention to signing Alex Pietrangelo.
The first day of free agency was very rough for the Boston Bruins. Not only did they sign no one of consequence, free agent defenseman Torey Krug, who spent 523 games in a Bruins sweater, signed a long-term deal with the St. Louis Blues.
Krug’s departure leaves the Bruins blueline in fairly dire straits. They’ll likely have to add a left-handed defenseman to account for his loss. But more importantly, the Bruins lost one of their key offensive playmakers and one of their primary defensemen in transition. Only Charlie McAvoy can bring to the table what Krug can. No one else on the Bruins right now comes close.
Armed with cap space, the Bruins have what it takes to sign Krug’s replacement. There’s a saying – “two can play this game”. If the Blues are going to sign Krug, why shouldn’t the Bruins at least take a look at Alex Pietrangelo?
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Why Pietrangelo Makes So Much Sense For The Bruins
Think about how the Bruins blueline was set up in recent years. They had a lethal one-two punch on the left side between Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug. Those days are over, maybe for both players. But what if the Bruins decided to continue the tradition by swapping sides?
On the right side, the Boston Bruins have a young, budding defenseman in Charlie McAvoy. With 32 points in 67 games last season in a shutdown role, he tied his previous career high. There’s your shutdown defenseman. Add Pietrangelo into the mix, and the Bruins might well have the best one-two combo of right-handed defensemen in the NHL.
Pietrangelo is fairly similar to Krug. He doesn’t quite match his offensive impact, but he comes pretty close. Pietrangelo is also a great puck mover, which would replace Krug. He could also replace him as the primary power play quarterback, though the Bruins would have to adjust the structure of their first power play unit to account for Pietrangelo’s right-handedness.
Now, signing Pietrangelo would cause some dominoes to fall. Most notably, they’re probably going to have to trade Brandon Carlo. However, if the Bruins manage to trade him for a left-handed defenseman, they could kill two birds with one stone.
The Boston Bruins also have some questions of their own to answer before they can make a significant offer to Pietrangelo. The obvious one is what’s Zdeno Chara’s future? Is he playing next year or not? Also, they’ll have to figure out what they’re going to do with Jake DeBrusk. The seemingly correct answer is “re-sign him”. But sometimes, the easiest answer isn’t the right one.
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They also must ask themselves if they think their current core has a chance at winning the Stanley Cup. If the answer is “yes”, signing Pietrangelo is probably worth it because he would make them much better now. But if the answer is “no”, then maybe the Bruins should pass on him.