The Boston Bruins know there is work to be done this summer. The front office wants speed and skill, but that does not come for free.
Don Sweeney and Cam Neely each made it a point to mention speed and skill at the end-of-season press conference, and without beating a dead horse, the Bruins will need to look at the trade market for it.
There are not many centers available this summer, with one of the top options on July 1 now being 38-year-old Claude Giroux, and another being 35-year-old Marcus Johansson, who are both coming off 49-point seasons. Evgeni Malkin was never going to be a team’s long-term answer in free agency, but his extension on Tuesday takes him off the market and makes centers even more valuable this summer.
For the first time in years, the Bruins have a deep prospect pool. Aside from James Hagens, who is done with college hockey, the Bruins have names with upside, like Dean Letourneau, Will Zellers, and Cooper Simpson, who all had strong seasons at their respective schools and junior leagues.
If they want to make a splash for a 1C, such as Robert Thomas or Elias Pettersson, both of whom landed on Frank Seravalli’s top 25 trade targets, the prices will be high. I’m not saying that the Bruins should target him, but Pettersson’s asking price may not be as high as Thomas’s due to his $11.6 million cap hit. However, with limited options in free agency, centers will not be cheap to acquire in the trade market.
A valuable asset, more than a prospect, needs to go the other way if the Bruins want to land a top-line center. The Bruins have a few chips. They also have multiple needs this summer, and $15,415,417 in cap space for next season, according to PuckPedia. Exhausting all of that money on one guy is not in the B’s best interest, especially when you have two in-house candidates with the potential to develop into a 1C. But the front office knows they must do work immediately, and they seem ready to fill some holes.
Mittelstadt is not young like Hagens or Fraser Minten, per se, but he is 27 years old and a former first-round (eighth overall) pick. He has proven, in both Boston and Buffalo, that he can fit into the correct system as a top-six forward, whether at center or on the wing, even if he is not one of the team’s top scorers.
He also has one year left on his contract, much like Pavel Zacha, but Mittelstadt’s cap hit is $5.75 million. The cap jumped another $8.5 million this season, giving teams more money to work with, but Mittelstadt is not the only top-six forward that may be considered in a bigger trade this summer.
Mittelstadt finished the season with 42 points and a career-high plus-12 rating. He was successful on the left wing with Pavel Zacha and Viktor Arvidsson to his right, and Marco Sturm called that line “a good mix” due to their experience and hockey IQ.
Mittelstadt took 186 faceoffs this season, even while playing on the wing. He won 91 of the 186 draws (48.9%).
If the Bruins do move him, they will have another top-six hole, though they have internal candidates. The Bruins have been persistent about James Hagens playing on the wing, but he has shown flashes at center for Team USA at the IIHF World Championships. Hagens predominantly played wing at BC this season, and once he turned pro, that’s where he stayed.
The second line was also one of the league’s best lines this season. So, while there should be a desire to run it back, Viktor Arvidsson is an unrestricted free agent, so there is no guarantee the trio stays together.
There is no pressing decision on Mittelstadt; the Bruins do not have to make a move on him this summer. They have the option of offering him an extension. AFP Analytics projects his extension as a four-year deal with a $6.54 million cap hit, but there is no rush to put pen to paper.
However, if the Bruins are serious about acquiring speed and skill, Mittelstadt could be one of the roster players going the other way.