The offseason improvement plan for the Bruins won’t begin in earnest until the Stanley Cup Final wraps up in the next couple of weeks, but there is encouraging news there for a Boston team that knows it must keep building.
The good news is that there will be players available in the exact areas of need the B’s clearly have on their roster, and that a selection of them will have various strengths and weaknesses based on what Boston is looking for. The top priority for the Bruins is to bring in a right-shot defenseman capable of holding down top-4 minutes, and the preference would be to bring in a player who could even have upside as a top-pair D-man, easing the burden currently on the shoulders of 28-year-old Charlie McAvoy and 32-year-old Hampus Lindholm.
The ideal candidate would be a younger player who’s either a restricted free agent or a trade target, and the additional good news for the Bruins is that they have the draft picks, the prospects and the ample salary cap space to pull off whatever move they decide is best for the long-term picture.
Of course, there are unrestricted free agents Rasmus Andersson and Darren Raddysh at the top of the UFA list, and the smart money says that the B’s will take another run at Andersson if he reaches free agency after being willing to trade assets and sign him to a massive contract extension a few months ago.
He’s had a decent enough D-man for the Golden Knights with five assists and a plus-4 in 16 playoff games for Vegas after arriving there at the trade deadline, and a Stanley Cup added to his resume would only add to his value.
But there are other, younger up-and-coming candidates out there like 22-year-old Slovakian D-man Simon Nemec, who may or may not be looking for a new team after posting 11 goals and 26 points in 63 games for the Devils last season. Or 22-year-old Olen Zellweger with the Anaheim Ducks, who posted seven goals and 22 points in 76 games for the Ducks last season after spending most of the last three seasons in Anaheim.
There are older options as well, with 6-foot-6 Blues defenseman Colton Parayko’s name mentioned prominently on the trade block after posting four goals and 18 points last season, though it would be difficult to imagine Parayko becoming a major improvement in terms of breakouts or improving Boston’s speed of attack. New Hampshire native Michael Kesselring is an interesting name coming off a down season in Buffalo, where things didn’t work out for the 26-year-old with the Sabres, but the 6-foot-5 D-man had seven goals and 29 points, along with 89 PIMs, in 82 games with Utah the previous season.
There is also 36-year-old
