BOSTON BRUINS QUOTES Don Sweeney July 22, 2021 BOSTON
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BOSTON BRUINS QUOTES Don Sweeney July 22, 2021 BOSTON BRUINS GENERAL MANAGER DON SWEENEY… On getting defensemen in the offseason... Obviously, we want to wish Kevan Miller and his family well. A very difficult decision for him to make and a tough loss for us, in all senses as you described. With Jeremy [Lauzon] just coming into his own, despite some injuries — wishing him well with Seattle. Disappointing that you’re going to lose him. We all felt that we were going to lose a good player in this exercise, and we did. But you’re right, we have to identify that we have a couple of holes and gaps that we have to fill. Certainly addressed a long term future with Brandon [Carlo], and we’re happy to have him back in the fold as an important part as our defense is put together. We have to address another need — if not one, if not two from a depth perspective, but also the handling of heavy minutes in all situations. We’re going to try to be aggressive in that front and see if we can address the need. On his communication with David Krejci… I have been in touch with David, and I’m going to respect all of his privacy and decisions in this point in time. Has not given further indication, as you referenced before he’s got some things he wants to address. Then he’ll let us know. But yes, I have been in regular communication with David, and there’s no timeline to make decisions. On if waiting on that contract puts him in a bind… No. We have guys that can step into roles. Obviously, we’ll address needs and throughout our lineup, certainly explore options to have. Address it as it comes. We certainly have to acknowledge that it would be a big hole if we had to fill it, but it’d be a real good opportunity for someone if we do go in that direction. We’re going to have to find a way to spread things around if David makes a decision otherwise, but that hasn’t been the indication. We’re hopeful that he’ll come back. We’ll see. On if rosters opening precludes teams to trading rights for RFAs or pending UFAs until the draft ... No. The roster freeze opens up at one o’clock, so you’re fully able to either extend your UFA guys between now and the 28th or trading an active player. I suspect there’ll be some things coming out of last night’s announcements on the players, as well as the freeze being lifted at one o’clock today. On if he could trade away or acquire rights to a player… Correct. On where he’s at with Taylor Hall negotiations... We made significant progress on Taylor, so I hope that we will find a finish line. Looking forward to hopefully having him back as a big part of what we’re trying to do, this year and moving forward. We’ve made significant progress there. On how he’s identifying the type of defenseman that can help on the left side... Ideally, you’d want an all-situational minutes player, that certainly has been all of those pressure points and, as you mentioned, the penalty kill. Maybe they can handle the power play. But not unlike Charlie McAvoy, who impacts the game in sixty minutes. The other guys — Grizzy [Matt Grzelcyk] obviously has done a lot of great things for us in puck moving and can complement on the power play as well. [Jakub] Zboril was moving pucks last year, ran into some injuries. But with the loss of Jeremy [Lauzon], there’s a penalty killing component there. Johnny Moore helped, we’ll obviously address some of that from a depth perspective. But we have to go and add to our group, so we have to address that. On if he’ll issue offers to his restricted players... Yeah. On if he plans to explore the market for a goaltender… Well, we’re certainly exploring all of our options, including with Tuukka [Rask’s] surgery coming up and the unknown, a little bit, in terms of how that’s going to become with the surgery. We are looking to address from the depth perspective and add to that group. We have some flexibility in that regard. We think very highly of both goaltenders in Jeremy [Swayman] and Daniel [Vladar]. We feel like we’re in good shape, depth-wise, organizationally, but we’re probably going to look to add to that group and have a little bit of veteran presence there that could offset both those guys. On negotiations with Mike Reilly… We’ve had constant communication with Mike’s group. Haven’t found a finish line there, but we thought highly of Mike and what he added to our group. We’ll continue to talk there and see what might transpire. He had some options too, and they want to explore that, but certainly we’ll be in touch with that. On how the draft process is different this year with access to evaluation of players… Yeah, the process has certainly been unique. There are a number of players in certain leagues that we didn’t get to see live nearly as much as in years past. You’re relying on a smaller sample size, underage projections of players and their own growth and development, so it presents some challenges. We’ve done an awful lot of video work, a lot of background work and sort of diving below. I think every team’s probably trying to go in the same direction on that front. As I said, I think it presents probably a little more variance in terms of what the projections are for players as you go through. Outside of the top-end players in the draft that people probably feel comfortable with, I think you’ve got a spectrum of players probably from there on through the second and third rounds that may have greater variance associated with them. That’s just associated with, as you described, the challenges and uniqueness of what we’ve all been dealing with and the lack of dealing with live in particular. On Matt Beniers… Typically, I wouldn’t go in depth on any individual player, but I do believe Matty Beniers is a special player. I won’t go into operations of the draft, it would take significant assets for me to get up in there I believe. I think very highly of the player. He’s got a great motor, got a great skillset. Any team would be very fortunate to add him to their list of players. On updates on Tuukka’s surgery… He’s coming up at the end of the month here, returning to the United States to have the procedure done with Dr. Kelly. We’ll just allow him to go through the rehab process and both mentally and physically see where he’s at. I’ve had great communication with Tuukka throughout the year and the end of the year. Obviously, we had more knowledge than most people in terms of what he was dealing with. Really just allowing the medical stuff to be at the forefront and that’s important for Tuukka and his health. On what the defensemen market has been like… I haven’t been dealing with the trade market, we haven’t reached free agency. The Seattle process was one that was probably creating some governance in terms of what the overall movement part of it was. You saw a couple deals right before, and then maybe there will be some coming out. There’s communication with Seattle and they’ve got a supply there now, a ton of people, including ourselves, we want access too, and we’ll have to have some discussions there. Things kind of open up too as you come into the draft and see. The market is tight. The supply is what it is. We’ll have to be aggressive to find a player or maybe two that want to play for us and what we want. On how similar or different the Seattle expansion was vs. Vegas… I think Seattle is the only team that could comment in terms of the process. They went through it and obviously they were well prepared. They had a strategy. They went out and executed to what they feel was the right thing. The rest of it was up to that. We didn’t get to dictate the strategy. I have my own opinions on it that maybe down the road I’ll share with you, but Ron [Francis] and his staff executed the job that they wanted to do. I don’t think it’s done, what they’re trying to do. It was different than George [McPhee] and his group. George and them had success and I’m sure Ron will want that similar success. On if it’s a priority to get RFAs signed before July 28 and how he would describe his mindset… Obviously, we went forward with Brandon [Carlo] and maybe because both the player and the team felt it was the right time with him. Hopefully that’s how he found the deal. We’re very happy to have gotten that done. Every deal sort of has its own timeline, in regard to what deadlines are and sometimes that’s the only way a deal gets done with some RFAs and UFAs.