Did Bruins do Enough at Trade Deadline w/ Evan Marinofsky | Pucks with Haggs
Joe Haggerty, alongside Evan Marinofsky from New England Hockey Journal, analyzes the Boston Bruins' activity at the NHL trade deadline. The Bruins strengthened their forward lineup by trading for Pat Maroon from the Minnesota Wild, giving up a conditional late-round draft pick in return. Furthermore, they bolstered their defense by acquiring Andrew Peeke, while trading away defenseman Jakub Zboril and a 2027 3rd round pick to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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Get in on the excitement with PrizePicks, America’s No. 1 Fantasy Sports App, where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy! Football season may be over, but the action on the floor is heating up. Whether it’s Tournament Season or the fight for playoff homecourt, there’s no shortage of high stakes basketball moments this time of year. Quick withdrawals, easy gameplay and an enormous selection of players and stat types are what make PrizePicks the #1 daily fantasy sports app!
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00:00 Pucks with Hags is powered by PrizePix, the exclusive Daily Fantasy partner of the CLNS Media Network.
00:07 Welcome to another edition of the Pucks with Hags podcast. I believe, I think this is like the 71st
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00:52 With me today, I have Evan Marinovsky from the New England Hockey Journal. You may have also seen his
00:57 smiling face. I don't think he has the glasses though when he's on Netscape hosting the New
01:01 England Hockey Journal show. He's looking very professorial right now. We appreciate that in
01:06 this early morning podcast. Evan, how's it going? It's good, it's good. Yeah, sometimes I keep the
01:11 glasses on and you know, I like wearing glasses sometimes. You know, better on the eyes, easier
01:17 on the eyes than contacts. So, you know, I can't complain. So I can understand it because I've
01:22 never gone through the contact lens thing, so I don't know how much of a pain in the ass that is,
01:26 but I'm sure it is. I've, you know, dated girls that had contact lenses and I remember them
01:30 always complaining about it, especially if they slept in them overnight and all that stuff. So
01:34 I know the difficulties that come with the glasses and the contact lenses, but I think it
01:39 garners immediate respect, you know. I immediately respect you 100 times more right now
01:45 with the glasses on, Evan. It just instantly draws that, I think. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you.
01:50 It adds three or four years to my face. So instead of looking 15 years old, I look like about like
01:56 18 or 19. So that's good. Yeah, you look like early college student Evan Maradonsky right now.
02:01 All right, let's get right into it. Bruins, I haven't done a podcast since the trade deadline,
02:07 so we will get into that for sure. But just first of all, a five to one win over the Pittsburgh
02:13 Penguins. You know, on the one hand, like no shows for Evgeny Malkin, Sidney Crosby in that game.
02:20 It looked like, you know, Crosby was pissed about Jake Gunsel getting traded away from the Penguins
02:25 to the Carolina Hurricanes. Clearly when he talked to the media, he was not happy about it.
02:29 It almost felt like this game felt like a little like one game protest from Pittsburgh's best.
02:35 Yeah, oh yeah. That they were upset about being sellers. So like they kind of handed this one to
02:40 the Bruins to a degree, especially after the first period when they had 14 shots on net.
02:44 No mark was really good making all the saves and then, you know, the offense got in track. But
02:50 five goals in the last, what is it, three or four games for Pavel Zaka, who was really starting
02:57 to catch fire offensively after going through a very long quiet period. Maybe it's a boost of
03:02 confidence to him to know that they're not trading for a front line center and they believe in him
03:06 and they believe in Charlie Coyle. But you got goals from a bunch of your best players. Brad
03:11 Marchand gets goal number 399 of his career. David Postranek hits the 40 goal mark. It was just kind
03:17 of a feel-good win for the Bruins yesterday while also doing that fun Big City Greens classic thing
03:23 animated over on Disney XD, which Finn actually enjoyed quite a bit because he loves the Big
03:28 City Greens. I actually watched a little bit of that because I'm like, I'm curious how they do
03:32 this. I always find like, it's really cool. They did the Super Bowl with SpongeBob, right? Yes,
03:37 that was what they did. So we would kind of flip over just to see that. I think it's cool. I said
03:41 to my mom yesterday, I was like, if they had this when I was a kid for, I don't know what cartoon
03:47 it would have been back then, but it would have been awesome. I would have loved it.
03:52 But yeah, yesterday was a feel-good win. I mean, you look at like, you know, and I think it's an
03:56 interesting thing. It will kind of hit on the deadline, but you know, they didn't do anything
04:00 drastic. They didn't trade all mark, even though there's reports out there they tried to, they
04:04 didn't trade to Brusque. They didn't add another top six center. So you wonder if the short-term
04:11 impact is you get a boost from Jake to Brusque who looked pretty good yesterday and Pavel Zaka
04:16 and Charlie coil and Lena Solmark who looked great yesterday. And, you know, I, you know,
04:21 everyone saw the hug at the end and Swainman was kind of talking to all market, talked about it
04:25 after obviously. And you wonder if like, they're kind of now on a mission, you know, like, you
04:30 know, Hey, let's prove our front office wrong. This is the real last dance. The real last dance
04:35 was not Bergen and Creech. It was probably the last year of a Omar and Swainman together.
04:40 And you just wonder if that had the desired effect now, is that going to win them, you know,
04:45 multiple playoff series. I don't think we're ready to say that yet. But I am curious to see,
04:50 cause I mean, they have played well the last four games. I wonder if they do start to kind of
04:54 catch fire. And I think like you mentioned Zaka with five goals in the last four, you know,
04:58 coming off a really rough stretch. I think that's kind of them. Like, I think, you know,
05:03 those guys like Zaka and even a little bit of coil and Frederick and to Brusque, these guys are,
05:10 I don't know if you can count on them for production every night, but when they're going,
05:13 they're going. And I think, you know, you saw that from the Christmas break to the all-star
05:18 break where they were just firing. And then after that, and the Bruins usually win when they get
05:22 secondary scoring from those guys. That's what happens is those guys chip in and all of a sudden
05:26 the Bruins score three, four, five goals in a game and they win. Like that's how important they are
05:30 to the whole thing. Yeah. And I also liked, I think it was, was it Martian after the game who
05:35 said, you know, we're a defense first team. We got to realize that. And I think that that's what
05:40 they are. I mean, especially after the deadline, they did not add Lindholm. You know, they,
05:45 they're, you know, they added Maroon and Peak and those are depth ads. And, you know,
05:51 Lord knows if those guys are leaving equal, you know, five combined points by the end of the
05:55 season. But, you know, I, to me, like they're a defense first team. Their, their strength is in
06:02 net. They've got to utilize it. They've got to, you know, protect it. Well, they got to protect
06:06 the house as you tell Finn in the, in the, in the, in the Pee-wee's or is he a squirt?
06:10 Squirt. Yeah. I'll be a pee-wee next year. And protect the house. I'm still more working with
06:16 them on the wings, actually like going out by the, beyond the dots and being ready for passes
06:20 to, to get it out of our zone. Cause right now they protect the house almost too much where they
06:25 also watch on the net and there's five kids there and no outlet for anybody to get out of the zone.
06:29 Yeah. I can imagine. I remember those days. But yeah, I mean, I do, I do think that, you know,
06:35 they're a defense first team. And I think that combined with, you know, now it's like, you know,
06:41 all right, this is the group we have going forward. You know, it wouldn't surprise you
06:45 if they kept kind of up on this little hot streak they have going on.
06:48 No. And, you know, part of it is just like the, the, the schedule and them, like,
06:55 you know, they took, let's, let's face it. They took a powder after the all-star break. They
06:59 were still on vacation for a while. They were not playing hard. I think they got caught up in the
07:03 standings, not, not having the intensity level where it needed to be with other teams that were
07:07 fighting for playoff spots. It was very obvious to me for about a month, they just weren't up to
07:12 the level that everybody else was and needed to sort of figure that out and get that right.
07:18 And I think they have, you know, I think seeing Florida pass them, I think them playing kind of
07:24 mediocre hockey for a month, you know, blowing a few more third period leads. I think all that
07:29 stuff with the trade deadline coming kind of snapped them out of it. And what we've seen
07:33 over the last handful of games is them allowing one goal a game during regulation to really good
07:39 offensive teams, to the Toronto, to Edmonton, to Pittsburgh, you know, they've started locking
07:44 down the defense. The forwards have started working with the defense as far as five-man
07:48 unit defensively out there, you know, back checking, making good decisions with the puck,
07:53 all that stuff. Like you're starting to see a lot of that more consistently, a lot less
07:58 odd man rushes, breakaways, you know, like mistakes like that too. So on a, to a degree,
08:04 they are a defense first team because they're built on goaltending. But I thought it was also
08:09 interesting when I asked Don Sweeney about the blown third period leads and what he thought about
08:15 them and what the reasons were behind them. And one of the things is the other side of the,
08:20 the flipping of the, the other side of the coin, where part of the reason they're blowing so many
08:24 leads is because they don't have a big enough lead because they're not extending. It's always
08:28 a one hole lead in the third period. And part of it comes down to the offense too, and getting the
08:32 secondary offense and, you know, doing what they did yesterday where they had a smaller lead and
08:37 then they poured it on in the third period, added a couple more and really ran away from the Penguins
08:41 after scoring three goals in the second period. So, you know, I think that is a big element to
08:45 it too, is making sure you're getting enough offense where it's not constantly white knuckle
08:49 third periods where you're trying to hang on to a one goal lead, because you're going to blow,
08:54 you know, some of those, just the percentages say that the Bruins have done that to, I think,
08:58 a much bigger degree than they would like. And, you know, they're almost getting towards a record,
09:03 I think, for overtime and shootout losses this year, the NHL record, which is crazy
09:08 that they're even in that territory. But it speaks to just how they haven't had enough
09:12 offense to separate from teams, how they have had some, you know, problems holding on to leads and
09:17 some issues in the third period. And the other thing Sweeney talked about too, is he absolutely
09:22 named Cech Patrice Bergeron, and it spoke to how much they miss him in those situations where he
09:27 played in every single one of those situations. He was always on the ice in those situations and
09:32 brought a calming presence, won face-offs, did a lot of little things detail-wise that helped them
09:37 protect those leads and get out of them. Now, there's also a Zidane O'Chara element to that
09:41 too. They had him for a long time, and that's why it always felt like third period leads were
09:45 lockdowns, because when you have like a towering, missing, huge defenseman in front of the net,
09:52 that also helps you protect the lead when things get chaotic and the melee happens in front of the
09:56 net, and they don't really have that guy anymore on the back end. But... Well, they got Andrew Peek.
10:01 They got Andrew Peek. They do have, hey, you know, bring him on board.
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11:10 We'll get into actually the trade deadline stuff now.
11:15 I trust the Bruins NHL scouting staff, the advanced scouts, the guys that watch these players
11:24 and see something that we don't necessarily see, or that the pocket protector brigade that whips
11:30 out the bar graphs on these stay-at-home defensemen to try to trash them and say that they're terrible,
11:34 the things that they don't see. Because clearly they don't see things when they
11:38 have not even seen a player play and they just whip out all these fancy stats and say,
11:41 "This guy's terrible because the blue bar graph only goes halfway up in this category. Give me a break."
11:50 Parker Weatherspoon, Jesper Bokvist, Danton Heinen, Justin Brezow.
11:55 Brandon Carlo.
11:56 Yeah, there's a ton of these players where they've played for other teams. The NHL scouts for the
12:05 Bruins and the HL scouts for the Bruins have seen these players and they identify players that will
12:09 play well in the Bruins system that they think can flourish in the Bruins-
12:12 Oh, I thought you meant players that have lower-end analytics.
12:18 Yeah, I just wanted to rip the fancy stats people for a second there. That was a little tangent.
12:23 I had to interrupt.
12:24 Yes, but no, I think I have a lot of faith now after the last few years of all of the players
12:31 that they've brought in that have been landlocked in another organization, have been stuck somewhere,
12:39 or didn't look like they were much. I had people come up to me and tell me, "I saw Parker
12:43 Weatherspoon play a bunch of times in the HL and I just thought he was another guy. I was
12:48 not impressed with him." And then he comes to the Bruins and he wins an NHL spot. He's got a
12:52 contract for next year now after the deadline. So I have a lot of faith now that the Bruins are
12:58 very good at identifying these players from other organizations that they think will be good fits
13:02 here and that they think will be good players here. Even a guy like Andrew Peek, who has been
13:07 a healthy scratch a lot this year, who played a ton the previous two years, played 162 of 164 games,
13:13 played a lot of minutes. Obviously not an offensive defenseman, but a big, strong right shot
13:18 stay-at-home guy. Kills penalties, blocks shots, all that stuff. They obviously see something in
13:23 him. Even though he's a career minus 60 and he had some rough years with bad Columbus teams,
13:27 they see something in him that they think he's going to be able to come here and essentially
13:30 be a replacement for Derek Forbord, who is gone. He's season-ending it, he's going to need surgery,
13:35 he's not coming back. So this is a guy they brought in for a little bit less salary cap
13:39 hit-wise and is basically going to play the same role at 25 years old, a younger version of him.
13:45 I'm willing to be patient and give them the benefit of the doubt that they've seen something
13:49 in Peek that is going to be able to get the job done, both now and in the future for the Bruins.
13:54 Obviously, we know we can get to Pat Maroon later, but Peek interests me because I feel like the
14:00 Bruins must see something in him that they liked, that they think is going to be a good fit here.
14:04 I felt the same way. I think, obviously, when you look at the packet, or you look at what went
14:10 to Columbus, obviously, Zaboril hasn't worked out here, that makes sense.
14:13 Yeah.
14:13 The 27th, it's a couple years away, but that's a fairly high pick.
14:18 Yep.
14:19 And then you're taking on the $2.75 million in cap. I think most people's initial reaction are
14:24 like, "Are you serious?" But I agree with you. I think that they have been good at identifying
14:30 talent that other people have not been able to identify when it comes to NHL players.
14:34 And if they're giving up a third and eating that salary, they must see something. They must see
14:41 something. And again, I have not watched a lot of Andrew Peek. I'm going to guess you haven't. I'm
14:45 going to guess a lot of Bruins fans have not seen much of Andrew Peek.
14:48 The only time I ever noticed him was when Brad Marshan knocked him out of a game with a nasty hit
14:55 on the boards. He kind of gave him a little elbow into the glass and
14:59 knocked him out of a game against Columbus.
15:00 Yeah. And again, it's interesting. I think Peek, it's an interesting thing because Peek was a
15:06 former second round pick. It doesn't mean everything, but at some point, someone saw...
15:11 For instance, I said this to Diver the other day on the live Bruins beat we did.
15:17 There was a kid at Dexter last year, Sean Cohen, 6'4".
15:21 Yeah, I remember him.
15:22 A smooth skater.
15:22 I saw Blake a couple years ago.
15:24 Yeah, good player. And he went in the sixth round to Buffalo. Now, partially that was because he
15:29 stayed in prep and he was injured and his numbers weren't great. But still, even as a smooth skating,
15:34 big kind of shut down defenseman, went in the sixth round.
15:38 Now, I think Peek was actually at Selects Academy when he was prior to going, I think,
15:45 to the USHL. I could be wrong. Or prior to college and all that stuff. And he was picked in the
15:51 second round. And you wonder if, again, I don't remember this at the time, but was he looked at
15:56 as someone maybe with an offensive upside? Now, it clearly looks like that hasn't even been
16:01 touched in Columbus. But I do wonder if the Bruins see something. Because this is one of those
16:07 instances where they clearly didn't want to give up a lot of assets at this deadline, future-wise.
16:13 They couldn't. They didn't really have them. And they're not going to compete with teams.
16:19 But you do wonder. They hold all their prospects. They hold all but one of their draft picks. And
16:24 this is the deal they put the draft pick on. So you do wonder if this kind of hits what you were
16:29 saying, where they see something. And I trust them. Now, the one thing is, if it doesn't work
16:35 out, if Peek is a complete bust and a failure and doesn't work here, then we can look back and go,
16:40 all right, well, that's not the best cap hit. And that's a pretty-- would like to have that
16:46 20-27 third round pick. But you know what? I give him credit for swinging for it. That's the thing.
16:51 You've got to take chances. And if that's the chance you take, that's a minor swing. I'm OK
16:56 with that. I'm fine with that. I mean, $2.75 million is not a huge cap hit. Let's be honest.
17:01 No. No. But if he's sitting on the bench-- That's the going rate--
17:05 Yeah, that's the going rate for a third-pairing defenseman. It's less than they were paying
17:08 for board. It's fine. I don't even buy necessarily that Columbus was going to buy him out. I don't
17:15 think that that's a factual thing. Where he had two years-- they would have been paying $1.5 or
17:22 close to it for the next four years to buy out a guy on a $2.75 million. That doesn't make sense
17:26 to me. Yeah. I don't think that was going to happen. I think that's overstating it from
17:30 people blogging in Columbus. And I also wouldn't give the Columbus Blue Jackets coaching staff
17:39 the benefit of the doubt either. Are they geniuses in Columbus? Are they having some fantastic year?
17:44 Have they reinvented the wheel? No. No. Maybe they don't know what they're doing,
17:48 and they didn't know how to coach this guy up into being a better player. Whereas whoever was
17:53 coaching the previous two years thought more highly of him. Who knows? By the way, Peake was
17:59 selected out of Green Bay in the USHL. So not out of Selects Academy. Mark Diver, I think it was,
18:07 tweeted yesterday that he was talking to Adam McQuaid, and they had sent McQuaid videos of
18:12 Peake to look at before they traded for him to see what he thought. And he thought he was worth
18:16 going out and getting. And that's the kind of organizational communication, using all of your
18:23 assets organizationally, your scouts, your development people, all that stuff that I love.
18:28 And I think it's why they end up making a lot of good choices with these people is because it's a
18:33 consensus opinion. I don't think it's Don Sweeney and one or two guys deciding, "This is what we
18:38 need." I think they actually utilize everybody in that organization to make sure that they're
18:43 making the right moves. And that's why a lot of these moves end up working out for them. And they
18:47 bring in players that can help them. And I think Peake could end up being one of those guys.
18:51 I didn't expect, and I think we talked about it a lot on podcasts when I had you on, when you had
18:59 me on. I've talked about it a lot with a lot of other people. I never expected this to be a big
19:04 deadline for the Bruins. I did not think they were going to be getting big targets. I did not think
19:08 they were going to be swinging for the fences. I did not think they were going to be going all in.
19:12 I figured it was going to be a physical defenseman and a physical forward. And those were the two
19:17 big needs that they were going to have to fill. They were not going to be able to fill every
19:20 single need that they had. They were not going to be able to go all in like they did last year.
19:24 They certainly weren't going to make Bruins fans happy with what they did because Bruins fans
19:29 always want to get the big ticket items, the Noah Hannafins, the Elias Lindholms, those kind of guys
19:34 at the trade deadline. But I think they fit needs. And I think they gave this team exactly the extra
19:41 physicality, heaviness, those kind of players that they needed to add at the deadline and that
19:47 this team needs for the playoffs. And I really like the Pat Maroon ad. Obviously he's not the
19:54 player he was a few years ago. But the off-ice part of it with the winning pedigree that he has,
20:02 with the personality, he's got a big personality. And I think the Bruins could use one or two more
20:06 guys like that in their locker room to play off Marcian and to be part of that veteran leadership
20:13 group to sort of add a little bit of a talkative, a little more fun element to that group. And I
20:19 think he's the kind of guy that can do that. Not to mention, he's going to be like Big Brother on
20:24 the bench when he's healthy and playing, which I think is going to be towards the end of March
20:29 after he had the early February back surgery. He's going to be like a Sean Thornton kind of presence
20:34 where you're going to feel a little braver, a little more courageous because you know that
20:38 guy's out there and he has your back and he's going to, you know, chirp the other team and
20:41 he's going to put a little fear in the other team and the other team's going to be thinking about
20:45 him and worried about him and what he's going to do. He adds that element. The Bruins did not have
20:50 enough players like that that would have a fear intimidation factor in the other team, that the
20:55 other team was worried about playing or created anxiety with the other team based on what they've
20:59 done in the past and who they are as a player. Pat Maroon is that kind of guy. Even though he's
21:04 probably only going to play eight, nine minutes a night, it's not going to be a big role. He can
21:08 still put a puck in the net every once in a while. I think the fourth line certainly needs a presence
21:12 like him. Veteran, big, physical, all of that stuff. Like, you know, he's obviously probably
21:18 going to step in and Justin Brezow is probably not going to play much once Maroon gets healthy
21:23 because it's the same sort of player. Who knows, maybe they play together with Boquist in the
21:27 middle. But I think it's going to end up he's probably supplanting or replacing Brezow in the
21:32 lineup. And I don't think that's a bad thing for the playoffs. I want Pat Maroon in the lineup for
21:36 the playoffs. I want him to be a factor. He's going to make a big play for you in a big moment.
21:41 He's going to go tell the other team's bench they're dead and they're in trouble in moments
21:46 like he did in 2019 in the Stanley Cup Finals with the Bruins and the Blues. And I love that move.
21:51 They didn't have to give up much for him. Luke Toporowski is kind of a B prospect as far as I'm
21:57 concerned. He's going home to play in Iowa where he's from with the AHL team for the Minnesota
22:02 Wild. I think this is a good situation all around. And I like what they did. I think the Bruins
22:07 viewed this as a kind of a transitional year with this team. They didn't get sucked into believing
22:12 that this team is going to be like the favorite to win the Stanley Cup. I think the Florida Panthers
22:16 are the favorite from the East to go all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. And the Bruins have a
22:20 good run. I'd love to see what they're going to do battling the Panthers in the playoffs.
22:25 But I think they made the right move and the right evaluation with this team as far as what they
22:29 added and making sure they save all their bullets for this summer where they're really going to be
22:33 able to add a lot and really reload for the next few years. Yeah, I was fine with this. Again,
22:40 unless you were like the little like I liked the three-way deal they had the rumored deal for
22:47 Lindholm. I was fine with that. And that's something like that is probably where they
22:52 were going to have to have moved all mark in order to create salary cap space. That's I don't want
22:57 Bruins fans to think they were going to get a treasure trove of stuff for Alinas all mark if
23:01 they moved him to somewhere else. They were that was going to be a move to clear salary cap space
23:06 to make another trade happen. That's why they were going to do that. And it's again, it's hard to
23:10 trade goalies at deadlines that you know people trade values were low at this deadline. I mean,
23:16 you fully didn't even net a first round pick. It's a 30 goal score. I think it was like a second and
23:20 a fifth or something. But anyway, I just think like you the Bruins were net the Bruins, you know,
23:26 they needed a top four left shot defenseman. They needed a you know, top six center. You weren't
23:32 getting both of those this deadline you barely could even get you really even be able to get one
23:36 of them. So again, you you you enhance your strength, your strength is goaltending and
23:43 defense and they got bigger and physical more physical. I'm good with that. I was fine. I'm
23:47 happy with the maroon deal. I wanted them to get him. I might have mentioned him to you a couple
23:50 months ago or a month or so ago. I know I mentioned him to Connor is like, hey, this is a guy that
23:55 probably wouldn't cost you a ton brings experience. And you nailed the Sean Thornton role.
24:01 And I think that's good. There's nothing wrong with that. And I think even by the time he comes
24:04 into the lineup, you know, in late March, you can't tell me the fourth line is going to be
24:09 solidified by then. Like, I think there will be time for him to kind of acclimate. And I'm fine
24:14 with that. And then peak, we kind of discussed, you know, again, you're taking a chance, you're
24:19 taking a minor chance. I like that, you know, they didn't go for, you know, the tent, the Chris
24:24 Tannev and spend a ton for him and things like that, you know, they went for the guy who sort
24:28 of like goes along with the moneyball Bruins thing where it's like, here's a guy with value,
24:33 we see that others don't, and we're going to try to tap into it. And I agree, Diver, it's funny,
24:37 Diver said to me, when they first got peak, he's like, I wonder how integral Adam McQuaid was in
24:43 that because it's similar build and similar roles. And I was like, man, that's a that's a snipe,
24:48 you know, he's Diver still there. He's got the sharp brain, which, which, which is great. But,
24:54 you know, I, to me, like, they're more physical, and they're bigger. And, you know, obviously,
24:58 for birds done for the year. So, you know, Pete kind of takes that spot.
25:02 Well, he does this year and beyond. He's the he's the former replacement moving forward to you know,
25:07 that? Well, yeah, the reason why they had to give up a third round pick is because he's got term,
25:11 he's got a couple years after this happened for a while. Exactly. And but again, I just,
25:16 to me, it goes back to, you know, I'm sort of, I'm fine with the moves. I'm not like enthralled.
25:21 It wasn't like last time I'm like, Oh, my God, you got so much better. You know, like you've
25:26 added in so many places. It's fine. And I think, you know, I want to see the guy I've said this to
25:31 a billion times, I want to see the goalie tandem in the playoffs, not saying that they're gonna
25:34 win the cup because of it. I want to see it. And you got a little more, you know, the last couple
25:38 playoff rounds, what's been the big thing? You know, they're not physical enough. You know,
25:43 they kind of getting pushed around. You help yourself with maroon and you help yourself with
25:47 peak. No one's expecting maroon to put up a ton of points. People are like, Oh, my God,
25:51 the birds are getting slower. The Bruins are already slow. Like, you know, I obviously Yes,
25:57 I want them to play fast. You've got guys like Rashard, not waiting on the bench who can,
26:01 you know, provide some of that speed down there. Lao can do that too. But, you know, you need some
26:07 more physicality as well. And I think they got that maroon. So it's a fine deadline. I'm not like,
26:11 you know, super pumped about it. I'm also not against it. You know, let's let's see what the
26:16 seams got. No, I think it was appropriate for the team that they have. And I think they made
26:20 the right evaluation of this team, their ceiling where they're at, you know, where they're at in
26:25 the long term view organizationally where they're going to be at this summer. Like, I think they
26:29 read the tea leaves correctly on this one. All right, tweet of the week for this week, Maddie
26:36 are actually we're going to get into one thing real quick before we do that. Alina Solmark not
26:41 waving is no trade as we'll turn about Kevin Weeks. And like purported to be a deal with the LA Kings.
26:51 I think this is going to be like a Vitek Vinochek kind of trade if they trade it was going to be
26:56 them trading him somewhere else for another goalie that was making less money in order to create some
27:02 salary cap space for them to make another move elsewhere. I think this was like another domino
27:07 to drop. Oh, you don't think they were going to get back like a first or anything? No. Are you
27:12 serious? You don't think they would have? No. For a goalie? No way. No. This is this is
27:19 no. Did you see that reported anywhere that they're going to get back first? Oh, no, no,
27:25 I didn't. No, I'm just looking over the first of the next two years. No.
27:31 Is not going to give you a first round pick the goalie goalie goalie values in trades are not high
27:37 at all. Why now? But I don't think it was going to be a first. I don't think it was going to be
27:42 like a top prospect. I think it was going to be you were trading him somewhere, getting something
27:46 back, probably another goalie and, you know, maybe a pick of some kind, but it wasn't gonna be a
27:50 first rounder. And it was going to be your clearing salary cap off the books to make another move
27:56 somewhere else. Like if Bruins fans think you were going to get some like really serviceable,
28:02 very good young NHL player, a high for a first round pick like any of these things for Linus
28:08 Allmark when they were clearly trading him to try to create salary cap space for other moves they
28:12 were making. No way. No freaking way. I just think he's worth too much. Maybe I'm overweight
28:18 overrated. He's worth more to the Bruins than he is to anybody else. Maybe not this summer
28:23 when they revisit the trade talks, when I think he will get moved because Brandon Bussey
28:27 is going to need, I believe, waivers next year if you're trying to send him down and they're
28:32 probably going to lose him. And I think that factors into why they want to trade one of these
28:36 goalies because they want to extend Swayman. They don't want to lose Bussey. And I think the only
28:40 way that all that's going to happen is if they trade Allmark this summer, either this season
28:45 or this summer, in order to avoid all those things happening, because they need to have cap space to
28:50 devote towards Swayman and his new deal. And I think they want to groom Bussey to be the backup
28:55 and sort of the next up and comer to Swayman as well. But they weren't ready to throw Bussey into
29:01 the fire either the rest of this season. If anything happened to Swayman and all of a sudden
29:06 Bussey was the only guy in that, that would have been a terrible situation to throw him into.
29:10 So they would have had another veteran goalie coming back in that Allmark deal. I'm convinced
29:17 of it. But I don't think it was going to be any major haul. And I have zero issues with Allmark
29:23 not waiving his no trade. It's something he agreed to. It's something the Bruins agreed to. He has a
29:28 young family that he did not want to go cross country and leave for a couple of months. I think
29:34 the Bruins, it's their absolute strength. I'm against the goalie rotation. I don't want to
29:40 see the goalie rotation every other game in the playoffs. I think Swayman deserves to get the
29:45 start in game one and see what he can do with it and get the ball with it and run with it for a
29:49 while like Allmark has had the last couple years. But I understand and respect the opinion of people
29:53 like you that want to see that goalie rotation at work and to see what they're going to do if they
29:59 use that theory and make it reality in the playoffs. I agree. It's interesting the Allmark
30:04 trade thing. Goalies typically don't get a lot, especially at the deadline. Because it's hard for
30:11 goalies to acclimate to a new place. Even if he goes to New Jersey, it's March. Is he going to be
30:18 his worst defense, worst team? Honestly, Evan, I think it's more that the NHL views goalies.
30:25 They view relief pitchers in baseball and they view running backs in football where they're
30:30 eminently replaceable. Every GM believes they have a goalie or they can pick somebody up off the
30:35 street that can do 80 to 90 percent of what the goalie they're going to trade for is going to do.
30:40 I think there's a belief out there that there's very few special goalies that can play 60 plus
30:47 games, like be these elite goaltenders, the Wazilewskis of the world. And everybody else
30:51 is pretty equal. And there's a bunch of guys in the NHL who are just as good as the guys that
30:55 are in the NHL. And I think that's why you don't see a lot of high value, trade value for goalies
31:02 when it comes to trade time. You're right. And I also you look at like, you know,
31:05 the Vegas Golden Knights last year, when with like their fifth string goalie,
31:09 Nate Miller, now he's nasty, like putting up great numbers. I just look at old Mark Moore
31:13 as palatable contract under the under contract contract for another year and coming off of
31:20 Vezina trophy and he's relatively young. So I look at that more as like, OK, I could maybe see
31:25 a desperate team. But again, there was other goalies on the market. You know, you look at
31:28 New Jersey, they add they had Jake Allen, like they went a different direction because it goes
31:33 back to what you were saying. So, you know, hopefully the Bruins get a first round pick
31:37 or something like that for all mark around the draft. We'll see in terms of I'm fine with him
31:42 waving the no trade clause. And, you know, I said at the top of the show, like I am interested to
31:47 see, you know, he mentioned last night or Saturday about how it's kind of an emotional week for him.
31:53 Yeah. And it's been a hard week. I mean, it's got to be crazy. I mean, you're like,
31:56 all right, where am I going? What am I getting dealt for? Like, when are they going to call me
32:00 like waiting for the phone to ring, especially when you have young kids, if you have a young
32:03 family, extra stressful for a guy like the brass getting it stressful because he stresses about
32:07 those things. But he doesn't have a wife. He doesn't have kids. He could pick up
32:11 and go somewhere else tomorrow, like go to Calgary or wherever tomorrow.
32:14 With all markets, a little bit of a different story when you have young kids in school and
32:19 you're talking about maybe you're not going to see them for a couple of months like that.
32:22 That's a much more different situation. It'd be like if I was like, all right,
32:26 hags, we've traded you to Winnipeg, you're gonna be covering the jets for the rest of the year.
32:30 You cool with that? Like, yeah, it's same time. You have two kids, young kids, you know,
32:34 all that. Whereas me, I mean, I wouldn't want to go cover the Winnipeg Jets, but you know,
32:38 okay, I could go pick up and move there. But you know, I to me, like I am interested to see
32:44 what the after effects are of this. And I think the big one is, is he just going to be
32:50 insanely good down the stretch, you know? And I think like, that's where, you know, this is kind
32:55 of, you know, he's not getting dealt. He's here for the rest of the year. The team wants him,
32:59 you know, mentioned the McAvoy text, Bergeron texting him. And you know, again, like, you know,
33:04 does he probably love Don Sweeney right now? Probably not. But again, there's a reason Sweeney
33:10 doesn't directly coach the team. He's moving the players around. So, you know, again, I
33:18 don't want them to trade all mark at this deadline, unless they were going to get a
33:22 haul that would help you for here and now, which again, clearly wasn't probably going to happen
33:27 in the long run. But it's their strength. It's their one strength. That's the one thing they
33:32 hold above every other team is they have two top 10 starters in the NHL. And that's, you have that
33:38 over everybody. You don't have the best decor. That's like either Vegas or, you know, you know,
33:44 whomever, not the Bruins. You know, you don't have the best top six in the league. You do have
33:51 two really good goalies. And against I like I kind of like, and maybe this is just because they didn't
33:58 have the assets, but I like they didn't try to compete with teams like the Hurricanes and the
34:01 Panthers and the Lightning for scoring. Instead, they said, no, we're going to beef up to defend
34:06 those teams are going to beef up to knock those teams around rather than, hey, let's try to
34:10 compete with them and get scores as well. I'll try to outscore them. They're not outscoring anybody.
34:14 They're not. No, but this year, like we said earlier, their defense first, their goaltending
34:19 first. So, you know, I'm fine with it. I, you know, whatever, this is going to sound really
34:24 stupid and I'm going to get crap for this. Whatever happens happens with this team. I think
34:28 that's kind of my, my outlook on this team the whole year. Both of us going into the year thought
34:32 they were, you know, low tier playoff team and they've exceeded that. And I think they're going
34:37 to end up being better than that. So they're, and they've, they've already surpassed what I
34:41 thought they were going to be this year. So like you add a little bit to help them in areas where
34:46 they could use it in areas where typically you haven't, you know, I think Don Sweeney has figured
34:50 out that what you need to add at the playoff time is like those kinds of players, heavy, physical,
34:55 you know, tougher players, playoff style players. And I think he's, he's understanding now that
35:00 that's really what's important come playoff time and deadline time is to add those kinds of, you
35:04 know, veteran guys, you know, good locker room guys, like all that stuff is what's the most
35:09 important. You know, a lot of the flashy players that you move with the deadline don't necessarily
35:13 be, they're not difference makers for a lot of those teams. And that's just the way it goes.
35:18 And think of all the locker room stuff they've lost in the last two years. Polito, Bergeron,
35:23 Crecci, you know, those are hard guys for places. I know some fans are just like, Oh, it doesn't
35:29 matter. You know, it matters on the ice. No, the locker room matters. Like the dress stuff,
35:33 what happens in the dressing room that matters. And I think you saw it in 2011. You've seen it
35:37 in a year since that stuff mattered. So, you know, Maroon brings a little bit of that.
35:41 All right. Tweet of the week from Maddie delude 96 on Twitter slash x and, you know,
35:47 could it be the worst branding for x of all time if everybody still just calls it Twitter and tweets
35:52 and I will always call it Twitter. Everybody just ignores Elon Musk's ego maniacal x brand change.
36:00 All right. Maddie delude 96. Hopefully Jack has a nice large pizza for Pat Maroon at his
36:05 locker when he shows up. I can report that I don't believe there was a pizza at Pat Maroon's
36:10 locker when he did show up yesterday and talk to the media before he went in and met his new
36:15 teammates. But I'm fascinated to watch if there's like Jack Pat Maroon interactions. And this is
36:22 going to be similar to, you know, when Benoit Pouliot played for the Canadians and Jack was
36:28 all over him, like, I think he was by David Creechy and he like torch Pouliot at the time.
36:34 So he was like, I forget if he said he was a coward or what he said, but he was like all over
36:38 him or like a huge disappointment because he was a high first round. You know what he did?
36:42 What it was. He he went I think it was Johnny Boychuk was behind the net and Pouliot like
36:48 jumped into him and tried to just hit his head and he missed. And Ference noticed it went over
36:53 and fought him. And during that fight, I think was when Jack was just like. Yeah, but I think
36:56 it was there was a crazy fight too in there. Yes. Yeah. So I am I am mega interested to see like
37:03 how much of a Pat Maroon fanboy Jack Edwards because now that he's a member of the Bruins,
37:09 this is going to be hilarious to listen to it, to watch, to see how like it's going to it's
37:13 going to be 180 degree turn for Jack as far as Pat Maroon goes. I it's going to be like when
37:18 George Costanza gets fired and then goes into work on Monday, like he quit. He goes into work
37:23 on Monday like he never quit. And he'll be like, Jack, be like, oh, I've always loved Pat Maroon.
37:27 Yeah, my theory and they'll never do this. Nesson of all places, especially will never do this.
37:33 But I would love Maroons out for a bit, you know, bring them in the booth, put them in the booth
37:38 for a period. Let him talk. Let him have fun. You know, these games coming up, I'm not saying
37:43 they're not interesting, but you could, you know, the deadline's over. They pretty much
37:47 nearly locked up the second spot in the Atlantic. You're probably playing the Leafs in the first
37:51 round. Let let them go back and forth. It might be really good. It might be awkward.
37:56 Either way, it's great content. And if brick, if you want to keep brick, there's like a mediator,
38:00 whatever. My guess is they would be fine. And then throw a couple of jokes around and be fine.
38:04 There's no way they're going to like tell brick to take a powder while Pat Maroon's in there with
38:08 Jack. I'm pretty sure Jack needs brick now to, you know, to be his co-pilot through all these
38:13 situations. So definitely be there. But I think that's a great idea. I think you're doing Nesson's
38:18 programming for them. They're coming up with their programming ideas. Evan, I think it would
38:23 be great. I mean, you know, they have char in the booth the other night, which I thought was funny.
38:27 And during Marcian's thousandth game, like they've had a bunch of those guys come in and do that
38:32 stuff. Yeah. And I think it's good. Like, you know, obviously it's tough with hockey because
38:36 it's always moving and, you know, you do need to like, you know, Charles and they were in
38:40 Frederick's breakaway when I interrupt him. Like, yeah, it's not like baseball where you can put
38:44 Bill Burr in the booth for like two innings and they can just, you know, shoot the, you know,
38:48 shoot the, you know what. But I think, you know, having Maroon in there, people watching the game
38:53 anyway, but I think it'd be fun. Or if you really want to have some extra content, have them sit
38:57 down and do an interview and, or, you know, talk back and forth, like do something with it. You
39:02 know, don't avoid it because people want to see it. And it's, it's all in good fun. Nobody, like
39:07 nobody thinks like, you know, Pat Maroon's going to like, you know, lift Jack up by his pants or
39:12 anything like that. Like, it's going to be fine. Do it. You know, it's that time, it's that time
39:16 of year to do it. Yes. That time of year. I absolutely agree. Evan. Pucks with Ags has been
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40:26 Thank you very much for joining us today, Evan, on Pucks with Ags podcast. Everybody out there,
40:30 thanks for listening. We'll see you at the rink.