The all-star break approaches, so let's take a look at the entire roster and see who's made the grade, and who needs to stay after class for some extra help.

Matthew Bartkowski - Grade: D. An Incomplete is more appropriate, but I'm a harsh grader. Sue me. -2 in 3 games and a negative Corsi don't earn you points in my book. Doesn't seem like he's developing the way you'd like, though to be fair, it's hard for anyone to look good on that lousy Providence team.

Patrice Bergeron - Grade: A. He probably should have made the all-star team, but averaging more ice time than any Boston forward, and the only one that sees consistent time in all three situations (penalty kill, power play, even strength), I'm thinking he could use the 5 days off. Bergeron is second on the team in points, brilliant on faceoffs and is a legitimate candidate for the Selke Trophy. Hard to do more than that at this point in the season.

Johnny Boychuk -Grade: B+. I like what Boychuk has done this year. He's benefiting, obviously, from pairing with Big Z on a consistent basis, but it's hard to knock the +22, or the sterling Corsi numbers. It seems like the brain farts that plagued Boychuk in the past seem to have subsided, and he's using his considerable physical talent to great advantage.

Gregory Campbell - Grade: B+. Campbell's a hard guy to grade. His relative Corsi is the worst on the team, and he's got just 10 points. So he sucks, right? Well, remember that he plays with a couple of muckers, gets an offensive zone start about once a month, and is a primary penalty killer. Soupy wins over 55% of his draws; only Peverley and Bergeron are better among guys who regularly take face-offs. He's dropped the gloves 5 times, allowing Lucic and Chara to rest their mighty knuckles and (somewhat more importantly) avoid potential injury. In short, Campbell does everything you want a fourth line center to do and a little more.

Jordan Caron - Grade: C. This has to be a frustrating year for Caron, who looked like a good bet to win a bottom 6 job, but his ascension has been stalled by the surprising play of Pouliot and Hamill. Personally, I'm okay with that. For years, the only requirement for promotion from Providence to Boston seemed to be having 2 legs, 2 arms and a head. If the Bruins are forcing good prospects to wait their turn, that's not a bad situation.

Zdeno Chara - Grade: A. 25 points, defensive leader in relative Corsi, and relative plus-minus (among guys with significant playing time). I'm sure he's looking forward to getting screwed out of another Norris Trophy.

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You have, by now, surely heard Peter Chiarelli's announcement that Marc Savard will not play hockey for the Bruins in 2011-12, and will probably never do so again.  This should have come as a surprise to no one, but it leads to the logical question: what's next?

Savard's annual $4,007,143 salary will be moved to long-term injured reserve, where it will sit until Savard makes the inevitable decision to retire.  There is some question as to whether Savard would be better served by retiring or allowing the contract to simply stay on LTIR, an issue addressed quite capably by our Dominic Tiano and Doug Watson, and which I will therefore not rehash in this space. 

The Bruins would benefit from Savard's formal retirement, however.  Salary that stays on LTIR does not count against the cap for normal accounting purposes, but it does count against the cap for performance bonus purposes.  This is why the Bruins faced a cap penalty last year and again this year.  I doubt the Bruins would push Savard into retirement this year; he's more than earned the right to take the time to consider the decision and cling to the hope of a comeback for at least a year.  But eventually, if Savard's contract is still sitting on LTIR in, say, 2015, there's going to be some frustration at TD Garden. 

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It's July 20th. Pending the signing of Brad Marchand - which the feisty winger admitted at Monday night's DVD premiere is an inevitability, albeit knowing nothing about the discussions - it's safe to say that the Bruins are done making moves this offseason. That brings their transaction total to five - signing Benoit Pouliot and Marchand, trading for Joe Corvo, bringing Ryan Spooner and Jared Knight on board and extending Adam McQuaid. 

Peter Chiarelli's attention will now turn to re-upping David Krejci and Tuukka Rask, which means that we've reached the point of the summer where it's time to turn our attention to what Claude Julien's going to do to ready his team for the year ahead. 

The following names are likely non-roster training camp invitees, but nothing's yet set in stone:

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