Bruins are violating minimum number of veterans in a preseason game - Youth movement!

New York Post writer Larry Brooks noticed that the Bruins were skirting the rules in regard to the number of veterans dressed for each preseason game, only dressing 7 instead of the required 8. Lets take a look at who they might think are veterans, but aren't called that in the CBA.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Bruins appear in violation of CBA mandating at least eight defined quot;veterans&quot; dress for all exhibition games. B&#39;s have seven.</p>&mdash; Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYP_Brooksie/status/649318889269108738">September 30, 2015</a></blockquote>

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Here are the requirements and criteria for veterans in a preseason game from the CBA:

15.4 Exhibition Games.

(c) A Club shall be permitted to dress a minimum of eight (8) veterans for any Exhibition Game. For purposes of this Section 15.4(c), a veteran shall constitute either:

(1) a forward or defenseman who played in thirty (30) NHL Games during the previous season,

(2) a goaltender who either dressed in fifty (50) or more NHL Games or played in thirty (30) or more NHL Games in the previous season,

(3) a first round draft choice from the most recent year's Entry Draft, or

(4) any Player who has played one-hundred (100) or more career NHL Games.

And here are the Bruins projected lines, from Bruins.com. Green indicates that they are considered a veteran by the CBA.

Jimmy Hayes, Brett Connolly, Max Talbot, and Zac Rinaldo all count as veterans playing forward, as they all played 30 or more games last year, at the very least. Matt Irwin and Adam McQuaid meet the requirements on defense, and even though he was injured last year (which would call into question the 50 times dressed)  he has still played 100 or more NHL games in his career.

Really close to the veteran label are Ryan Spooner and Zach Trotman, both just a few games away from the 30 mark, Trotman having played 27 NHL games last year, and Spooner having played 29 games, and neither have passed the 100 games played mark. Its entirely plausible that both Don Sweeney and Claude Julien now consider Ryan Spooner a veteran (hopefully with the increased trust that comes with it), and overlooked that the CBA does not consider him one.

All this hubbub over one game. Not playing Spooner sooner is really coming back to bite them! I wonder which regular will draw in to replace a prospect.