Morning Skate: Youths

It is Wednesday, my dudes.

Many of you in the States are likely coming off of some form of a string of holidays, with yesterday being July 4 and the random Monday in between seeming like a “what’s the point” kind of work day.

I know Canada Day just passed by too, so...happy days to most of North America.

For the Bruins, Development Camp is well underway, with the youths scheduled to be on the ice at Warrior Arena once again today.

Proceedings will start at 10 AM, with the youths available to the media shortly before 1 PM.

Both Kevin Shattenkirk and Morgan Geekie, two of the newer Bruins, will speak to the media via Zoom tomorrow too, so it’ll be interesting to see what they have to say about joining the B’s.

In addition to Dev Camp, a lot of the Bruins chatter over the past few days surrounded Tyler Bertuzzi electing to sign with the Leafs on a short-term deal.

“Why didn’t the Bruins sign him to that deal” has been a common refrain — but based on most of the reporting on the subject, it seems like the following happened:

1. The Bruins and Bertuzzi couldn't settle on a long-term deal that provided a term and AAV palatable to both him and the team.
2. Bertuzzi’s camp said he was going to market and would be seeking that a long-term deal with that preferred term and AAV elsewhere.
3. The Bruins said “OK, best of luck” and went about their free agency bargain-hunting business.
4. Bertuzzi’s camp hit the market and didn’t get what they were hoping for. With Bertuzzi unsigned after Day One, they were suddenly more amenable to a short-term deal.
5. The Bruins had already conducted their business and didn’t have space for that deal. Bertuzzi went elsewhere.

If that’s the case, I can’t really fault the Bruins too much here: if the guy said all along “I want term” and never even considered a bridge deal with you, what can you do?

He went to market, didn’t get what he wanted, and was suddenly adrift.

I guess you could wonder if the Bruins could have been more patient, but if the “bridge deal” was dismissed out of hand by Bertuzzi’s people all the way up to July 1, the B’s had no reason to be patient.

Plus, if you waited too long, your fall-back plans would all be gone too, so...yeah. Tough situation.

I get why people wanted him back and called him a great fit, but it’s worth noting that the team performed just fine prior to his acquisition, so...yeah.

Anyways, what’s on tap for today?

(Last minor note: I haven’t forgotten about the player ratings. We had great participation, it’s just a matter of getting things together and getting the posts started. Please bear with us.)