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Last fall, the Boston Bruins handed out training camp invitations like candy.
Following summertime departures of
Jarome Iginla and
Shawn Thornton and without the cap space needed to make an impact signing, then-GM
Peter Chiarelli extended camp invites to both
Simon Gagne and
Ville Leino. Gagne came to the Hub on the after taking a year off of pro hockey (he did some TV work in Quebec), while Leino arrived to Boston following a compliance buyout from the Sabres after a nightmarish three-year stint in Buffalo.
Leino ultimately did not finish camp with the B’s, and spent last season between the Swiss League and the KHL. Gagne on the other hand, won a spot on the Boston roster, and recorded three goals and four points in 23 games for the club before leaving the team following the tragic death of his father.
Inviting players to camp was not necessarily foreign to the Bruins, either. Off the top of my head, I can remember
Chris Clark,
Jay Pandolfo, and
Brian McGrattan among those invited to camp throughout Chiarelli’s tenure in the Hub. (All but Clark earned contracts with the club.)
But with a new GM in town in (the seemingly fearless but also dedicated to the long-term scope of the franchise)
Don Sweeney, the philosophy -- or need -- to invite vets could have changed. Sweeney and the Bruins have already invited
Jonas Gustavsson to camp with a chance to fight for the Bruins’ perhaps vacant backup job behind
Tuukka Rask in the Boston crease.
Yet, like Jello (No, not the singer from the Dead Kennedy’s), there’s always room for more.
One name that’s still on the market -- surprisingly so in fact -- is
Lee Stempniak.
The 32-year-old winger scored 15 goals in 71 games between the New York Rangers and Winnipeg Jets this past season, and has scored 1.66 points per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 over the last three years. That’s enough to put him 150th among all NHL skaters with at least 1,000 minutes played, and the same rate as
Patrick Marleau and a stronger rate than names like
Mike Cammalleri and
Evander Kane. Stempniak is familiar with bottom-six roles and subsequent pay-days, and in fact excels in them, which makes his contract-less situation all the more impossible to understand.
And after spending the last few weeks skating in Boston with members of the Bruins (and more), Stempniak has been honest when it comes to his willingness to don the Spoked-B if he gets the call.
Via
WEEI.com:
“I think it would be a good fit. It’s a great organization,” Stempniak said. “I’ve heard great things. I’ve gotten to know some of the guys. I like them and have a lot of respect for some of their players, just the way they train, the way they play and as people. It’s definitely appealing, but for me, it’s sort of weighing the options. I’ve talked to more teams over the last couple of weeks and things have really picked up. [It’s about] finding the right opportunity at this point.”
Given the uncertainty with the Bruins’ lineup, specifically the fourth line, inviting Stempniak to camp to compete against
Max Talbot and prospects
Brian Ferlin and
Seth Griffith wouldn’t be the worst idea, and might actually bring some bonafide scoring touch to that line. Stempniak’s even-strength success over that aforementioned three-year stretch is far greater than that of former fourth-line staples
Gregory Campbell and
Danny Paille, too, so there’s definitely some truth to be the belief that he would undoubtedly be a player that provides a spark to that fourth line. And though he’s not as experienced as a Campbell or a Paille, Stempniak has also skated some penalty-killing shifts, bringing another element to the ice for any team that signs him.
Should the B’s be the team to sign him? Maybe. Maybe not. But there’s literally no harm in a pro tryout.
At a certain point, the Black and Gold want to see what guys like Ferlin and Griffith have in ‘em. And obviously the Bruins want to see Griffith produce in bottom-six minutes at the NHL level -- something that was clearly an issue for the undersized winger away from David Krejci last season -- and pitting him against guys that have done that in the NHL (Talbot and Stempniak) could jumpstart that process.
Even with some of the uncertainties surrounding the Boston forward grouping, that concern pales in comparison to that of the Bruins’ blue line given the offseason departure of
Dougie Hamilton. The Bruins found potential value pieces in
Matt Irwin and
Colin Miller, but neither is expected to come close to shouldering Hamilton’s load from a year ago as a top-pairing defender alongside
Zdeno Chara and power-play kickstarter on the B’s secondary unit.
The same can be said for any defenseman the Bruins would entertain inviting to camp.
Sweeney and the Bruins did at one point have interest in defender
Marek Zidlicky, and while he still might for all we know, the idea of Zidlicky being more than a second-pairing stopgap at the very best seems unreasonable. And at this point, with the Bruins seemingly more willing to gamble with their youth than they were when they engaged in contract discussions with Zidlicky and
Cody Franson over the last couple of months, maybe passing on a guy, even on a tryout, seems right.
And I understand how strange it may seem to advocate the invitation of a veteran up front but condemn one on the backend. But when it comes to development, I suppose that it’s simply easier to be slightly more comfortable in Julien’s ability to develop a younger defenseman than a forward. His track record indicates such, as well, with Julien and his staff pumping out one capable young defender after another, focusing in on their strengths versus their weaknesses. The truth is that I’ve found that Julien has less of a tough love approach -- or simply put, more patience -- with his defensemen than he does his forwards. Obviously, that comes back to an ice-time allotment -- three pairings versus four lines -- and the situation he and the Bruins have been thrown into over the last three seasons.
With that in mind, it’s still impossible to deny that Julien is at his most comfortable when he has a veteran presence he can throw out there on any given night or into any situation. It’s rewarded him at times, and at times it’s proven to be his downfall. And it’s worth wondering if Sweeney and the Boston front office will consider throwing their coach another veteran when camp opens later this week.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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