I’m operating under the assumption -- or maybe the belief or maybe the gut feeling -- that one of Ville Leino or Simon Gagne will play regular season hockey with the Boston Bruins in 2014-15.
Now, there’s obviously a lot that has to go into all of that before it becomes a reality for one of them -- from their potential pay with Boston to how they gel with the club and players throughout camp -- but I think the Black and Gold will certainly want to add a veteran forward of their caliber. For insurance purposes if nothing else. (I mean, this is a team that’s slowly hitching their wagon to a teenage, 170-pound David Pastrnak being close to ready for top-six minutes in the NHL this season.)
But when push comes to shove, who would you rather have-- the undeniable reclamation project in Leino or the veteran that didn’t play in a single pro hockey game last year in Gagne?
This is not a discussion a Presidents’ Trophy winning club typically wants to have in defense of their mark from a year ago, mind you. But such is life for the cap-strung Bruins though, who (rather unsuccessfully when looking at the end result) put all their eggs in one basket last year by way of a bonus-heavy, one-year contract for Jarome Iginla, who will call Colorado home for the next three years thanks to an offer the B’s couldn’t match. (Or even come close to matching for that matter.)
There’s also the very real potential that Reilly Smith, still without a contract that his party deems a fair value, is not with this club when the puck drops on the B’s 2014-15 season. So while your Leinos and Gagnes are not the strongest options, they are players you just might need this season.
A scary thought? Well, it all depends on blah blah blah, yes, absolutely.
Let’s start with the longer shot (at least in my eyes) of the two-- Gagne.
You hear Gagne’s name and you think old, right? I know I did. I was honestly shocked to see that he’s only 34 years old. But he seems like an old 34 because, well, he is an old 34. He’s been an NHL regular since the 1999-00 season and has cemented himself as a Philadelphia Flyers legend and perennial playoff hero in the process, but has also become a fixture for numerous injured reserve stints, something that’s hurt his stock in the 2010s. Since the start of the 2011 season, the Quebec-born Gagne has played in just 72 of a possible 130 games. He’s tallied just 12 goals and 33 points over that 72-game stretch, too. Ending his 2013 season in Philadelphia where it all began proved to be a game-changer for Gagne, too, who felt invigorated enough to find work after the season after finishing the year with five goals and 11 points in 27 games back with the Flyers, even finishing the year on the Flyers’ top line with Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek.
That was the last time Gagne was seen on an NHL rink, though.
We’ve been over the specifics of Gagne’s summertime departure from Philly in 2013 before, which was bizarre at best in my opinion given the Flyers’ infatuation with Daniel Cleary during that same timeframe. But still, the fact that the Flyers opted to pass on Gagne even when Cleary opted to go back to Detroit -- all while after nullifying his contract with Philly -- is semi-alarming.
Gagne’s a close friend of B’s alternate captain Patrice Bergeron though, and with a resume like his (though quite dated at this point), there’s an obvious value to Gagne’s name. A shell of himself or not, the Bruins are a team that put a tremendous amount of stock in ‘big time performers’, and with 37 goals and 59 points in 109 career playoff games, the lefty-shooting Gagne is just that. Even if it’s on their third line.
When it comes to Leino, this is about a player looking to reestablish himself as a legit NHL presence. And I really don’t think there’s any doubt-- he still is. In Buffalo, the Finnish forward was expected to do everything for a Buffalo franchise still in search of their first Stanley Cup. That’s life when you’re handed a fat contract, though, and Leino should’ve known that. Instead, Leino floundered as a bona fide scorer for the Sabres, recording just 10 goals and 46 points in 137 games for the club. Think about this mind blowing number: the 30-year-old Leino has scored just twice in his last 66 NHL games. He was a scapegoat on an awful Buffalo team, and was even outscored by John Scott this past season.
For the Sabres, this was $27 million horribly spent, no doubt.
But when you look at Leino, and the reality of what he is as a player, this is a forward that was at his absolute best as a roleplayer with the Philadelphia Flyers. Despite spending only two seasons with the club, Leino was a talent that really seemed to gel with what the Flyers were. He fit in seamlessly with the upper-tier talents like the Girouxs, Brieres, Richards, and Carters of the club, but also carved out his own niche, striking with a career-high 19 goals and 53 points in 2010-11. And when the Black and Orange were in the postseason, Leino made sure he punched his time card, registering 10 goals and 26 points in 30 playoff games.
Again, that’s something the Bruins like to read.
At the end of the day, it’s going to take a lot for either one of these guys to make the team, and that’s known to everybody involved. It doesn’t help that they’re likely fighting for the same job, which is as the left winger on the Bruins’ third line centered by Carl Soderberg, either. But when camp officially opens next week, the troubled past for both of these projects will be forgotten by head coach Claude Julien and general manager Peter Chiarelli, and the focus will shift to what they can bring to Boston in 2014-15.
Buzzcast 9.12.14
After a brief hiatus, I was thrilled to return to the HockeyBuzzCast this afternoon.