Boston, Mass
The Bruins are Deftones fans. They play their song's before and after most games. This is not news to anyone. They LOVE them. However after game 4 of their opening round series vs Quebec, which ofcourse was the finishing touch on being swept into the offseason, the B's had a certain song on repeat. A Deftones song no less. Change (In the house of flies). A mega hit for the NuMetal rockers off 2000's White Pony. Maybe it wasn't playing from their deathly quiet locker room but its fair to say it was ringing in the ears of management and players as they embarked on a longer than expected summer. I mean, its a great song but man were the Bruins hoping for more. Thus, changes were made. Starting with multi Norris trophy winner Erik Karlsson. He returns to Ottawa as the Bruins welcome back Torey Krug and add top six winger Tomas Tatar. The B's feel Krug isn't far off the player EK was for them. The newly rerated McAvoy will also look to cement himself as the new leader on D. Tatar finalizes a top six group that was always one scorer short. The feel good reunion with Milan Lucic is the other game changing trade GM Grant pulled the trigger on early. Losing a young scorer in DeBrusk wasn't ideal but adding Lucic improves the B's immediately. The bottom six got revamped almost completely via trades, buyouts and FA. The early and unexpected retirement of Tuukka Rask is what leaves the Bruins the most vulnerable however. Linus Ullmark and Andrew Hammond will look to split starts between the pipes. Its a big transition year and time will tell ofcourse but change in the house of...Bee's..was expected.
IN: Torey Krug, Tomas Tatar, LUCIC, JVR, Chris Wagner, Gabriel Dumont, Byron Froese, Petr Straka, AJ Greer, Andrej Sekera, Matt Grzelcyk, Andrew Hammond
OUT: Erik Karlsson, Tuukka Rask, Jake DeBrusk, David Perron, Nate Schmidt, Jack Dougherty, Nick Bonino, Adam McQuaid, Chris Terry, Miles Wood, Tomas Nosek, Craig Smith