NHL veteran and Boston Bruins’ center David Krejci is headed back home to the Czech Republic to play hockey this coming season, but, apparently, that doesn’t mean he’s not coming back to the Bruins at some point. While talk has been what Boston will to try and replace Krejci’s production as a second-line center, head coach Bruce Cassidy hasn’t ruled out Krejci putting on a Bruins sweater again.
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As is, the Bruins are planning to deploy Charlie Coyle in the position Krejci left open. The team may try to go out an add another piece, but if that doesn’t happen, it could be because the organization is leaving a slot open for Krejci, thinking he might return once he gets the need to play at home out of his system.
Jimmy Murphy of Boston Hockey Now, he quotes Cassidy who said in an interview on TSN 1200:
“I don’t know if that will happen or when it will happen at all, but he didn’t say I’m retiring and done from the National Hockey League. So, that’s good news for us in the sense that maybe in a couple of months, he’ll feel satisfied with what he needed to do, or maybe not.”
Cassidy said Krejci told the team, “‘Listen, I’m going home and it may extend into the season.” He didn’t say he wasn’t coming back. He didn’t say he was retiring. He just said he didn’t know how long his stay in the Czech Republic would be. The team is aware that his stay could become a permanent one, but they are holding out hope that he decides he’d like to come back at some point.
If you need evidence to show just how flexible the Bruins are trying to be, look at who the team signed in free agency. Veteran forwards Nick Foligno, Erik Haula, and Tomas Nosek are all forwards who can player either center or wing. They’ll be added to the mix of Coyle and Jack Studnicka. “So we’ll see where we can fill that hole and see where David’s at a little later here in the season,” he said.
If this is the end, the Bruins are prepared for that. There’s just this feeling that Krejci wasn’t saying goodbye, only that he was saying so long for now.
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nostredummass12
August 11, 2021 at 5:31 pm
Sure. Sweeney blew the Bruins cap space on bottom six “centers” and now they’re looking at an entire season or more without a legitimate 2nd line center. OF COURSE Cassidy is hoping David Krejci will return. Only that’s no way to run a hockey team…on hopes that a player who has left might actually come back.
The Bruins are dangling that possibility because they screwed up in a major way. Knowing the team would be without David Krejci, and instead of “replacing” him with a legitimate 2nd line center, for some reason (incompetence) they decided to patch the team with bottom six talent.
The cynicism of trying to convince the fanbase that they didn’t mess up, pretending that there’s some legitimacy to “hoping” that Krejci comes back is beyond ludicrous. KNOWING that one day both Krejci and Bergeron would be gone, and not stacking the farm system with potential replacements, is beyond ludicrous.
Sweeney and Co. have done enough damage. Over multiple seasons. This season, without a second line center, may be apocalyptically bad. “Continue to win”? The Bruins were one and done WITH David Krejci. How can anyone expect anything but utter collapse without him?
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