Should Noah Hanifin be the Bruins’ top offseason target? w/ Ty Anderson | Poke the Bear - video Dailymotion

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Poke The Bear with Conor Ryan Ep. 201  Conor Ryan and Ty Anderson look ahead to the Bruins' future and how their increased cap space could play into a very active off-season. A big trade at this deadline is not out of the question, and could have them in prime position to extend a player they bring in this year. Who are the most likely targets for the B's? That, and much more!    This episode of Poke the Bear is brought to you by Fanduel Sportsbook. Fanduel Sportsbook is the exclusive wagering parter of the CLNS Media Network! Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED when you place a FIVE DOLLAR BET. That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS in BONUS BETS – WIN OR LOSE! Go to https://FanDuel.com/BOSTON! The app is so easy to use and there are so many different ways to bet like:    ● Live Same Game Parlays  ● Find Bets in the NEW Explore Tab  ● Make a parlay in the Parlay Hub – the best way to find popular parlays  ● And more!    DISCLAIMER: Must be 21+ and present in select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino, LLC. First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, 1-800-9-WITH-IT in Indiana, 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP in Louisiana, visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, visit 1800gambler.net in West Virginia, or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call (800) 327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.    Factor Meals! Visit https://factormeals.com/POKE50 to get 50% off your first box! Factor is America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit, can help you fuel up fast with ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door.    Conor Ryan  Reporter for Boston.com   Twitter

Transcript

00:00 If you're going to make some of these moves that we're talking about, whether it's a Lindholm or

00:02 Hanifin to have team control for as long as you can to really allow you to do that load up.

00:08 That's pretty important. And so I think it's more about the wall than it is the contract, but

00:14 it's a legit conversation that they have to have, you know, sometime now, maybe they had it over the

00:19 break, but it's going to get real now, I think, depending on what his diagnosis is and when he

00:24 comes back from the lineup. And welcome into poke the bear episode 201 presented by CLNS Media and

00:40 sponsored by our good friends over at FanDuel and Factor Meals. My name is Connor Ryan. Once again,

00:46 we are joined by 985, the sports hubs, Ty Anderson. Ty, what's going on? What's up, man? How are we

00:53 doing today? I'm doing well, Ty. I'm doing well. I don't think Bruins fans are at least the ones who

00:59 attended Tuesday's game against the Calgary Flames. I think we talked about this,

01:04 I think in the middle of that game going on, if that was like your first time at a NHL game,

01:11 first time at a hockey game, first time at a Bruins game, I feel very, I feel very bad for you

01:16 because that game was not fun beyond the fact that it was a 4-1 loss for Boston. Entertainment

01:21 factor, not good. Crowd wasn't into it. Players maybe were still sweating out some of their

01:27 margaritas from the All-Star break. Wasn't a good product, I think, on the ice on Tuesday.

01:31 Yeah, definitely. You know, you get those games every so often in the 82-game season, but

01:38 that was rough, man. That's like last year. You know, last year was a record-setting year, right?

01:42 You know, and I knew somebody whose only game was the Nashville game where they lost like 2-1

01:51 and they scored their only goal of the night with like 5 seconds left in the third period.

01:55 And it's like, I was talking to them, like, I'm so sorry you picked the worst game to go to.

01:59 In the season that was basically perfect, you know, regular season anyways, that was the worst

02:05 game. So last night, probably their worst effort of the season. You know, I feel like that's probably

02:09 a fair assessment. Just didn't have any jump whatsoever. And things that you thought could

02:16 be a launching off point just weren't. And so you have those kind of nights, you know, I'm not going

02:23 to get too high or too low about it, but no, entertainment value was absolute garbage last

02:28 night's game. Tends to happen sometimes in this league and it just sucks when it happens after

02:33 about 10 days off. Right. No, it kind of reminds me of, as you said, that Nashville game or even,

02:38 I think it was that game, the Kraken home game where I feel like energy was completely down.

02:43 I don't remember what the score was. I think three, not one goal. A lot of, yeah, it was not,

02:48 not a fun product out there on the ice. Again, that was a record setting team stacked. Those

02:53 things happen over the span of 82 games. So I agree with what you kind of said. And it seems

02:58 like that's more or less what was echoed by, you know, players like Charlie McAvoy after the game,

03:02 that, you know, shit happens. They're not really going to dwell too much on it. And again, I think

03:07 you look at that game, a lot went wrong for the team, right? Like you can point at a lot of people

03:12 are focusing in on the physicality, the lack of pushback, especially when Martian got trucked over.

03:18 That I think is something that I'm sure they'll focus on moving forward is, you know, I feel like

03:23 that happens every year. There's that, there's that one game where the response and like the

03:27 bang, bang play isn't really there. And the players immediately afterwards are like,

03:31 yeah, we probably should have corrected that. So I imagine that, you know, I don't know if that

03:36 means we're going to have a brawl on Thursday against Vancouver, but as something that I think

03:40 sometimes just needs to be reinforced. But I think when you look at, you know, the physicality, the

03:46 PK, once again, having a pretty rough night, which has kind of been a trend since the holidays for

03:52 this team, Jeremy Swainman had a couple of goals that I think he would like to have back. Not a lot

03:57 really went well for this team in this game. Are you doing it more as just a one off? Or is there

04:02 anything from this game that you think this Bruins team can take from Tuesday that's like, all right,

04:09 you know, we have to build off this, make sure it doesn't snowball as opposed to just being like,

04:13 fuck it, burn the tape. Let's get past this one. Yeah. You know, I think you can always learn

04:19 something from, you know, wins and losses. I think the biggest thing for me is like,

04:24 this team is, is, has had problems starting well. Like it really feels like they,

04:30 they wake up late in first periods. They don't really set the tone out of the gate,

04:35 or at least it feels rare that they do. You know, and, and that's kind of, that's not them,

04:42 you know, you go back to who they've been, you know, these last decade, really, it's start,

04:48 it's on time start, right. You heard it from Cassidy here from Montgomery. It's what,

04:52 it's what they want. But you're also bang on about the PK. I believe it's now bottom 10

04:57 since the Christmas break. That's got to get cleaned up. Like if you are going to be as good

05:01 as you want to be, that can't be the case. And you look at the teams, you know, ahead of them,

05:07 you know, so to speak ahead of them, who's been worse PK wise out of the break, it's been Toronto.

05:12 It's been the Islanders who made a coaching change. It's been the sharks, the ducks,

05:16 the caps and the blue jackets. That is not a crew that you want to hang with in 2023, 24. So

05:22 you know, I also think that, and this is a greater picture thing, I know, but

05:29 you know, you look at their penalty trouble and their, in their PK trouble, they just take too

05:33 many penalties and, and they take penalties at the worst time. And, you know, I will look at

05:39 last night's game where, you know, they should have got a five minute major. Like, I don't think

05:44 Marcian deserve the slashing, the goalie. Like I didn't hear the whistle. I didn't hear the whistle.

05:49 And I don't think anyone did, you know, when they called him for that. So whatever, but you look at,

05:55 you look at later in the game, they're trying to make a push. They're trying to tie it.

05:59 And they take a too many men penalty. Like, like that can't happen. And that's what I'm

06:03 talking about with penalties. Forget the stick infractions, but just, just bad penalties at the

06:08 worst time. Uh, and that's an example of it. So it just generating momentum and then sustaining it

06:15 has been difficult for this team, despite their record. So that's the biggest concern for me is

06:19 that this, this team, when they're not going, they have a hard time getting out of their own way.

06:25 And, and maybe that's the case for a lot of teams, you know, hockey is a game based off mistakes,

06:30 but it feels especially glaring that when they don't have their game generating momentum

06:34 and generating positive, you know, sort of momentum in any respect is difficult for this team.

06:40 Yeah. And it kind of harkens back to, you know, we talked about this the last couple of weeks,

06:44 really, but looking at the trade deadline and what this team needs. And I think you can make

06:49 a very compelling argument. They need both a tone setting, maybe bottom six forward and a defenseman.

06:55 We've kind of gone back and forth. I think last week we both talked about how, you know, we made

06:59 our case as to why they should maybe prioritize a defense and more than a fourth line star or what

07:04 have you. But I think when you look at the way the PK is going, the way that some guys further down

07:08 the line up are playing, um, you know, I don't think it's been the best year for Grizz like,

07:12 obviously, but even like. Forbert, who was really, really strong at the start of this year.

07:16 We all, we all know how good he is on the PK, but even at five on five, he was really strong out of

07:20 the gate number of injuries he's dealing with, you know, really rusty coming off that LTAR stint,

07:26 he's dealing with something else now on top of that. Um, it does feel like this is a team that

07:32 if they had to make just one move, which might be the situation they're dealing with in terms of

07:36 just the assets, the cap space they have feels like they might be better suited, looking more

07:41 defense than maybe a, a physical forward upfront, because it does feel like that is an area,

07:47 whether it is the full birds or the Grizzlies, Shatton Crooks, what have you, where they just

07:50 need a little bit more reinforcement at that part of the line. Cause it's kind of reminds me of like,

07:55 you know, the St. Louis blues in 2019, a lot of big bodies, water, really strong players.

08:00 The one guy that was not that good in that series, Vince done. It was like the one little weak link

08:04 in there and he became a very good player, but I think he was what, 21, 22 probably wasn't ready

08:09 for the playoffs. Bruins picked him apart whenever he was out there, but that was like the one little

08:13 weak link. I feel like you have a few areas further down the lineup with this decor that

08:18 probably need to bolster a little bit between now and March 8th.

08:20 Yeah. You know, a dark forward. It's really, it's interesting because he hasn't looked right

08:27 since coming back. And the natural belief was that, Oh, he re-aggravated whatever he's been

08:32 bothering. Well, whatever's been bothering him all year, but Jim Montgomery says, no,

08:37 this is a new injury. Okay. Well, so now you have one injury that's been bugging you all year. Yeah.

08:42 Now you have a new one. You don't look great, first of all. And then secondly, you know,

08:46 he had a play last night where he throws it right at the middle intercepted Bruins were lucky that,

08:53 that, that Calgary, I think they missed the net. It was in the second period of play.

08:58 But between, between that and, and Shatten Kirk's game is kind of hot and cold. Like it's, it's,

09:07 it's kind of leveled off a little bit. Um, and so, you know, like that's something that you got

09:13 to watch, you got to look forward and like, yeah, I think I might be more suede on your side now,

09:18 where I'm saying, okay, now you need a defenseman. Like, like, but this is the,

09:22 this is the nightly battle you're going to have between now and March 8th. And,

09:26 and that's why I say that sometimes losses are good. If you can learn from them,

09:29 you know, like, I think the Bruins may learn what they need more from losses than from wins,

09:34 you know, wins everyone feeling, everyone's feeling great. Everyone, everyone's feeling

09:38 good. Like you may have that, Ooh, we got out of danger there, but, but you feel good overall

09:43 losses is when you you're forced to take a deeper, hard look and say, okay, do you have enough here

09:47 in a seven game series? So, um, I think the biggest thing is that you just want certainty

09:55 and some respect on your defense beyond Charlie McEvoy. And I would say Brandon Carlo, like those

10:00 are two bedrocks this year, you know, Lindholm has been better of late, but he's, but you know,

10:06 I would have to go back and rewatch that sequence, but I think that Lindholm and Poshnok were a

10:11 reason why they got that too many men. If I want to go back and watch it, but I think it was them,

10:15 them two there that, that kind of has miscommunication. So, um, you know, like, I think

10:21 that's, you know, you'll watch the team and like, you just want some certainty on that backend

10:25 right now. They don't have any of it. It feels like, yeah, it's one of those things where even

10:29 like Lindholm, as you said, been stronger, I think over the last maybe month or so also had

10:34 that pinch that led to that Carolina loss, which Jim Montgomery was pissed about. So like, again,

10:39 even if it is just a short thing of like a Middleton or another, maybe stronger guy on

10:45 defense, like we mentioned Parker Weatherspoon, I don't think he's going to be your savior down

10:49 there. And also I think you look ahead at this game on Thursday, great opportunity to get him

10:53 in the line of Weatherspoon. You're going to see how he does against actual teams that can,

10:58 be really aggressive, high powered offense team that will be in the playoffs. I don't think

11:02 Calgary is going to be in that situation. So need to give him an extended look here, but even if

11:07 Weatherspoon is a pleasant surprise, I wouldn't call him a revelation, but a pleasant surprise

11:12 as being maybe a guy that can play 16, 17 minutes. I think you still need someone else back there,

11:18 whether it's a Middleton or, you know, Nick Seeler, who's blocking every single shot. It feels

11:23 like for a Philly, someone like that might be an option for the Bruins. So we'll talk a little bit

11:29 more about other potential options for the Bruins on the blue line. But before we do that, let's

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12:16 over at FanDuel. All right, Ty, we've talked a lot about potential trade targets for the Bruins.

12:22 We're looking at fourth line guys, the Pat Maroons, Brendan Duhames, guys like that. We talked about

12:29 third pairing guys like, you know, Iloula Bushkin. Middleton is a second pair, third pairing guy.

12:35 One guy who's been brought up a couple of times, probably the top target on the market now,

12:41 Noah Hannafin, Calgary Flames defenseman, having a very, very good year. I think he's got

12:46 almost 25 points, averaging, I think, over 23 minutes of ice time per game. Had a goal on

12:53 Tuesday against the Bruins. Again, not a great goal for Jeremy Swinburne to give up there,

12:57 but regardless, is viewed as probably the top target, both at the trade deadline and in free

13:04 agency if he gets there. So I don't know how realistic this is. The Bruins are going to be

13:09 targeting him between now and March 8th, just in terms of what the cost is going to be,

13:14 the fact that they've been linked to him before. But if he does hit free agency, again, that's a

13:19 big if, right? You run that risk of him going and getting traded somewhere else and putting pen to

13:24 paper pretty early on. But if he's there in July and the Bruins have, what is it, 26, 27 million

13:31 in cap space, is he kind of your top target you look at if you're looking outside of this

13:36 organization to add to it? Yeah, I think so. And a big reason why I feel that way is that

13:42 perhaps the Bruins are not as big on Elias Lindholm as maybe we were to think. Maybe they

13:51 like him, but not enough to give him $9 million a year, if that's the asking price. And maybe the

13:56 Bruins are weighing it internally and saying, "Would we rather give 7.5 or 8 to Noah Hannafin,

14:02 a high-end left shot D, or do we want to give that to a center who's older and who

14:10 maybe we're not as high on?" We all know that they liked Noah Hannafin back in 2015. Not sure

14:17 if they liked him as much as people thought. I think they liked any of those defensemen. I think

14:21 they liked Wierenski. I think they liked Hannafin. Provov, I don't know about, but I know that they

14:27 liked Wierenski as well. They liked all those guys. And so if Sweeney likes a guy, he tends to

14:34 get them. At some point or another, he tends to bring them in. And so I think that you look at

14:41 it that way and it would just make sense, a natural fit. The question I would have,

14:48 how much money is too much money for your top four? And I think that's the only question you

14:55 would have because the fit is there. Between Forbert and Gryzlik, you have two expiring

15:01 contracts there. You have a need for a long-term upgrade there, I think, positionally. Mason Lowry,

15:09 I think the best way to ease him in is third pairing, second pairing next year. So you bring

15:13 another high-impact guy that allows you to do that. But how much is too much? You have McAvoy at 9.5.

15:22 You have Lindholm at 6.5. Carlos, 4.25, I think. Good deal. Really good deal. But

15:29 if Hannafin's making seven and a half or eight, what do you add? Almost 28, 28, 29 million for

15:36 your top four? It's a lot of money. I like it, but it's a lot of money.

15:40 Yeah. No, I think it all comes down to, yeah, what you view as being, I think, maybe the

15:45 foundation or the bedrock of whatever this next team is going to be. And I think if, again, on

15:51 paper, that's fantastic for a top four. You got four guys you can rely on, mix and match whoever

15:57 you want to play them. They all can move the puck. They're all big bodies. McAvoy's only six

16:02 foot, but hits like a guy who's 6'7". Hannafin's a big guy. Carlos, Lindholm. And then again,

16:08 as you said, Lowry, if you give him time to marinate and play on the third pair, maybe you

16:12 have more of a sheltered role at the start, but give him steady reps, pretty good third pairing

16:18 guy to have, and then help mix and match whoever you want to round out that third pairing, whether

16:22 it's a veteran pickup, a guy like Weatherspoon, whoever it may be. You can roll with whatever

16:28 there when you got that much talent on the top four. And if you have that in place with a guy

16:33 like Swayman as maybe their number one next year, you're already in a pretty good spot, not counting

16:38 the fact that you've got guys like Pasternak and Coyle, Zaka, what have you up front. You're in a

16:43 pretty good spot. It's all just, as you said, depends on how you want to allocate that cap

16:47 space you have. And again, the Bruins might view it as a worthwhile investment. You sign this guy

16:52 long-term, the cap should continue to jump up. That if you've got all these guys already signed

16:57 long-term, you don't have to deal with another big free agency exodus until 2027, '28, when you

17:04 should have even more cap room available. Maybe you view that as a worthwhile thing. It just

17:08 depends on how they view other areas of need. Because as you said, if you asked me at the start

17:12 of the year, I'd be like, "Nah, have you seen how good Lindholm is? Fuck it, they don't need a guy

17:16 like Hannafin. They need a Lindholm or a guy like that." It may not be the case now. And again,

17:21 that's not to say that I don't think the Bruins are going to just be like, "We're locked in on

17:25 Coyle and Zaka, and we think Patra's going to be a top six guy when he's 23, 24." I think they're

17:32 still going to do their due diligence. If another guy becomes available in the next year or so that

17:36 maybe has a higher upside of being a proven top-line center, maybe they kick the tires there.

17:43 Maybe that's when they decide to roll in Gwishin on the first-round pick, or maybe their draft

17:48 pool gets better and they decide to target a guy like, I don't know, like a Keller or Hurdle if

17:53 he's available or what have you. They view someone like that as being a worthwhile investment.

17:57 Lindholm remains to be seen. I wouldn't be surprised if he lights it up now that he's with

18:01 Vancouver with the supporting cast around him. But I could see them maybe having a pass on a

18:07 guy like him who's worth, as you said, maybe 9 million. Upgrade your defense with a guy that

18:12 really gives you probably the best top four in the entire NHL. And you deal with that center

18:16 position as it comes along. When the real big fish is out there, then you bring the hapoons out. But

18:22 for right now, I just don't see Lindholm as being the guy that moves the needle enough for them to

18:26 show out 9 million a year for him. Yeah. And I think that's a big thing,

18:31 is that they're big fish hunting, but they got to make sure they get the big fish.

18:34 That's always hard though, because those guys rarely hit the open market as we know.

18:40 But I think with Hanifin, you would have not only the best top four, but probably the most

18:48 versatile in terms of what you're able to do with it. In terms of you could go back to Lindholm and

18:53 McAvoy if you really want, which has been a super pairing for this team over time,

18:57 and have Hanifin with Carlo, because Hanifin is mobile enough to hang with Carlo. And

19:02 then you have a pairing. You'd have a top pairing where you got a six foot four Lindholm and a six

19:08 foot one McAvoy. Then you got a six foot three Hanifin and a six foot five Carlo. That also

19:13 lines up with what we've talked about before, which is this league-wide trend of having bigger

19:17 defenses and smaller speedier forward groupings that allow you to basically just be to cover as

19:24 much ice as possible and also pester the opposition. So I feel like that's where

19:31 they're naturally trending, is to get more size, but also more mobility back there.

19:37 And I think that's the constant tug of war that you're having, right? It's like, you want to have

19:43 big bodies back there, but they got to be able to skate. They got to be able to move and make plays,

19:48 especially in this system. And I think especially when complementing your right side guys,

19:54 whether it's McAvoy, whether it's Carlo, those guys need somebody who can retrieve a puck.

19:59 We've seen it now, whether it's been Lozon or Chara or Forbert, they need somebody

20:06 who can retrieve and make puck plays with them. And if you don't have that,

20:10 it's going to limit that pairing overall. So Hanifin checks a ton of boxes in that regard.

20:15 And maybe this is the, you know, that's the, that's the, the, the constellation, so to speak

20:20 is, okay, you can't get that high end center. Well, if you juice the hell out of the defense,

20:26 that's almost as good as having a high end center because of the impact it makes at both ends of the

20:30 ice. Yeah. It almost kind of reminds me of, as you said, like them getting the big fish on the

20:35 market. You even look at, you know, teams in the past couple of years who have a shit ton of cap

20:40 space and sign a lot of like pretty solid players, but are they game changing guys? Like I look at

20:45 like Detroit the last couple of years getting, you know, guys like David Perron, Andrew Kopp,

20:50 good players. Are they moving the needle enough? Like as a terms of what they're investing on

20:55 their money in, would you rather sign a guy who can be a 20 goal scorer or would you sign a top

20:59 four 25 minute a night defense when that anchors already maybe the best defense in the league,

21:06 right? In terms of just the personnel and the, the ceiling of them, I'll take, I'll take the,

21:10 you know, the unquestioned top guy on the market and a guy like Hannafin. So we'll see kind of what

21:15 the Bruins do there where Hannafin maybe ends up. Cause it does feel like he ain't going to be in

21:20 Calgary that much longer. If he doesn't want to sign a long-term probably sick and tired of the

21:24 really shitty locker rooms and bad facilities in Calgary. So he might be on the move. So there'll

21:29 be definitely something to to monitor in the next couple of weeks. But before we round this podcast

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22:45 Once again, shout out to our good friends over at factor meals. All right, Ty, let's end this

22:50 podcast by looking at a guy who has not really been able to find his footing as of late. And

22:56 that's Matt Potra. We all know how impressive he was out of the gate. This year had 13 points in

23:03 27 games goes to world junior. Hopefully the Bruins thought that was going to be a reset for him.

23:08 Wasn't the best performance from Canada in world juniors. He comes back, has been able to really

23:14 produce as much and has really been kind of banged up, especially the last month or so.

23:19 And it kind of raises a point as to one where exactly his role is going to be down the stretch

23:23 here, especially where he's going to be in this lineup. And maybe more of a bigger question is,

23:29 could you see a situation where the Bruins do opt to maybe send him back down to the OHL to end this

23:34 year? Just because as much as we thought, maybe he's ready to take that big step forward. Maybe

23:39 he's still better suited to be playing, you know, 19, 20 minutes a night in the OHL and,

23:44 and rip things up down there as opposed to nine minutes in a fourth line when he really shouldn't

23:49 be kind of in that checking line spot. That's a great question because I think you look at,

23:55 you know, he comes back from world juniors, he comes back with a bang. He has two assists in

23:59 his first game back. It was that big win against the lightning. And you're thinking, all right,

24:03 here we go. Offer the races. Confidence is there. Confidence is back. He gets, he injures himself

24:10 in the hit attempt on Sean Dursey. Since then three of his last four outings under nine minutes,

24:16 not what you want, not what you need. And you know, it feels like he's kind of quieted down

24:22 a bit. He had a good run out of the gate as October was really good as November was pretty

24:28 good. And then since then it's been, it's been four points in 12 games. So you understand he's

24:34 going to hit that wall. It looks like it's here for him. I don't think it's helped that,

24:38 you know, I was talking with somebody and we were talking about Matt Potrad and we both said the

24:43 same thing where it's like, he's, he's talented as hell, but good God, he's taken a beating this

24:49 year. Like people, people internally and around the league are aware of, of what a beating he's

24:55 taken, how many hard hits, how many, you know, just close calls, elbows to the face, you know,

25:01 forearms to the head. Like, so, and so it was a challenge, right? Like this year is already a

25:07 success for him in terms of, he made the roster as a 19 year old. He said, I'm going to make it

25:12 hard for them to send me back. He did exactly that. So if you want to send them back and let

25:18 them play and play 20 minutes a night versus nine here, have a set roster spot, and then you can

25:25 call them back when that season is over. I would have to see the timeline when that would line up.

25:29 I mean, maybe that is the ultimate, the ultimate goal for them. There's also the contract part of

25:34 it that if he plays 40 games, that counts as a year of service, gets them a little bit closer

25:38 to UFA status. I'm not worried about that in 2024, to be honest with you, but perhaps the

25:44 Bruins are where the longer you have team control, especially if you're going to make some of these

25:48 moves that we're talking about, whether it's a Lindholm or a Hanifin to have team control for as

25:53 long as you can to really allow you to do that load up. Uh, that's pretty important. And so I

25:59 think it's more about the wall than it is the contract, but it's a legit conversation. I think

26:04 they have to have, you know, some time now, maybe they had it over the break, but it's going to get

26:08 real now, I think, depending on, uh, what his diagnosis is and when he comes back into the lineup.

26:13 Yeah. It's one of those things where you look at just the, as you said, the beating he's taken,

26:18 I think even Montgomery said, uh, on Tuesday, it's like, yeah, he, he wasn't on the ice cause he was

26:24 like in a doctor's appointment. Like the guy's gotten the kicked out of him like the last and

26:28 again, full credit to him. And every time he gets knocked down, it's what we kind of, what stood out

26:32 to us, uh, about him early on this year in the preseason, he was getting knocked down, gets

26:36 right back up. It's not like this guy's getting absolutely bullied, but he's 19 years old. He has

26:42 to add muscle. And as much as, you know, I think the, the drive and spirit is there for a young

26:47 kid trying to prove himself. This is a reality, but have ones in you, you know, collide with a guy

26:52 who's 29, been in the NHL, who weighs two 15, right? Like that, that happens night in and night

26:58 out for a guy who's 19. It's going to add up the, the bumps and bruises are going to be there for

27:02 this team, uh, for, for a player like Padra. So, um, if it does hit the situation where he does

27:08 get sent down to the OHL again, uh, I think I wouldn't view it by any means as a failure. I'm

27:14 sure there'll be the people who are like, Oh, what's the point of having this guy up here?

27:18 If you're 19, you already make it to the NHL. You've shown spurts of being an impact player.

27:23 Um, and the reason why you maybe just need more seasoning is one, you're not getting sufficient

27:27 ice time. And I think the fact that you've had, you know, guys like Lauco or geeky have settled

27:33 more into those kinds of third line roles. It's kind of limited how much ice time is available.

27:38 Like, uh, right now in terms of where Potter is, because if he is up here and he's going to be

27:43 getting knocked around, I also don't want him to be in the fourth line spot playing 10, 11 minutes

27:49 a night, really like I'd rather him being down in the OHL, get his confidence up and then revisit

27:54 where he is when, uh, the storm season is over down there. Um, but I think there's a lot of

27:59 factors that play into, maybe it is better for him to go down there for, uh, the tail end of

28:04 the season, you know, lick his wounds and then kind of come back and revisit things.

28:08 But if that is the case, I don't view it as being a letdown by any means for a guy that

28:13 I think has accelerated his timeline by at least a year, if not two from where I think we were back

28:19 in August, looking at his long-term outlook. Yeah, 100%. And, you know, so I just looked this

28:26 up real quick. Um, the OHL schedule ends March 24th, according, according to this, the 23, 24.

28:34 So you're still playing hockey. Um, I don't know the OHL standings off the top of my head.

28:39 Not sure if, if a storm are going to make the playoffs or not. Um, but you, you sort of look

28:46 at that, like you could theoretically the, the regular season ends on April 16th. Um, you could

28:52 theoretically get him back for the playoffs if that is a legit, uh, issue. And yeah, it looks

29:00 like the, uh, the storm, uh, have indeed, uh, are indeed in a playoff spot. It would appear,

29:05 uh, right now. Um, but, but you look at that, like, and so, so you could do that and,

29:13 and you could get, you could theoretically get him back for the playoffs. If that,

29:17 if that is your concern, uh, you know, it's really interesting. Like you talk about the

29:20 physicality and whatnot, like this is why in case anyone's wondering some inside baseball stuff

29:27 here, this is why we always ask about how much weight did you gain in the off season? Because

29:34 it's much harder to put on weight, to add muscle in season. You're so focused on recovery that you,

29:40 you can't say I'm going to beef up now and I'm going to be ready to go against NHL men.

29:46 Like you just can't do that. That's why it's always stressed in the summertime and in training

29:50 camp. Hey, how much weight did you put on? How'd you do it? What do they say about it? Like,

29:55 because it's just harder to put it on in season. And I think you're seeing that with a guy like

29:58 Patra who, you know, you see him out of the, out of his pads and you're like, Oh, this is a skinny

30:03 fella. And there's nothing wrong with that. But, but you see the challenges it does pose a guy

30:10 when you get into the nitty gritty, the dog days of the NHL calendar, because damn, this is a tough

30:16 league, tough league to be a small guy, you know, especially as a teenager, let alone, you know,

30:22 what you got to learn, you got to learn the physicality as well. So, um, it's possible that,

30:28 that this would be the best thing to do for him. And then when you, when you need a shot of

30:32 adrenaline in round one, you say, we got Patra back from juniors. He's feeling good about himself,

30:37 put them in, like, you can do that. You know, it's not too dissimilar from the Tyler Sagan move. I

30:42 know that was different because he played the whole year here, but Tyler Sagan was a, was a,

30:47 a, a jolt of lightning for you in the playoffs that year. He wasn't a regular, he was a guy that

30:51 you threw in when you wanted some more offense or whatever. So, um, that's, that may be how to look

30:56 at Patra as well. Yeah, no, it's going to be really fascinating to see how he does. And again,

31:01 most important thing for him, it's also getting healthy. If he's already still going back to the

31:05 doctor, see where he is, you know, hell he could be, it could be a situation where the guy gets

31:09 shut down. If he's really dealing with a lot of injuries, which when you look at the amount of

31:12 hits he's taken has added up. So definitely something to keep tabs on, uh, in the days and

31:18 weeks ahead. Um, but as we round out, uh, and end this podcast, Ty, uh, where can we, uh, read your

31:24 stuff? Where can we hear you on the interwebs on, on, uh, Spotify, all that good stuff.

31:30 Where can we consume your content? Uh, you could find me here. You can find me at

31:36 90th how the sports hub.com. You can find me, uh, on the air every now and then over there,

31:41 uh, and on their website, that's basically what I do. Um, so yeah, you can find me there. How

31:46 about yourself? Yeah. So you can find me over at boston.com. I contribute to the globe as well.

31:53 Um, for all stuff, whether it's, uh, recaps, features, breakdowns, or we, you know, diving

31:59 more into the trade deadline and the days ahead as well, obviously. Um, so you can find all my

32:04 stuff over there. And if you want to follow me on Twitter X, whatever it's called, you can follow me

32:09 at Connor Ryan underscore 93. So this was episode 201 of poke the bear. I'm Connor Ryan. That's

32:17 Ty Anderson. You guys have a great rest of your week.

32:29 (upbeat music)

32:32 (upbeat music)

Should Noah Hanifin be the Bruins’ top offseason target? w/ Ty Anderson | Poke the Bear

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