Boston Bruins Aren't Looking For David Krejci Replacement

The Boston Bruins previously were linked to Arizona Coyotes' center Christian Dvorak. It certainly made sense, as the team just lost David Krejci and all of their free agent signings are probably better-suited to play in the bottom-six. However, it appears that the Bruins now are going to stand pat with their current roster, as coach Bruce Cassidy stated that Charlie Coyle will be taking over the spot.

This is an interesting decision, but due to their limited cap space, they may be left with no choice. Yet, Coyle is coming off of a down season. In 51 games, he only scored six goals and recorded 15 points. Those numbers definitely need to increase next year with him taking on a bigger role. Yet, there is reason to believe that he can bounce back when looking at his previous statistics.

During the 2019-20 season, Coyle scored 16 goals and had 37 total points in 70 games. That was over a half a point-per-game, which is pretty respectable from somebody who was playing third-line minutes. Also, when he was a member of the Minnesota Wild in the 2016-17 season, he scored 18 goals and had 56 points while on their second-line. If the Bruins can get similar production to that, they will surely be in business. However, that also was four years ago, so the chances of him playing that well may not be the highest.

It will be interesting to see how he does playing with wingers Taylor Hall and Craig Smith. If he continues to struggle, the Bruins could elect to try Erik Haula in the position. At the end of the day, though, it is just so difficult to replace a player of Krejci's caliber.