Lysell’s future, Montgomery’s contract & more Bruins takeaways

It was a busy afternoon over at TD Garden Monday. 

The Bruins held their annual start-of-season press conference, with Charlie Jacobs, Cam Neely, Don Sweeney, and Jim Montgomery fielding questions from the media with regular-season action just eight days away. 

While most of the questions posed to Boston’s top brass revolved around Jeremy Swayman’s contract and Joonas Korpisalo’s expected season-opening start, several other topics were broached in the midst of a competitive camp.

Beyond the uncertain state of Boston’s goalie corps,  here are five other takeaways from the Bruins’ presser: 

Why a quick hook for Lysell?

The Bruins made a sizable round of cuts on Sunday afternoon, with top prospect Fabian Lysell standing as the most surprising assignment to Providence’s training camp.

Entering camp as a potential middle-six option on the wing, Lysell played three preseason games with Boston this fall — scoring a power-play goal in last Tuesday’s win over the Capitals.

With Boston still left with three games on the preseason docket, why was Lysell already sent down to the AHL ranks? 

“I referenced the camp is not over with, in all likelihood we’re going to evaluate after [Tuesday] night’s game, what the lineup looks like for Thursday. There will be several players that will come back and play — whether that’s Thursday or Saturday,” Sweeney said when asked about Lysell. “So camp is not over. The evaluation process really never ends.”

Even though the Bruins could conceivably call up Lysell again, Boston does have several contingency plans already in place on the roster.

The Bruins could roll with another youngster in a top-six role by putting Matt Poitras on the wing. Morgan Geekie and Trent Frederic are established NHLers worthy of an in-house promotion, while PTO candidate Tyler Johnson is also an option.

For now, Sweeney stressed that the Bruins still want to see more from Lysell before entrenching him in such a key spot in the lineup. 

“There’s the evaluation side of it,” Sweeney said. “The consistency piece, everybody sees the skill set that Fabian has, and we’re excited about it. Now we continue to allow him to fill in the gaps in terms of building a team game. … But he’ll get another opportunity, and hopefully he takes advantage of it.”

Montgomery’s future still unresolved

Beyond Swayman’s ongoing contract strife, Sweeney and the Bruins also need to address the future with Montgomery. Montgomery signed a three-year deal with Boston after getting hired in the summer of 2022.

As of right now, he is set to enter a new year on an expiring contract — a rare situation for an NHL head coach. 

Much as he did earlier this month, Sweneey stressed that the Bruins have started contract talks with Montgomery. 

“We hired a good coach,” Sweeney said of Montgomery. “We believe he’s a good coach, and we’d like to extend him and to be our coach. Our discussions will be ours and be internal and where he feels his landing spot needs to be, but I think it was really important to make sure he knew what our intentions are.”

Montgomery has compiled a 112-32-20 record over his two seasons in Boston, although Boston’s shocking first-round exit at the hands of the Panthers in 2023 still looms large.

Still, Neely had plenty of praise for Montgomery and his impact since taking over on the bench. 

“His communication skills are right up there with some of the other coaches that have had success in this league, very collaborative with his staff,” Neely said. “I think he has no problem delegating, and I think they work extremely well together.

“So those things right there tell me that we got a good coach. I think he’s still learning along the way, as we all are in our positions, but I’m happy with the development of our staff and where we’re headed right now.”

Misplaying their hand in net? 

One popular talking point has continued to sprout up during Boston’s current contractual stalemate with Swayman: Why did the Bruins not sign Swayman before trading Linus Ullmark to Ottawa?

Boston’s decision to deal Ullmark to the Senators on June 24 was viewed as a necessary measure, especially with the Bruins planning on spending heavily in free agency to address other areas of need.

Add in Swayman’s expected ascension as the team’s No. 1 goalie, and Boston made the call to stick with the younger goalie. 

But by dealing Ullmark in June, did the Bruins give Swayman all of the leverage he needed to drag out these contract negotiations? 

“We made a decision to chart a course… both goaltenders had asked to play 55 games,” Sweeney said of Ullmark and Swayman. “That’s not possible if you’re playing on the same team.

“So we decided to make a decision, and we felt comfortable with Jeremy moving forward. … And I don’t regret that decision one bit in terms of the decision we made to move forward and attack some of the areas that we felt we could benefit from in the free agent market and also for some players that were coming through the system.”

Boston’s current goalie grouping is in rough shape, but the Bruins did have a legitimate reason for moving Ullmark by the end of June. 

As noted by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman earlier this month, the Bruins had to move Ullmark ahead of July 1 in order to potentially facilitate a deal with the Senators. 

“You’ll remember the Ullmark trade was right before July 1st… Ullmark could have switched the teams on his [no-trade] list,” Friedman said on the “32 Thoughts” podcast. “ At that point in time, they could trade Ullmark to Ottawa without asking him. And if you go to July 1st, what happens if Ullmark switches his list? So, my guess is that had everything to do with why that happened at that time.”

After Boston dealt Ullmark, it could have immediately shifted its efforts toward signing Swayman.

But if this prolonged contract stalemate happened even sooner, it could have halted Boston’s efforts to spend big in free agency — potentially snuffing out a scenario where Boston added two impact players on July 1 in Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov. 

“That’s the direction we took, and the two are not connected in that sense,” Sweeney said. “Jeremy is taking his position, I respect his position and to some degree, he probably respects ours.

“We just have a gap to fill and it was also the intention to have a goaltender of Joonas’ level in the discussions we had around the league again and/or going to free agency to fill that spot that we would feel comfortable in this position.”

High expectations this winter

The absence of Swayman on the roster does significantly hinder the Bruins’ ceiling, at least at this stage of the preseason.

But once the Bruins’ young netminder is back in the fold, Neely is bullish on this team’s chances of making a deep run this postseason. 

“I think if we get everybody in camp and everybody healthy, we’re a cup contender,” Neely said. “There’s no question. I strongly believe that. I think our players believe that, I know our coaching staff believes that, it’s just a matter of are we going to… I think we’re going to defend extremely well.
Are we going to get the offense we’d like? I mean, that remains to be seen. … But I feel like we’re a strong contender if we’ve got our full lineup.”

In particular, Neely believes that the Bruins’ top offseason additions of Lindhom and Zadorov will further equip the Bruins for the grind that awaits during the postseason. 

“Well, Elias — I mean, his 200-foot game is remarkable. I don’t want to put him at the Patrice [Bergeron] category, but he’s Patrice-like,” Neely said. “And Zadorov, I mean, a big back end like that, it just solidifies our back end. I mean, our back end is big, and they got some beef to them, which I think bodes well in the playoffs. I mean, you got to get to the playoffs, but I think we’re built a little bit stronger for the playoffs.”

New contracts on the way?

Even though most of the discourse surrounding the Bruins and contract talks have understandably revolved around Swayman, Sweeney added that Boston has a few more deals they might want to get done. 

Sweeney confirmed that the Bruins have already started contract talks with the representatives of Brad Marchand and Trent Frederic.

A restricted free agent in Morgan Geekie has a little less leverage in these talks, but both he and especially Frederic could be in line for heftier pay raises moving forward. 

“I have had a discussion with Freddy’s camp 100%. You’re 100% accurate. Morgan Geekie’s an RFA. I’ve had a discussion with his camp. Brad [Marchand]. You know, not to leave Brad out,” Sweeney said. “Plenty of discussions with Brad’s camp, you know, in terms of trying to find a landing spot there.  … We’re as proactive as we possibly can be within the parameters of the league and CBA when we can talk to players.” 

Sweeney added that the Bruins have not decided yet on Johnson and whether they will sign him to a standard NHL deal.