Thompson, St. Pierre re-sign

Kind of a rough time to be a developing center for the Bruins.

They currently havr two number one centers, Krejci who proved he can play his ass off. Kessel who is unlikely yo return to the pivot under Julien and Chiarelli, Sobotka who may turn into another Metropolit (preferably with more goal scoring) Wheeler who they've already told won't play center. Then there's Reich who has killed penalties and played enforcer, and Noke who needs some consistency but may yet challenge for a 2-3 center position.. And yet the B's still drafted centers.

Yeah, I agree about a center overload, but it is always easier for a center to go play a wing, then a wing to go play center.
I like where this team is heading, but I would really like to see a puck moving d-man picked up, but those are few and far between. It will be interesting to see what FLA is going to get or is asking for J. B-Meester after getting him for one more year, which I believe was to up his worth and not to really retain his services.

GO B's!

I guess the thought is that natural centers can transition to the wing easier than a winger to center. But yes ... it is odd that there are so many in the system. Don't forget Soderberg, Hammil, Colborne, Arniel, and Marchand are Centers as well (or at least have played significant amounts of time at the position in their Jr careers). Sure all these guys are a few years away, but that's alot of guys at one position.

I keep hearing that Thompson has a good shot to make Boston next season, but I heard that a lot last summer as well. Instead, when a fourth line center was needed, they gave Sobotka the call. Note that the rosters that are continuously published for salary cap purposes list 14 forwards. Barring injury, only 13 will make it out of camp. That means Sobotka, Nokelainen or Reich are likely to be demoted. Thompson would need to beat out one of the other two to make Boston. This doesn't even take into consideration the fact that Soderberg and Marquardt should be very close to making the team.

Don't forget about these other centers in the B's system: Brock Bradford, Maxime Sauve, Wacey Rabbit, Levi Nelson, Nicholas Tremblay, and Mark Goggin. Definitely a lot of centers in the Bruins system.

It's been pretty quiet on the free angent front. I guess the B's must be done? Any rumors floating around out there?

The Bruins are at the cap limit, even after the Murray buyout, so I don't see them doing anything else on the free agency market.

Maybe the B's should trade Hnidy,Ference, or Alberts and one of these young centers to Florida for JB. They'd probably still have to waive Schaefer or trade him for a pick but that's not much of a loss.

I'd rather keep Krejci and Sobotka and trade Noke but I could even live with sending both of the latter two for JB.