Jakub Zboril had surgery for a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the regular season.
Zboril was injured during a December 2 matchup against the Nashville Predators. Sweeney confirmed the surgery took place on Thursday December 16 at Mass General Brigham.
The surgery couldn’t come at a worse time for both Zboril and the team. He has improved by leaps and bounds, even over the previous season and was finally looked like he was playing with confidence. It took time, but he earned the trust of his coaches, and while it wasn’t perfect, this time around he wasn’t finding himself stapled to the bench or watching from the ninth floor.
It’s obvious that Zboril put in extra work with Bruins Assistant Coach Kevin Dean, who looks after the Bruins blueliners and new comer Adam McQuaid, the teams Player Development Coordinator. For the Bruins, they were easing him into a top 4 role, something that they could have used on the left side and are now back to square one.
Zboril signed a two-year contract back on October 14, 2020 with an AAV of $725,000. That deal expires at the end of this season at which time he will remain a restricted free agent but with arbitration rights. His qualifying offer will be this year’s actually salary of $750,000 in order for the Bruins to retain his rights and you can bet the farm that qualifying offer will be tendered by the Bruins.
The injury obviously hurts his bargaining position and any opportunity he had in arbitration. My uneducated guess is he will be offered the same deal Connor Clifton received at $1 million, but will come with a one-year term as opposed to the three years Clifton signed on for. He would still be a restricted free agent upon that deal expiring.
Here’s to wishing Zboril a complete recovery.
Dom - Hockey 