Boston Bruins defenceman Derek Forbort went down with an injury in late October and missed 10 days. He returned to the lineup and went down again in what the team called a lingering injury and shut him down for 6 weeks. He returned for four games and again went down with an injury but the team would not say whether it was related to his previous ailment.
But there are concerns as to whether he can remain healthy for the remainder of the regular season and throughout the playoffs.
We’re not talking about a Norris Trophy caliber defenceman in Forbort. With his injuries we saw increased opportunities for Matt Grzelcyk, Mason Lohrei and Parker Wotherspoon. But the hardest minutes went to Hampus Lindholm. You know, those shut down minutes and top penalty killing minutes almost always against the other team’s top powerplay unit. Like him or not, Forbort can take some of those hard minutes from Lindholm, much like Brandon Carlo does for Charlie McAvoy on the right side.
I’m willing to bet that the Bruins own internal analytics, not those you and I can find on the internet, show that it had a major impact, and not in a good way, on Lindholm. It is no coincidence that Lindholm’s improved play has come when a surprising Wotherspoon has been capable of taking some of those minutes from Lindholm and the return of Forbort.
At 5v5 hockey, when healthy, Forbort has been on the ice for 72.4% of defensive zone draws. Wotherspoon has taken over 69.2% and the balance has gone to Lindholm. For comparison sake, McAvoy has been on the ice for 41.7% while Carlo has been on the ice for 77.4%. When Wotherspoon wasn’t in the lineup, the disparity gets larger.
The Bruins need Lindholm to be at his best and for that to happen they need to alleviate some of those hard minutes he’s being forced to handle. And if Forbort continues to miss time, the issue is compounded even more. The answer is not within the organization, at least not at this point in time.
That has General Manager Don Sweeney looking around for options. One player-agent has told Dom – Hockey that he has been informed that the Bruins were looking into one of his clients. But Sweeney and assistant GM Evan Gold are going to have to pull off some cap gymnastics to make a deal come to fruition.
The Bruins have about $862,000 in cap space today which means they can only add a player with an AAV of $862,000, and that space is LTIR money so they aren’t banking space. It’s the same on trade deadline as it is today.
The Bruins could waive one of their current defencemen and send the to Providence, but that won’t clear enough space. They are going to have to make a money-in money-out deal or the more difficult money-out deal somewhere else.
Dom - Hockey 