Kevan Miller — NHL — The Daily Goat

At the beginning of the 2021 NHL season, many question marks surrounded the Boston Bruins blue line and whether it would be strong enough for another Stanley Cup run. Ultimately, the Bruins backend became plagued with injuries and broke down against a tough Islanders team, losing in 6 games in the 2nd round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Now, with the retirement of Kevan Miller and the departure of Jeremy Lauzon to the newly formed Seattle Kraken via the expansion draft, the Bruins yet again face questions regarding their defensemen and more specifically the gap at left defenseman on their second D-pairing. On Wednesday, July 28th, the Bruins will have an opportunity to fill that gap on defense when NHL Free Agency begins. With $20 million in cap space still available for the Bruins after the Taylor Hall deal and General Manager Don Sweeney looking for an all situations D-man, here are five notable left-handed defensemen the Bruins should target in free agency to fill that gap on the back-end.

With the upcoming NHL season, which starts January 13th, Bruins fans will see a Bruins defense that will look different from past seasons. On Wednesday, December 30th, the Boston Bruins 14 year captain, Zdeno Chara, said goodbye to the Bruins and the city of Boston, as the 43 year old defenseman signed a one-year deal for $795,000 with the Washington Capitals. The Bruins also lost star power play defenseman Torey Krug, who signed a 7 year, $45.5 Million contract with the St. Louis Blues back in October. The signings have left lingering questions in the back of many Bruins’ fans minds as to who will fill Chara’s role as a leader in ice time on the Bruins back end and who will quarterback the Bruins’ first powerplay unit after Krug’s departure?