Significant injury already shaking up the Bruins top 6

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Andrew Loftus
October 3, 2022 (11:38)

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Both training camp and preseason gives NHL clubs the opportunity to see who makes the team and what effective line combinations are. That's what the Boston Bruins are working on right now. Keep in mind Brad Marchand is already out until at least November with hip surgery and Taylor Hall is week-to-week with an upper body injury. That is two significant forwards out for the Bruins. Boston has been putting a line together of David Krejci centering David Pasternak and new acquired Pavel Zacha. All three skaters are from the Czech Republic. If that line is kept together, Boston is looking at Trent Frederic, Nick Foligno, or AJ Greer as winger on their top scoring line with Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk.

AJ Greer, a second-round pick in 2015, has been effective in the American Hockey League and has had a good preseason. He only has fifty games of NHL experience and two career NHL goals. Trent Frederic, Boston's first-round selection in 2016, has played the last two seasons in Boston but has not put-up great numbers offensively. Last season he had eight goals and ten assists in sixty NHL games. He does offer decent size and has a rugged toughness to his game, but he's not known as a top six forward. Lastly, Nick Foligno continues to see his numbers decline in the NHL as he continues to age. Although he has the most experience of the three, he only had two goals in sixty-four games last year and it looks like his best days are behind him.

Boston will surely miss Marchand and Hall up front to start the season. All teams battle through injuries at some point during the season. Boston will have to call upon other players to step up until these two wingers get back. Perhaps Boston tries all three wingers at on the top line in the first month of the season at some point. There situation is not ideal, but they will have to make it work as the season is rapidly approaching.