A plethora of off-season departures including Riley Nash, Rick Nash and Adam McQuaid, combined with the ongoing injury problems — most notably Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Charlie McAvoy and Kevan Miller — is forcing the Bruins’ hand just 26 games into the 2018-19 season.
Ryan Donato, Anders Bjork, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and Danton Heinen have all had their chances to crack Boston’s top-six, yet the stage is too big for the young forwards right now. As the Bruins are finding out, it isn’t as easy as it appears to replace proven veteran talent with promising prospects and have it work right away, no matter how talented they are.