Bruins Bid Farewell to Chuck Kobasew, Prepare For Future

Gone are the Chuck Kobasew days. Here are the Brad Marchand and Vladimir Sobotka days. Both players have been called up from Providence to compete for suddenly open spots on the B's roster.

It would be presumptuous to assume that either rookie could fill the void left by Kobasew -- the 27-year-old tallied 21 goals and 21 assists for the Bruins last season -- but both will be given the shot that general manager Peter Chiarelli thinks they deserve.

"Vladdy and Brad have been playing very well in Providence," he told NESN's Naoko Funayama during Monday's edition of SportsDesk. "So I think it was time to give them a chance. It also gives us a little bit of cap space flexibility for this year and for next year, so it was a good time for all those things."

Marchand tallied 59 points for the P-Bruins in 2008-09, and Sobotka chipped in 44. Both practiced with the Bruins on Monday in the hopes of snatching the spots vacated by both Kobasew and the injured Milan Lucic.

With Kobasew and the $2.3 million he is owed over the next two years jettisoned to Minnesota, the Bruins have some financial freedom to not only test their young talent over the next year but also to re-sign some of the impending free agents on their roster. For now, though, they must concentrate on rebounding from a disappointing 3-4 start with the talent they have left -- and hope that there aren't too many roster shakeups waiting for them in the coming months.

"We just have to I guess find a way so that this doesn't happen to other guys," said center Patrice Bergeron. "We all have to take pride and take responsibility for what we do on the ice."

You can watch Naoko's entire segment here: