Mailbag: Where does BOS center depth rank in the Atlantic Division?

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Thanks for the question, Mike!

First, let's identify each team's updated center depth throughout the Atlantic Division.

Boston Bruins

Elias Lindholm, Casey Mittelstadt / Pavel Zacha, Fraser Minten, Sean Kuraly.

Florida Panthers

Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell, Evan Rodriques, Luke Kunin - Aleksander Barkov is out for the season.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Max Domi, Nicolas Roy.

Tampa Bay Lightning

Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde, Pontus Holmberg.

Montreal Canadiens

Nick Suzuki, Oliver Kapanen, Kirby Dach, Jake Evans.

Ottawa Senators

Tim Stutzle, Shane Pinto, Dylan Cozens, Lars Eller.

Detroit Red Wings

Dylan Larkin, Marco Kasper, J.T. Compher, Michael Rasmussen.

Buffalo Sabres

Jiri Kulich, Ryan Mcleod, Peyton Krebs, Tyson Kozak.

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When it comes to the Bruins it's tough to accurately assess how good their center depth is this early in the season.

For example, which Elias Lindholm will we get - the one who's scored just 44 points, and 47 points respectively in his last two seasons? Or the one who's capable of scoring 60+ points like he's done multiple times throughout his career including a 78 point, and 82 point season in Calgary.

He's got 3 points through two games so far this season, so hopefully that's a sign of production to come.

Who will emerge as Boston's No. 2 center - Casey Mittelstadt, or Pavel Zacha?

And which offensive version of those two do we see - the versions where they've neared 60 point seasons a few times each, or the versions where they're closer to 45 points?

From a two-way perspective, Zacha probably provides better stability then Mittelstadt.

We've already seen Marco Sturm switch them around Thursday night against Chicago after a Mittelstadt offensive zone turnover, and poor line change on the back check led to a goal against.

Just how good can Fraser Minten be?

He's showed that he's defensively mature beyond his years, but offensive output has been a question.

Scoring the overtime winner during Boston's home opener is certainly a good start production wise.

Boston's center depth has a ceiling of being pretty solid, but also a floor of being pretty meh.

Time will tell.

But as far as how they stack up in the division?

In my opinion, Toronto, Tampa Bay, and Ottawa are three teams who's center depth is clearly better than Boston's right now - at least on paper.

Ordinarily, Florida would also be one of the teams clearly with better center depth than Boston - but the Barkov injury leaves them with their own questions at that position for the time being.

Still, even without Barkov - Bennett, Lundell, Rodrigues, and Kunin are still probably a bit better than what Boston has.

Suzuki is a great top line center in Montreal, as is Larkin in Detroit - but I wouldn't say either of those overall center groups are clearly better than Boston's if the Bruins centers play to their ceilings.

Buffalo's center depth is the weakest in the division in my opinion, especially if Josh Norris misses any amount of significant time.

Ultimately, I think it's fair to say that the Bruins center depth is probably middle of the pack or slightly lower in the Atlantic Division - call them 5th or 6th - which can be good enough for them to be a playoff team if they can get consistent goaltending, and special teams throughout the season.