It still feels like just yesterday that villain du jour Scott Walker was breaking the collective back of Bruins Nation, and Tim Thomas followed the spine-breaker by literally speed-skating off the ice after giving up Walker’s overtime goal to the Carolina Panthers inside a shocked-silent TD Bank Garden.

The pain is still there for plenty of B’s fans, but it was three long months ago.

The Black and Gold have already foraged through a full offseason of signings and goodbyes to some players, drafted another round of ridiculously young prospective up- and-comers and made a not-so-secret announcement about the most exciting hockey event within Boston’s city limits in recent memory: the NHL Bridgestone Winter Classic, set to come to a snow globe-style Fenway Park on New Year’s Day.

The roster is beginning to take shape for next season, but there are certainly more questions to answer during the next month leading up to September training camp:

• What will happen with Phil Kessel?
• How long will Kessel and David Krejci be out following their post-playoff surgeries, and how much will they be affected when they return?
• How will a largely young hockey team – with all apologies to Marc Savard, Zdeno Chara and Mark Recchi – respond with veteran team leaders like Aaron Ward, P.J. Axelsson, Stephane Yelle and Shane Hnidy now departed for other hockey destinations?

All this and more await in the summer cooler version of the Hagg Bag dropped below.

Feel free to send me an email at jhaggerty@weei.com with any questions you might have about the Bruins or Star Wars that you might just find suitable for this little piece we like to call the Hagg Bag.

I promise no cockamamie arguments that P.J. Axelsson deserves to be enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame just for a little shot of controversy, and no slow-motion shots of me running around the bases like Dustin Pedroia in those ridiculous Chariots of Fire-style Sullivan Tire commercials playing 24-7 on NESN. Nothing but 100 percent, pure unadulterated Haggs truth in this bag, so now on with the show:

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Haggs,

Have you heard anything about Kessel going to San Jose? That (really happy guy) Eklund has him rumored to be going there, but that guy almost never gets it right so I don’t buy it and he is the only one saying it...I do believe that Chiarelli would like to move him if possible.

I love Kobasew. The way he played in the playoffs you would never have known he had broken ribs. He played tough and he played well. With Sturm coming back – if they did move Kessel – you get a chunk of the goals back with Kessel gone. Derek Morris sucks in my opinion. He has been an underachiever his whole career and that won’t change. I like (Mathieu) Schneider for the right price and (Sergei) Zubov would have been great 9 years ago.

Fitzy

JH: Fitzy, welcome back to the Bag. I have heard of this Eklund character, but I really don’t pay much attention to him because – from what I’ve been told – he misses just as much as he is dead on target. That doesn’t make for a consistently reliable source of information, and that’s what we’re always aiming for at the Hagg Bag.

I think Phil Kessel getting shipped to the West Coast makes a lot of sense given his style of game (i.e., not as physically involved and willing as some in the Boston organization would like him to be), and given the fact that the Bruins front office wouldn’t have to watch from a front row seat as the 21-year-old evolved into a 50-goal scorer up close and personal.

I found it infinitely interesting that B’s GM Peter Chiarelli was willing to unload Kessel to the Toronto Maple Leafs and potentially invite all of that second-guessing if Phil the Thrill became the goal-scoring phenom that the Leafs badly need heading into the 2009-10 season. It almost smacked of Bill Belichick dealing Drew Bledsoe to Buffalo with the knowledge that he was going to own him for the next few seasonal showdowns within the AFC East.

Everything that Kessel, his teammates, his agents and his uncle’s sister’s friend’s landscaper will tell you is that the young winger’s first priority is to remain in Boston with friends like Blake Wheeler and David Krejci. But on some level the high pressure and scrutiny of Boston – even if it is to a much lesser degree for the Bruins than it would be for, say, the guys on Yawkey Way – has never been a good fit for a person like Kessel, who’s equal parts shy and introverted among a group of hockey-playing extroverts.

Perhaps a move to another NHL locale is exactly what Kessel needs to get him to the next level in his career. Regardless, I don’t see him wearing anything but Bruins Black and Gold next season.

Chiarelli went on NESN last month and had this answer when asked by Kathryn Tappen about the Kessel situation: “Yes, yes he will [be back],” said Chiarelli. “I don’t like to talk about negotiations, but he’s a player of impact. [He has] the speed, and he’s still a young player.

“I can’t dismiss me talking about players to trade because that’s my job. It’s unfortunate that [trade rumors] leak out but Phil’s a good person — a very good person and a very good player — and we fully intend to keep him.”

Does that mean that Kessel is a 100 percent lock to return to the Bruins next season? Of course not. Chiarelli and any other pro sports executive will always reserve the right to change their minds if the right deal comes along. But they’ve already tried to deal Kessel this summer, and the return in players/draft picks was never quite enough for Chiarelli’s liking.

That isn’t likely to change in the month leading up to training camp.

The only way Kessel isn’t on this team is if an NHL team with ample money under the cap comes at Kessel with something clearing $5 million per season in an offer sheet. That’s going to be Chiarelli’s breaking point, but it’s highly doubtful it gets to that point.

Kessel will instead sign a one-year deal with the Bruins for something less than he probably feels is his own market value (something that was set when Florida Panthers forward, and Kessel player comp, David Booth signed a six-year, $25.5 million deal this winter).

He isn’t likely to play again until December while recovering from labrum and rotator cuff surgery on his right shoulder, and at that point Kessel’s stats may be compromised for the entire season after missing a dozen or more games right out of the starting gate.

If you ask me, this has all of the ingredients of a relationship that was doomed from the start, with two ill-fitting pieces that just weren’t ever meant for each other. Kessel wants to use his speed and curl-and-drag wrist shot move to pile up goals and stay out of the physical fray, and the Bruins management wants all of its players – from goaltender all the way out to finesse center – to exhibit the same kind of grittiness and mental/physical toughness needed to both enjoy consistent success in the NHL and continue capturing the imagination of blue-collar, lunch-pail, hockey-loving Boston fans. That’s not exactly a seamless fit.

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Hey Joe,

Read the Hunwick article you posted. Solid news for the B's. I think this kid will be huge for them in the next two years. So much so that I think the B's should have gotten a three-year-deal done. The one thing I was concerned with was the spleen injury. I remember when Chris Simms was playing for the Bucs and had his removed due to injury, there were questions about his viability as an NFL quarterback because of it.

Was the severity of the injury different? I'm not sure because I believe that both Hunwick and Simms had theirs removed.

Mike

JH: That’s a good question. I don’t know the specifics of Simms/Hunwick as far as the similarity of their injuries, but they definitely both had splenectomies to address the situation with the ruptured spleen. When Hunwick signed his two-year deal last month he said that he was up to 196 pounds, which is only two pounds off his playing weight of 198 pounds from last season.

The fire hydrant-sized defenseman had lost nearly 20 pounds in the immediate aftermath of the injury and the ensuing surgery, and it’s clear that both player and team don’t have any lingering concerns about his ability to take hits once the bodies start flying during training camp in September.

“I took my rest in the hospital,’’ said Hunwick during the conference call following his contract agreement with the B’s. “From that point, it’s been slowly coming back. By the middle of June, I felt 100 percent. I have my wind. My weight is starting to come back. I have absolutely no limitations right now. I’m training just as hard as I did last summer. The spleen’s been a non-issue.”

I can understand why the Bruins didn’t go for the third year on Hunwick’s contract. It’s obvious that both the Bruins and Hunwick’s agents used Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Alex Goligoski as the model for his contract numbers, and it’s a pretty good comparison all-around given their age, statistics, experience and arbitration status. Goligoski will be paid $1.25 and $1.5 million over the next two seasons, but his salary will jump up to $2.75 million for the third year of the deal.

The B’s awarded Hunwick with slightly more than Goligoski’s numbers in each of the next two seasons of his two-year, $2.9 million contract, but weren’t ready to pony up for that third – and much more expensive – season. Instead B’s GM Peter Chiarelli and Co. are likely more inclined to simply watch Hunwick over the next two seasons and hope he’s every bit the creative, tough, speedy puck-moving defenseman that he flashed last season while leading all NHL rookie defensemen in points.

Then they’ll show Hunwick the money he deserves, and then some.

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Haggs,

P.J. was a great defensive player who will be missed. Last year he was asked to play in roles, first line, that were out of his comfort zone but he played in that role to the best of his ability. Should’ve been a Selke Award winner at least once in his career and I hope he makes his way back to the NHL. All the best P.J. and thanks for the 11 years of wearing the “B” proudly.

Eric

JH: Eric, I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of P.J.’s game, and much of it wasn’t even his fault. He was put on the top power play unit and spent much too much time skating with Marc Savard on Boston’s top line last season – a pair of puck tasks that asked a bit too much out of the high-effort, medium-skill Swede.

But he was dependable and Claude Julien – along with legions of the Bruins fan base – loved him for it.

I think, in many ways, Axelsson’s exit for the likes of Steve Begin and Vladimir Sobotka signals a sea change for the Bruins. Both players are irritating, get-under-your-skin types who play bigger than their actual sizes. They’ll take the body and sometimes antagonize if that’s what is called for in certain hockey situations. That wasn’t P.J.’s game, and he wasn’t quite as speedy with his skating wheels as he was during his first five or six years with the Bruins.

The Bruins didn’t have a real moustache-twirling, tie-the-damsel-to-the-railroad tracks hockey villain last season who would be willing to start a little trouble if it was warranted. It’s the kind of role that Walker played very well for the Hurricanes during the seven-game series between the B’s and Canes. Bringing that kind of provocative player in for a fourth line role came at the expense of nice guys like Axelsson and Stephane Yelle. It remains to be seen if that’s a good or a bad thing, but I like what Chiarelli is doing with his “back-fill” roster building.

What should be mentioned about P.J.: Axelsson played 11 seasons for the Black and Gold and finished up with 797 games, which is good for 10th all-time in the long and storied history of the Bruins franchise. Amazingly, Axelsson ended up playing 21 more regular season games in his career than Hall of Famer Milt Schmidt did for the Bruins, and he certainly could have/should have won a Selke Trophy when he was a speedy forechecking machine capable of blowing up power plays during his prime.

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Joe,

Love the signing of Derek Morris, Haggs. (He’s) a slight offensive upgrade than Aaron Ward. I think you'll see the Bruins bring aboard a couple of veteran UFA defensemen for six figures in training camp as insurance.

--Chip

JH: Derek Morris is without question an offensive upgrade over Aaron Ward, but here’s a question: is that what’s needed for a pairing with Zdeno Chara? Knowing Ward was going to cover for him defensively in certain situations allowed Chara to get a bit more aggressive in the offensive zone (he crashed the back door for rebounds and potential tip-ins near the post much more last season than in his first two years combined in Boston), and indirectly helped Chara finally reach the Norris Trophy zenith.

Morris isn’t as defensively responsible as Ward was and it’s going to take time for both he and Chara to get on the same page in a pairing – if that indeed is the defenseman pairing that many expect to see come the first game of the regular season in November.

But it was also clear that the Bruins defenseman corps was far too slow, too mechanical and too panicky with the puck during the seven-game series against the Hurricanes, and that serious adjustments needed to be made along the blueline. Signing Morris – a player whom Chiarelli chased at the trade deadline before settling for Steve Montador – gives them an immediate upgrade in mobility and offensive upside. The question becomes how much Morris has left in the tank at 30 years old after plenty of wear and tear through 11 seasons, and how much of his slippage in play over the last few seasons was simply being part of the NHL malaise that is the Phoenix Coyotes.

The ‘Yotes have taken down players much better than Morris over the last decade, so it wouldn’t be a shocker if Morris enjoyed some kind of rebirth while donning Black and Gold and playing on a one-year deal.

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Joey Haggs!

On the subject of vicarious sports gratification, any word from Bradford on that Super Tecmo Bowl throw-down? How many crates of Milk Duds is it going to take to bribe Rob into action here? You know I'm not a violent guy Joey, but I feel like I'm going to have to show up at EEI with a NES under my arm and hunt Rob down Evander Holyfield style.

"Bradford, come on out and get your whoopin'! Bradford!"

Mike

Attleboro

JH: Mike, I always preferred “The Warriors” taunting when it comes to our Grand Poobah Editor Rob Bradford. Just picture it in that annoyingly sing-songy way while I’m clinking together empty cans of Red Bull on my fingers: “Bradford, come out and play-e-yay. Bradford.”

It’s high-time we got the Tecmo Bowl tournament going, and we should have RBI Baseball, NES hockey, NBA Jams and Old School Sega Genesis Lakers vs. Celtics (with the original Big Three, no less) in a video game tournament to end all others. It’s too good to ignore.

Which brings up a good question that a few friends of mine and I were discussing earlier this afternoon on Twitter (I’m at Hacks with Haggs on Twitter, by the way). What was your preference when playing NES hockey – as opposed to Blades of Steel – and given the choice of the skinny guy, the fat guy and the medium guy for your four skaters on the ice. Me? I’d go fat, fat, fat and skinny every single time and just watch the goals pile up.

If I had a dime for every time I’ve written that sentence I’d be a rich man.