BOSTON -- One bit of news that did come out of the season-ending Bruins press conference with the teams ownership and management group Thursday was the potential future of the teams practice facility.
Bruins president Cam Neely said the Bs have one year remaining on their contract with the town of Wilmingtons Ristuccia Arena, and it's possible they could extend the deal.
"We're in discussions with Ristuccia Arena right now," said Neely.
But theres also a desire for a facility thats a little closer to the city of Boston, and more state-of-the-art . . . like the practice homes for the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Sources outside the Bruins organization have indicated to CSNNE.com that there's interest in a new practice facility in the Brighton area, adjacent to the New Balance building. New Balance recently partnered with Warrior Hockey in an initial foray into the hockey equipment business. The rink would be part of a 235 million development project thats being proposed by New Balance to completely redevelop the Brighton Landing area around their Guest Street headquarters.
Bruins principal owner Charlie Jacobs said the team has explored other potential practice facilities more befitting an Original Six franchise than the high school hockey rink in Wilmington, and outlined some of the criteria the team was seeking.
Cam and I have been collaborating a bit on what should be the best facility for us moving forward, said Jacobs. Weve batted it around and considered Wilmington a bit and obviously also explored some other locations. We like to think of our training facility and practice facilities as a drawing card for players that might be playing on other markets and look at us and say, Geez, Id love to come to Boston, not only for the atmosphere, but for the environment, and the day-to-day environment where they practice.
Boston Bruins
The practice facility really does need to be, if you will, world class in that regard. So, weve put together, for lack of better term, a blue-ribbon committee to say, Lets try to find the right location thats within very short driving distance to the Boston Garden that could offer that kind of environment, that kind of ice and training facility.
"Were in the process of that now. We dont have any final answers to share with you today, other than saying weve done a lot of work on this subject. I think were drawing to a real good conclusion.