The NHL free agency frenzy begins in less than 24 hours. Look for the Black and Gold to sign a top-four defenseman (not top two), by the middle of next week, given qualifying offers to Zach Trotman and Joe Morrow, and ongoing conversations to sign Torey Krug.

Here’s a look at the key topics associated with July 1 – and well beyond.

Loui Eriksson – Raise your hand if you believe that Eriksson deserves $30-$35 million for the next 5-6 seasons on Causeway Street. The major piece of the Tyler Seguin trade played all 82 games with a Bruins’ career best 30-33-63 after 47 and 37-point seasons in 2015 and 2014. His four game-winning goals and a plus-13 help his cause. How is it that players are able to elevate their game when free agency is on their doorstep?

The key stat: In each of Eriksson’s three years in Dallas from 2009-2012, he consistently eclipsed his best Boston season with 71, 73 and 71 points. Add that GM Don Sweeney is rumored to have gotten few legitimate offers for Eriksson into the trade deadline, while Krug and Brad Marchand are up for big raises, and it all adds up to the Swede moving on as the final pieces of the Seguin debacle fade away.

Torey Krug – Krug burst on the Bruins’ scene as a free-agent fresh out of Michigan State in March 2012. The following spring, he established Bruin and NHL playoff marks for goals scored by a rookie. Entering his fourth full season, Krug is emerging as the team’s No. 1 defenseman, all while playing most of his team’s games and taking one-year hometown salary discounts after averaging over 40 points a season.

This past season was his best at 4-40-44 with a plus-9 in 81 games. While his goal production dropped off — going from December 7 with but one red light the rest of the season — his assist total rose. He is Boston’s best defenseman on the power play. Sweeney will ink the 5-foot-9 blue-line sparkplug to a long-term deal, and deservedly so.

Cam Neely – On July 16, 2010, owner Jeremy Jacobs named the consummate Bruin the new President of the organization. It was lights out the best decision in many a year. A year later, Neely’s team — built by Peter Chiarelli — wins the Cup for the first time in 39 years. Seems easy, eh? Take all that Neely passion and bottle it up for annual Cup runs.

It’s been all uphill since for Neely. He got his way last year, using the lack of playoffs in 2015 to jettison Chiarelli out from under him, and tabbing Sweeney as GM. But it’s a long and winding path from the Bruins bench to the management box. A long and winding learning curve in Level 9 for the quintessential power forward who probably thinks a hundred times a game: “Just give me three shifts and I can help these guys win this one.”

“From my perspective we were told by Don it’s going to be a bumpy road, we should see some improvement along the way,”Neely said flanked by Jeremy and Charlie Jacobs at April’s press conference to end the season. “It’s hard for me to understand how we got to where we were with 13 games remaining and not being able to close it out. So for me, it’s a combination of maybe some of the will, you know, the will to win, the will to compete.”

When asked who the product on the ice is a reflection of, Charlie Jacobs said: “I say without question this is Cam [Neely]. If people were to ask who is head of hockey operations, it’s a collaborative effort between a number of people. But if you ask for one sort of name I would say it’s Cam Neely.”

“At the end of the day your on-ice product and how you perform is driving the bus,” Neely said.

“I think if you look at some of the better teams that are playing right now you know, you count their drafts and it’s upwards of 10 or 12 players or 13 players in their lineup that they drafted and developed. I think we’re deeper in the prospects than we’ve been in a long, long time.”

Neely and Sweeney added two more first-round picks last week to make five in two years. None appear ready to lend a helping hand to any Bruins’ wins this year.

Why?

Neely has no shortage of passion, but he, Sweeney and Claude Julien need a common plan and shorter path for the kids, because it can’t get harder for Neely, the guy behind the wheel of the Bruins’ bus.