Bruins
“We all know we’re a aggressive group and we wish to stay a aggressive group and with a watch in the direction of the long run.”
COMMENTARY
A salary-cap headache was all however inevitable for the Bruins this summer season.
The sight of his title etched into the Stanley Cup would have alleviated a few of Don Sweeney’s ache.
Such wasn’t the case for a record-setting Bruins squad in 2022-23.
Regardless of Sweeney’s efforts to place an already spectacular roster excessive, Boston’s marketing campaign for the ages got here to a crashing halt in late April after simply seven video games.
Since Carter Verhaeghe snapped a puck previous Jeremy Swayman and into Boston’s internet on April 30, little has gone proper for the Unique Six franchise.
Getting into Saturday afternoon, the Bruins had $13.6 million in obtainable cap house to signal seven forwards, re-sign a goalie and orchestrate different roster tweaks.
Dmitry Orlov and Connor Clifton have already signed new contracts elsewhere. Tyler Bertuzzi, as soon as considered a possible cog in Boston’s revamped, post-Bergeron core, is just not anticipated to return.
An unforgiving, cap-crunched market that noticed the Blackhawks leverage Boston into dumping Taylor Corridor’s contract for 2 fringe defensemen prevented Sweeney from making different cost-cutting measures.
It stays to be seen if both Patrice Bergeron or David Krejci will return for Boston’s centennial season.
And with Boston’s subsequent first-round choice not obtainable till 2025, Sweeney doesn’t have the choice of absolutely dismantling his roster looking for a franchise-saving prospect within the draft.
The one choice obtainable for Sweeney is to trudge forward with the present core in place.
And with little when it comes to fiscal flexibility, the Bruins opted to get artful looking for larger returns in 2024.
By the point the mud settled on Saturday’s “spending spree”, the Bruins introduced 9 completely different signings. 4 additions that can probably stick on the NHL roster — Milan Lucic, James van Riemsdyk, Morgan Geekie, and Kevin Shattenkirk — account for a complete cap hit of $5.05 million.
They’re removed from flashy signings. However every ought to slot into an anticipated emptiness on the depth chart.
Lucic’s heft and veteran management can be welcomed on a revamped checking unit. Shattenkirk will probably change Clifton on Boston’s third D pair, whereas James van Riemsdyk can be tasked with changing Bertuzzi’s netfront presence on the facility play.
Geekie, a 6-foot-3 ahead who generates off the forecheck, may slot in as Boston’s fourth-line middle. If Bergeron and Krejci don’t return, Geekie is likely to be pressed into 3C duties.
It’s an uncomfortable spot for Sweeney and the Bruins to be in, with Boston going from on-paper juggernauts to bargain-bin procuring just like the 2002 Oakland A’s.
However there’s a technique to the insanity for Boston’s “Moneyball” offseason so far.
“You’ve got loads of if, ands, or buts, however with the congestion of {the marketplace} because it pertains to the cap and the place we had been,” Sweeney mentioned Saturday afternoon. “I believe we did loads of the issues that we got down to do in addressing the depth total of our membership. …We’ve loads of alternative for youthful children to come back in and take their place in the event that they earn it, however we’ve additionally complemented the group with gamers we felt we would have liked to fill some holes and tackle some wants.”
Boston is holding out hope that its low-cost additions will be capable of perform their anticipated duties throughout the lineup. However given the short-term contracts concerned, Boston may have few qualms if inner choices supplant their free-agent pickups, be it in coaching camp or over the course of 82 video games.
Van Riemsdyk would possibly open the yr in Boston’s prime six, however a push from both Fabian Lysell or Georgii Merkulov can be welcomed. Jakub Lauko, Marc McLaughlin, and Johnny Beecher can be preventing for reps on the fourth line.
Throughout the span of simply the 2023-24 season, the Bruins are giving themselves some choices — and for the primary time in a very long time, the chance for youthful gamers to make their mark.
Sweeney’s choice to not dole out a bevy of long-term contracts provides up hope that Boston will be capable of orchestrate a extra expansive retool in 2024-25.
As of Saturday evening, Boston is projected to have $30.8 million in cap house subsequent offseason, per CapFriendly. A protracted-awaited surge within the league’s wage cap may add one other $5+ million in spending energy, with one other $5 million on the best way in 2025-26.
With key cogs like David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Pavel Zacha, Linus Ullmark, and Jeremy Swayman (pending his upcoming RFA pay bump) already locked up by then, Boston has loads of capital to focus on prime choices on the free agent market and construct atop an already sturdy basis.
Boston would possibly be capable of swing for the fences for a Noah Hanifin subsequent summer season to hitch an already stout blue line. Free-agent facilities subsequent summer season embody Elias Lindholm and Sebastian Aho.
Extra fiscal flexibility would possibly give the Bruins the posh to soak up a bigger contract like Tomas Hertl’s within the coming years, whereas the emergence of a prospect like Lysell, Mason Lohrei, or Merkulov may give Boston a powerful constructing block — or some much-needed commerce capital.
As you’ll be able to see, the chances so as to add to an already strong core in 2024 are bountiful, not like the tough realities of this cap-crunched summer season.
In fact, the Bruins can’t simply keep transfixed on the promise that the summer season of 2024 offers.
Boston can’t wave the white flag this upcoming season, not with their draft cabinet barren and gamers like Pastrnak and McAvoy in the course of their prime.
The return of Patrice Bergeron nonetheless looms massive as a domino that wants to fall for this membership as a steadying (and low cost), top-six stalwart.
However with the tandem of Ullmark and Swayman anticipated again in internet, coupled with a D corps nonetheless anchored by Charlie McAvoy and Lindholm, the spine of Boston’s success in 2022-23 continues to be in place.
“Our protection and our goaltending are just about what we had final yr … That was a reasonably good d-corps final yr, so we really feel fairly good about that, and the goaltending was glorious in the course of the common season,” Sweeney mentioned. “All of us fell quick within the playoffs. So, our depth on the entrance was the place we tried to handle a lot of the wants, and once more, with a watch in the direction of permitting a number of the youthful guys to see if they’ll are available in and take their jobs.”
The depth up entrance is just not the identical, sadly. A former Hart Trophy winner in Taylor Corridor isn’t pushing play on the third line.
Rather a lot can go improper if a participant like van Riemsdyk doesn’t ship within the prime six, and kids like Lysell or Merkulov aren’t prepared for the chance.
However the Bruins nonetheless have the framework of a aggressive roster in place for the 2023-24 season, one that ought to nonetheless have the personnel in place to stay within the playoff image and even shock many — particularly if Bergeron returns.
And given the dour outlook that this cover crunch supplied up for a lot of the previous couple of months, Sweeney will settle for such a actuality.
Particularly with the promise of subsequent summer season now fixated on the horizon.
“I believe I used to be fairly sincere that we weren’t going to be the identical staff,” Sweeney mentioned. “We had an unbelievable quantity of depth and we felt that we put collectively staff, however we fell woefully quick within the playoffs with what our targets had been. We all know we’re a aggressive group and we wish to stay a aggressive group and with a watch in the direction of the long run. We didn’t actually encumber ourselves too badly from a standpoint of contracts. … As we identified, we be ok with the competitiveness of our group.
“We’ve to remain wholesome, and our prime guys have to remain wholesome to have the quantity of success that we want to have. It’s going to be a canine struggle regardless with how you’re feeling about your staff right now, accidents can play a component in that, and the expansion of different groups goes to play a component in that.”
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