THE BOSTON BRUINS VS
THE SALARY CAP
These guys should be safe as Bruins players next year. It's the next level where
the tradable players enter the discussion, the Loui Eriksson's, Brad Marchand's,
Dennis Seidnberg's and Johnny Boychuk's earning between $3.3-4.5m. Not to mention
Chris Kelly and Adam McQuiad who account for a joint $4.56m.
If the Bruins upper management sees the business and teams future as they should…A business. Then you have to expect that anyone below the "big five" will be up for trades.
Two Of Bruins Brightest Prospects may jump ship
Now we visit an interesting area, Impending free agents. On defense Andrej Meszaros and Corey Potter are UFAs. They will most likely not be back. Jarome Iginla and Shawn Thornton represent the offensive UFAs plus goalie Chad Johnson. I imagine Thornton is the priority signing of those five UFAs.
Justin Florek, rookie sensation Reilly Smith, Jordan Caron, Torey Krug and Matt Bartkowski are RFAs to be. If they wish to keep all five it'll cost them a minimum of $3.803m, and it won't be that cheap. No way. There is no way Reilly Smith accepts his minimum qualifying offer of $850k after a 48 point regular season and 5 more in twelve playoff games.
Torey Krug led the Bruins in scoring throughout the playoffs with 10 points, adding to the 40 he put up in the regular season; a performance worthy of a reward higher than his calculated $874k qualifying offer. Matt Bartkowski also had an impressive offensive output from the defense but struggled in the playoffs and made a couple of rookie mistakes that led to the opening Montreal goal in their 2nd round, Game 7 elimination.
II have to be honest and say I have absolutely no idea what might happen. I'm sure Peter Chiarelli has some kind of plan. Hell, that's why he's an NHL GM and I'm not. As I've shown there is very small room to breathe, and that's with the cap at its highest projection. If the cap is below $70m then two or even three of the five players earning between $3-4.5m will most likely find themselves in a new city when the puck drops again in October.
With the rise of the Canadiens, Lightning, and the ageless Red Wings in their division, this summer could spell tougher times than what Bruins fans have had in recent times.