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Bruins Diehard: Business Of Hockey Claims Boychuk, But Many Moves Remain For B's

BOSTON (CBS) -- "Johnny was upset. I was upset. I'm still upset."

Those were the words from Boston Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli after he sent defenseman Johnny Boychuk to the New York Islanders for two second-round draft picks in the 2015 draft. If he thinks he and Boychuk are upset, he should hear the loud boom from the people who buy all those No. 55 Bruins jerseys.

Chiarelli's hand was forced -- basically by his own hand, and by the salary cap jail he backed himself into by signing a lot of his players to rich, long-term rich deals. Some of those deals have no-movement clauses, and now they have no money to play with as this season opens Wednesday night when the Bruins host the Philadelphia Flyers. On top of that, they still have the Jarome Iginla hangover hanging over their head, meaning that for all of those incentives that Iginla hit last year, the Bruins now have to pay the piper. That means that even though Iginla is no longer here, those incentives, delayed as they are, count against this year's cap.

What does this trade mean? It means the Bruins have $3.36M more to play with, and as Chiarelli said during his press conference Saturday at the TD Garden, when asked if another shoe could drop, "There might be. A lot of things can happen. See how the team jells." He also said that Saturday night's game was "the final audition for a lot of players."

Boychuk, the ever-popular player with fans and his teammates, earlier in training camp had expressed his desire to remain in Boston for the rest of his career and was hoping somehow some way that it could happen. But as we all knew, his stock in the National Hockey League was rising -- and quickly.

Chiarelli said he told Johnny that he was glad he brought him to Boston. That Boychuk did everything that he was told to do. He got better as a player. He was part of the fabric of the team.

But as we all know, in the words of Don Corleone -- it's not personal, Johnny. It's just business.

As an unrestricted free agent after this year, he will probably command between $5 million and $6 million per season, and Boston does not have that room and/or desire to pay him that kind of money, despite the fact that Brooks Orpik, someone I think is not even close in talent to Boychuk, is getting that kind of money from the Washington Capitals.

Now it's time for Chiarelli to figure out who else goes and who stays and just how to use that long-term injury reserve space they still have with Marc Savard not available to play. Are the Bruins as good right now as they were Friday night? Chiarelli says the trade "doesn't make us better now, obviously," but from the looks of things, there are more pieces to be displaced and fit into this Bruins puzzle.

Ric Duarte has covered hockey and the Bruins for various media outlets since 1986. You can follow Ric at BruinsDieHard.com and on Twitter @bruins_diehard.

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