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Kalman: New Bruins GM Must Find Capable Backup Goalie

BOSTON (CBS) - It should surprise no one that goaltender Niklas Svedberg decided it was time to get out of Boston and head to the KHL, a move confirmed by several published reports this week.

Svedberg appeared in 18 games, 14 as a starter, for the Bruins in 2014-15. He had a 2.33 goals-against average and .918 save percentage while dealing with sporadic playing time in his first full season in the NHL.

When the dust settled on the Bruins' playoff-less season, Svedberg voiced his frustration with the dearth of playing time behind Tuukka Rask, who tied a franchise record with 70 appearances this season.

"Especially in January and February, I didn't play for a long time and then I had like one bad game when I got to play. So that kind of made everybody a little bit nervous, and I didn't get to play for a long time," Svedberg said. "That was kind of the circus that was going on there for a while, with being scratched and everything, but I think if I look overall at my season, at my games that I played, there's not been a lot of bad games. I'm happy with my game, and how I played, and obviously not happy with the result that we didn't make the playoffs, that we'd like to play more, and it could have been better for sure. But you've always got to aim for better. I think if you look at the whole season, I had a pretty good year, put up good numbers in a rookie year. So I've got to kind of build from that, if you're looking at the personal side of it."

The emphasis on the word "circus" is mine for effect. Regardless of their current management situation, with the search for a new general manager ongoing, certainly no one in the Bruins' front office appreciated their organization being compared to Ringling Bros. by the Swede.

So now Svedberg is off to Russia, where he'll presumably get more playing time and definitely get more money than the $600,000 the Bruins paid him in 2014-15. He'll have a chance to prove he deserves a second chance in North America. Considering his track record, Svedberg will probably be able to at least earn a job in a situation with a team looking for a more equal split in goaltender playing time. Svedberg wasn't going to have that in Boston, and rightfully so from the Bruins' perspective. Although they don't want to lean on Rask to play 70 games a season, they're paying Rask $7 million through 2020-21 to play the majority of their games.

It's a new world for the Bruins' goaltending situation and it's going to take an astute new general manager and scouting staff to strike the right balance. The days of having a great tandem of Rask and Tim Thomas, or Rask and Anton Khudobin, are going to be difficult to replicate with Rask making $7 million and the salary cap ceiling not rising as quickly as the Bruins and other rich teams would like. For the foreseeable future, the Bruins are going to have to spend less than $1 million on a backup goaltender, and that player is going to have to be able to perform despite playing no more than three times a month.

The Bruins bet on Svedberg being able to handle that role this season. The 25-year-old produced respectable numbers, but couldn't earn the trust of coach Claude Julien and his staff the way other No. 2 goaltenders had in prior years.

Boston seemingly has two goaltenders waiting in the wings with its Providence (American Hockey League) farm club. But 2012 first-round draft pick Malcolm Subban had an inconsistent second season in the AHL and flopped in his lone NHL appearance, which ended in the second period in St. Louis in February. If the Bruins truly believe Subban is a future No. 1 goaltender (probably for another organization after a trade), it won't help his development to sit and watch Rask 60 times next season.

In 26-year-old Jeremy Smith the Bruins have a journeyman who has now spent six seasons in the minors, including five in the AHL. He might be deserving of a chance to compete for the No. 2 job at training camp, but the Bruins would be foolish to put all their faith in Smith the way they did Svedberg. There's no telling if Smith can handle the NHL, let alone whether he'd be able to deal with the challenges of being a backup to a workhorse.

The Bruins aren't the only team in this type of predicament. Wherever you have one of the premier goaltenders in the NHL, you also have a precarious backup. With presumptive Vezina Trophy winner Carey Price taking up $6.5 million of cap space, the Montreal Canadiens had to rely on Dustin Tokarski and his $500,000 cap hit. Nashville rode $7 million goaltender Pekka Rinne into the playoffs this season, but had to go with $725,000 Carter Hutton as Rinne's backup. Tokarski and Hutton produced stats comparable to Svedberg's. They'll be moving on when their contracts are through as well, because those teams won't be able to keep them around with so much cap space committed to their No. 1.

The Los Angeles Kings are going to be in a search for a new backup for $7 million Jonathan Quick now that Martin Jones has outgrown the role both with his play and deserved salary. The New York Rangers rewarded $8.5 million Henrik Lundqvist's backup Cam Talbot with a contract extension that pays him $1.45 next season. That might've helped him have a great season this year, especially when Lundqvist was injured and the Rangers continued their roll to the Presidents' Trophy. But that contract puts them in a cap crunch that'll probably force them to trade Talbot for less return that a goaltender of his pedigree should demand.

As they look ahead to free agency, the Bruins are going to have to target at least one veteran that knows how to play when opportunities to start are scarce. Jason LaBarbera, Mike McKenna and Scott Clemmensen are among the goaltenders that fit that description who are scheduled to be unrestricted free agents this summer. Of course, goaltenders like those mentioned are available and willing to work cheap partially because they're not very good. And the type of situation the Bruins are in could lead to Rask again carrying more of the load than he should have to, never mind the nightmare scenario of a serious injury to Rask that could force his backup into a bigger role.

After several years of getting the mix in their crease just right, the Bruins now have to face the reality that in the salary-cap era it's more difficult to find a reliable No. 2 for one of the highest-paid No. 1s. The next general manager will have to do a better job of finding someone to fill that spot than Peter Chiarelli did in his last season on the job.

Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.

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