Kalman: Sweeney Needs To Supplement Bruins' Bottom Six Without Overpaying
BOSTON (CBS) - It's difficult at this point in the offseason to ascertain just what direction Bruins general manager Don Sweeney is going to go once free agency opens Friday.
Sweeney's mandate is to get the Bruins back into the playoffs and he's never publicly picked a lane that would be the path to ending Boston's two-year postseason drought. On the one hand Sweeney often sounds committed to giving the Bruins' prospects plenty of room for growth, including opportunities to take over the NHL roster. On the other hand, he won't shoot down the idea of pursuing some of the top free agents, including the grandest prize Steven Stamkos. If Sweeney has one strength right now it's his ability to sound confident in his plan while not revealing a hint of what it is.
Regardless of how Sweeney fills in the top of his depth chart, there's no doubt the bottom parts, especially the bottom six forwards, are going to be much different in 2016-17. The transformation of Boston's bottom six continued this week when forwards Brett Connolly and Landon Ferraro, who were scheduled to be restricted free agents, were not tendered qualifying offers by the deadline Monday. Both could be re-signed at a lesser price and Sweeney told the Boston Globe he's not closing the door on re-signing either player.
But the agent for Connolly, Gerry Johannson confirmed to me that he expects Connolly will become an unrestricted free agent July 1. Connolly, who's still trying to live up to being the No. 6 pick in 2010, had nine goals and 25 points in 71 games last season. He had his moments playing on Boston's fourth line, but even at the qualifying offer of a little more than $1 million he wasn't attractive to the Bruins.
Ferraro, whose qualifying offer would've been less than $1 million, had five goals and 10 points in 58 games. But three of those goals and seven of those points came in his first 12 games with Boston.
Connolly and Ferraro's departures were just the latest movement among the Bruins' bottom six forwards. Center Joonas Kemppainen returned to Europe and Max Talbot bolted for the KHL (after making a stop to cheer on Pittsburgh in the playoffs). Tyler Randell and Chris Kelly are ticketed for unrestricted free agency and a Loui Eriksson exit could mean someone from the bottom six moving up the depth chart.
There are bigger tasks ahead for Sweeney than building a strong bottom six. He has to add at least one "transitional" (his term) defenseman. If Eriksson stays, Sweeney has to decide if his top six forwards still need improvement. If Eriksson leaves, Sweeney has to decide if the replacement is already in the fold or has to be imported.
But Sweeney can't make the mistake of overlooking the bottom six forwards or just expecting a rush of players from Providence to the fill those roles and make the Bruins a playoff team. If you figure Ryan Spooner is a given as the No. 3 center, then Frank Vatrano, Noel Acciari, Austin Czarnik, Danton Heinen, Brian Ferlin, Seth Griffith, Sean Kuraly all deserve to compete for some of those bottom-six spots and figure to fill up to three of them. As we've seen with successful Bruins teams of recent years, and championship teams this season and forever, every bottom six needs a veteran presence. You need that Matt Cullen to lead a couple of rookies and make the Penguins Stanley Cup champs. You need a Dainius Zubrus chipping in and bringing the San Jose Sharks' average age up a year or two on their way to the Cup finals.
Cullen could be out there come Friday. So could Jason Chimera, Dominic Moore and Paul Gaustad. The mid-30s, two-way, glue guys will be available, but they come at a price. Then there are the younger grinders, like Matt Martin, Darren Helm and Nick Spaling. These guys will probably never produce enough to justify their pay once they cash in this summer. Everyone overpays in free agency at the top of the pay scale and even at the bottom.
The problem with letting bargain-basement pieces like Connolly and Ferraro walk for nothing is that, regardless of what you think of them as players, they have to be replaced and you can't just do it with farmhands. So now you might be paying someone to fill that bottom-six role at two or three times the pay. The higher-paid players might do the job better, but that leaves less money under the salary cap to pay the big-money players.
Roster construction is complicated. Sweeney's challenge of building the Bruins into a playoff team just got more difficult with the thinning out of the bottom six forward corps.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
