Kalman: Anything Could Happen With Bruins' Roster When Free Agency Opens
BOSTON (CBS) -- Room beneath the NHL salary cap has been scarce the past several years for the Bruins.
The Bruins don't have enough space right now to go on a shopping spree when free agency starts at noon on Wednesday, but for the first time several years the Bruins have enough space to sign a decent player if general manager Don Sweeney chooses.
The Bruins have about $6 million in cap space, if you include injured center Marc Savard's $4 million. They have restricted free agents Ryan Spooner and Brett Connolly to sign and either need to add a veteran backup goaltender to Tuukka Rask or factor Malcolm Subban's salary into their budget.
Prices are always high and terms are always long when the free-agent market first opens and teams scramble to make a splash and impress their fan bases. It's unlikely Sweeney will hook any big fish, and that might be best considering the low rate of success for most July 1 signings these days. Teams wrap up their best players with long-term contracts early in their careers these days, and most players that make it to the open market are over the hill or just not considered core players.
Still, Sweeney didn't rule out anything during a conference call Tuesday.
"Clearly the top players, you're looking at a significant salary and term. They've put themselves in a unique position that generally dictates that that's what comes their way," Sweeney said. "We're going to look at all those things. I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm going to deliver or promise something because that's not how it works. We're looking at every different level, to the trade, to the free agent market, to improve our club. And if it doesn't materialize as of tomorrow then I'm sure criticism will come again. I understand that. That's part of the chair that I'm now sitting in.
"Doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying to improve our team or I'm going to not look at the development piece coming up with our camp and evaluating it. That's just the situation that we're in. And I'm going to continue to work with our group and improving our club. And going forward we're going to be in a better situation."
Sweeney traded Milan Lucic, who scored 18 goals for the 22nd-ranked offense in the NHL in 2014-15, and center Carl Soderberg, who scored 13 goals. With Ryan Spooner and Alexander Khokhlachev in the mix, the Bruins think they have replacements for Soderberg and Gregory Campbell behind Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci on the center depth chart. Things get a little thinner on the wings and that's where Sweeney might look to nab someone with a free agent contract.
"Well I would definitely look at players that have the ability to score some goals that maybe ... are jumping into that next level of scoring and they might not have had a full body, or players that have had a full body. And there's a lot of players both in UFA and I think in the trade market that can be explored. And we're going to do whatever we have to do continue to explore to improve our club both internally and externally in terms of evaluating who may be able to jump up."
It's difficult to identify which forwards might be available via trade. It appears the Chicago Blackhawks relieved much of their salary-cap crunch by trading Brandon Saad to Columbus rather than trading Bryan Bickell or Kris Versteeg.
Ascertaining which forwards will demand the most on the open market is a little less hard even though so many of them have short track records or are past their prime. Matt Beleskey, Antoine Vermette, Michael Frolik, Chris Stewart, Martin St. Louis, Brad Richards and Justin Williams are some of the bigger names that will benefit from a lack of competition from high-end talent. If Stewart's recent drop-off in production scares teams off and he could be had for a reasonable number, the Bruins might be interested considering how much they pursued him in a trade last season.
Thirty-six-year-old Erik Cole would be worth a one-year flyer if he can't do better and Derek Roy would be a versatile player who could provide competition for Boston's youth. Everyone loves Joel Ward, but his price will probably be out of the Bruins' range for a bottom-six forward.
The Bruins have the draft picks to make an offer sheet in the $3.6 to $5.4 million range to a forward like St. Louis' Vladimir Tarasenko. But offer sheets are rare and would open up the Bruins to retaliation down the road. Nonetheless, Sweeney should consider the maneuver in order to rile up the franchise and prove he's committed to fielding a winning team in 2015-16.
Even with Matt Bartkowski as gone as Dougie Hamilton, the Bruins are returning five defensemen (Zdeno Chara, Dennis Seidenberg, Kevan Miller, Adam McQuaid, Torey Krug) who played at least semi-regularly last season. Zach Trotman will be on a one-way deal and Joe Morrow showed he's ready to make a legitimate push for a spot. So the Bruins probably won't shop for defensemen unless a trade shifts the balance of the lineup.
In goal, the Bruins either have to bring back Justin Smith, who fared well with Providence last season, or sign a veteran just in case Subban and Zane McIntyre aren't ready. In fact, in a perfect world Subban and McIntyre will get to start next season in the AHL to gain experience. Jason LaBarbera or Dan Ellis could fit the mold and be willing to play for short money, not to mention accept an AHL assignment if they're eventually beaten out of a job by one of Boston's prospects.
Sweeney has had a busy first few weeks on the job and has made some unpopular decisions he believes will make the Bruins better in the long run. He seems undeterred in his mission to shape the Bruins in his vision.
"Well a lot has transpired over the last little while and we're now entering free agency with the intent to improve our hockey club," Sweeney said. "It's never an easy process in the free agent market. But we're going to look at every opportunity to try and do that. We set ourselves back at a position now where we have a bit of cap flexibility, which was paramount in the whole exercise."
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
