Michael Felger's Beautiful Mind Gets Steven Stamkos To Bruins
BOSTON (CBS) -- With the Bruins out of the playoffs for the second straight season, Michael Felger has had a lot of time to think about the team's upcoming offseason.
It's always been wishful thinking to believe Jeremy Jacobs and the Boston brass would go out and sign a top-line free agent, but on Monday, Felger started to shift his opinion. For the first time, Felger is starting to believe they could make a run at Tampa Bay Lightning star Steven Stamkos.
"They can do it, money-wise, this year," Felger explained, holding up a sheet of salary cap notes that would make John Forbes Nash proud.
"The Bruins have $48 million committed to 12 players," he explained. "To fill in [the blanks], you need four forwards, three defensemen and another goalie to get to 20 players. You have about $24 million in space for eight guys, $3 million per – ish. If you give Stamkos $12 million, I had them re-signing [Torey] Krug for $4 million – I don't know if they're going to do it or if they want to do it. I had them give [Kevin] Shattenkirk $4.5 million; they can get another defenseman for about $4 million.
"The rest has to be given to entry level guys," he continued. "I'll give you two defensemen at $4 million, Stamkos at $12 million, and everyone else has to be $1 million or less. They can do it next year. That's keeping [David] Krejci and [Zdeno] Chara at their full cap hit, and I didn't go into buying out [Dennis] Seidenberg or trading [Tuukka] Rask. Keeping all the players currently under contract, you can get Stamkos and two $4 million defensemen.
While it works money-wise, Stamkos has said he would like to play center going forward. The Bruins are set at the center position, unless they can work out a trade with David Krejci, who has a no movement clause.
But when it comes to money, it would work, and for the first time Michael Felger thinks it could happen.
