With the NHL free-agency frenzy set to get underway on Monday, let’s take a look at a couple of routes that the Bruins could take as the offseason begins to really ramp up.
Let’s get the main issue out of the way first — Boston is set to enter the offseason with just over $12 million in cap space, per CapFriendly. That’s just a hair more than they had last summer, when Don Sweeney added Chris Wagner, John Moore, Joakim Nordstrom and Jaroslav Halak to a roster that eventually made it all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
However, as we noted on Friday, Don Sweeney’s pledge that the Bruins will be “adding players” come Monday seems to really hinge on when Boston can get new deals done with its RFAs in Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo and Danton Heinen.
We’ve already discussed the looming issue of Boston’s RFAs and just how much it might eat into that $12 million in cap space (**whispers** it’s going to be most of it), so let’s take a look at where Boston stands when it comes to UFAs — both out on the open market and with talent that the B’s will try to retain.
Noel Acciari - Forward
Acciari, a native of Johnston, Rhode Island and Providence College product, has made it clear that he’d like to find a way to remain with the Bruins going forward.
"I'm not sure what to expect,” Acciari said of free agency during the team’s breakup day earlier this month. “Gonna take my time and look things over. Boston's been my home my whole life. I guess we'll see what happens.
“I love these guys, love everyone here. This is all I know so far. But we'll see what happens going forward. I can't predict anything. I'm looking for a family and these guys are my family.”
After costing the Bruins $792,500 in cap space over the past two years, Acciari is expected to receive a nice pay bump this summer, and it’ll be well deserved for an undrafted forward that’s lived up to the billing as a physical, fourth-line mainstay.
While most of his highlights come from his crushing collisions (his 221 hits ranked 18th in the NHL), Acciari also presents plenty of value elsewhere, scoring six goals and adding a career-high 14 points over 72 games. Acciari’s average TOI on the penalty kill (1:34) also ranked fourth among all B’s forwards in 2018-19.
While it seems like a given that Boston is going to have to free up cash somewhere this summer if they want to sign any UFA, Acciari should fall into a price range ($1 million - 1.2 million AAV) where the Bruins won’t have to perform some drastic reshuffling with their roster in order to free up the cap space needed to retain the 27-year-old winger.
However, if Acciari does get an offer hovering around $1.5 million or beyond (which he very well could get from a club looking to shore up its bottom-six), then things get rather dicey for the Bruins.
“We’ve extended offers to Noel prior to the interview period and (we’ll) continue,” Sweeney said. “We’d like to have him back, but Noel’s put himself in a good position and he’s going to hear what’s around the league and what’s best for he and his wife.”
And of course, while the Bruins might want Acciari back, it doesn’t mean that they’ll be willing to go into a bidding war to retain him. Given the areas of need on Boston’s roster, the fourth line is rather set with extra bodies to spare. Even without Acciari, the trio of Sean Kuraly, Chris Wagner and Joakim Nordstorm make for a pretty effective line with a good blend of skill and snarl. Karson Kuhlman also remains as an option for the fourth line, especially if Boston solves its top-six vacancy on David Krejci’s line.
Much like Tim Schaller last July, the Bruins will miss Acciari if he does depart. But the club does have plenty of contingency plans in place.
Marcus Johansson - Forward
To the surprise of very few, the Bruins and Sweeney have expressed multiple times that Boston is doing its best to keep Johansson in a black and gold sweater going forward.
And for good reason, as Johansson was oftentimes one of Boston’s best forwards — if not the best — during multiple bouts in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Forming an effective 1-2 punch on what was once a black hole of a third line with Charlie Coyle, Johansson closed out the postseason with 11 points (four goals, seven assists) over 22 games.
Keeping Johansson in Boston would give Bruce Cassidy a litany of options for 2019-20.
If David Pastrnak was to slot down onto the second line with David Krejci and Jake DeBrusk, Johansson could move up to Boston’s top line with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand — an experiment that Cassidy was unable to carry out during the regular season due to a lung contusion that knocked Johansson out of commission for close to three weeks. But why mess with a good thing? Keeping Coyle and Johansson together would allow Boston to roll out one of the top bottom-six groupings in the league, with a pair of skilled forwards in Coyle and Johansson poised to dominate matchups against other third-line opponents.
All of this sounds well and good, yes. But Boston is far from the only team in the league that’s coveting a wing like Johansson — who you can slot onto your power play, is one of the more effective forwards when it comes to generating clean zone entries and has eclipsed the 40-point threshold five times in his career.
Even if Boston frees up a ton of space in its cap (whether that be ridding themselves of David Backes’ contract or dealing Torey Krug), the B’s could very well still find themselves priced out of a bidding war involving Johansson, especially if the winger is reportedly drawing interest from over 10 different NHL clubs. As hard as it may be, Boston may just have the cut the cord when it comes to the winger.
"Yeah, I’ve had discussions with (Johansson’s agent) J.P. Barry,” Sweeney said. “It’s awfully difficult to have a conversation that would extend beyond our interest and be more definitive heading into July 1 given the landscape of what we have to deal with. So that’s as forthright as I can be now.”
Update: Looks like Johansson is on his way out.
So, beyond its own UFAs and RFAs, what else can Boston really do during free agency, even if Sweeney said that the team would be adding some new faces to the mix? Well, they’re not going to be bidding for the likes of Artemi Panarin, that’s for sure. And other than a player like Johansson, I don’t see the Bruins using any additional cap space that they somehow create to go searching for a UFA set to command $5+ million per year. If anything, look for a trade that brings aboard a top-six option like Chris Kreider or Jason Zucker rather than a major free-agent coup.
If that’s the case, what else can the Bruins do starting on Monday?
Bolster their depth:
While Boston may not be in a position to swing for the fences when it comes to free agents, Sweeney and Co. could look to a few options with good value that could make a sizable impact in some areas of need on Boston’s roster — as well as push the returning talent in the room.
“We’ll be bringing in some other players to create that internal competition which I do believe our group will benefit from,” Sweeney noted.
Center Ryan Carpenter stands as an intriguing candidate, with Mark Lazerus of the Athletic noting that the 28-year-old pivot is considering offers from the Bruins, Avalanche and Blackhawks. Tallying 18 points over 68 games with Vegas, Carpenter could be another valuable cog to add to a bottom-six corps, with the Florida native winning 52.61% of his faceoffs while averaging over a minute of ice time on the penalty kill.
Speaking of Vegas, the Bruins could also look at a potential low-risk, high-reward option in Brandon Pirri, who scored 12 goals and posted 18 points in 31 games last season with the Golden Knights.
There’s an awful lot to like about Pirri’s game, aside from the fact that the 28-year-old forward peppers the net whenever he’s in the lineup (82 shots on goal in 2018-19). During 5v5 play this season (a span of 376:40), Pirri generated a Corsi For Percentage of 56.69, while the Knights outscored the competition, 21-8, during that stretch of game action.
They may not be headline-grabbing names, but players like Carpenter and Pirri are the type of players that the Bruins might be targeting in an effort to both bolster their depth while not crippling their cap space.
(@EvolvingWild projects Carpenter to snag a two-year deal with an AAV of $1.16 million, and a one-year, $1.17 million contract for Pirri).
Other options could include Hingham native Brian Boyle (projected contract of one year at $1.27 million) and right-shot winger Ryan Hartman, who posted consecutive 31-point campaigns in 2016-18 before dropping to 26 points in 2018-19. Still, the pesky winger would be a solid addition to the bottom six, and has proven to be a solid driver of offense during 5v5 play — ranking eighth among Nashville forwards last year with 18 5v5 points.
While Sweeney added on Friday that Boston will be active in the goalie market, it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise if the Bruins focus their efforts on a veteran, AHL-level netminder with Zane McIntyre on his way out. With Boston in need of a third option behind Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak (and an AHL stalwart that can push Dan Vladar and Kyle Keyser down in Providence), look for Boston to look at someone like former Senators goalie Andrew Hammond — who played all of last season with the Iowa Wild.
Free-Agency Predictions Around the NHL:
While Boston likely won’t be in the running for some marquee names on July 1, that won’t stop us from predicting a couple of landing spots for some NHL stars. Let’s go:
Artemi Panarin, Sergei Bobrovsky sign with Florida: The Islanders are doing their best to break up a move to the Sunshine State for this pair of Russian stars, but in the end, I have both Panarin and Bobrovsky heading down to join Joel Quenneville and the Panthers. Playing hockey just a few miles north of Miami certainly has its perks, but with key cogs like Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, Keith Yandle, Jonathan Huberdeau, Mike Hoffman and others all in tow, the Panthers could be awfully scary in the Atlantic if they add two game-changers in Panarin and Bobrovsky.
Matt Duchene will sign with Nashville: The main reason why the Predators parted ways with P.K. Subban was to free up some cash in order to add Duchene, who should do wonders for a Nashville club that ranked 19th in the league in goals per game at 2.88 and featured a putrid power play that ranked dead last with a 12.9% success rate. The Canadiens could be the surprise club in the bidding for Duchene, but I think the Preds get it done.
Joe Pavelski leaves San Jose and signs with Dallas: The Lightning apparently are on Pavelski's shortlist, with Tampa Bay once again gifted with some cap room after dealing away J.T. Miller and placing Ryan Callahan on long-term injured reserve. However, I think Dallas offers the most cash for Pavelski, who could really add a scoring punch to a good Stars team that excelled this past year primarily due to its defensive efforts in net and on the blue line.
Tyler Myers gets woefully overpaid … by the Canucks: The Jets, in desperate need of cap room, managed to get fleeced by the Rangers in their deal involving Jacob Trouba, but I still don’t think Winnipeg is able to retain Myers, who should get a deal from a team like the Canucks with an AAV around $7 million. While Roberto Luongo’s retirement slams the Canucks with a recapture penalty of about $3.2 million for the next three seasons, Vancouver still gets a deal done for Myers in a move that is going to age very poorly with youngsters like Elias Pettersson and RFA Brock Boeser due for pay raises soon.
Toronto keeps Mitch Marner: Who knows when a deal like this gets done, but with the Leafs clearing off Patrick Marleau’s $6.25 million cap hit and in the process of sending Nikita Zaitsev and the remaining five years left of his $31.5 million contract to Ottawa, Toronto has enough capital left to sign Marner long-term. Bad news for the Bruins.
Dev Camp Notes:
We’ll have much more thoughts on the Bruins’ prospect pool and expectations for next year later this week, but here are a few parting thoughts from Boston’s three-day development camp.
- Jamie Langenbrunner said on Friday that the three players that stood out to him the most during the camp were John Beecher, Oskar Steen and Cooper Zech. Have to agree with him — I think there’s a 50/50 chance that Steen cracks the NHL roster come September, although that might hinge on what Boston does during the rest of the offseason. It’s easy to see Beecher’s skillset and skating ability, but it will be interesting to see how he fares at Michigan, where he will likely get top-six minutes. If he hits the ground running and settles into a groove offensively? Look out.
- Beecher and Jeremy Swayman will likely be the two prospects that I’ll keep tabs on the most during the college hockey season. Swayman, who is entering his third year at Maine, was the top netminder I saw on the ice throughout the camp, and made a couple of fantastic stops during Friday’s scrimmage — including a straight robbery of a goal from Beecher that prompted the forward to give Swayman a stick tap on his pads as a sign of respect.
- Boston has done pretty well over the last year when it comes to adding talent from Minnesota Duluth, and defenseman Nick Wolff could be next in line. A camp invite, Wolff was impressive during the three-day event, mostly due to his 6-foot-5, 230-pound frame. Still a solid playmaker in the O-zone, Wolff will likely get plenty of suitors once he wraps up his senior season with the Bulldogs in 2020. The Bruins will certainly come knocking.