While the two years and $12 million ($6 million AAV) remaining on David Backes’ contract has grinded the Bruins’ offseason plans to a halt, the veteran’s deal is not the lone albatross mucking up a club’s cap situation in 2019 and beyond.
Whether it be Brent Seabrook’s deal with the Blackhawks (8 years, $6.875 million AAV through 2024-25), Milan Lucic’s contract he inked with Edmonton three years ago (7 years, $6 million AAV through 2023) and even the 14-year megadeal for Shea Weber that will see the blue liner counting for $7.87 million against the cap for Montreal in 2025-26 — there are plenty of agreements that are already squeezing teams financially, or will start to in the coming years.
But unlike Backes’ situation in Boston, some of these deals have managed to be jettisoned from their original team, especially this summer.
In the last week alone, two brutal contracts were freed off the books from their respective franchises — with the Oilers ridding themselves of Lucic’s deal in a trade with the Flames, and the Golden Knights dealing both a fourth-round pick and David Clarkson (and the final year of his 7-year, $36.75 million contract) back to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for netminder Garret Sparks.
For Bruins fans, it can be frustrating to see how other teams have managed to rid themselves of these deals while the B’s and their $7.2 million in cap space are still stuck in neutral — searching for ways to clear cash in order to re-sign RFAs in Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo and explore other avenues to fine tune its roster.
But unlike the deals struck for Lucic and Clarkson, the situation with Backes and the Bruins is far more complicated.
When it comes down to it, the Bruins’ sole intention when it comes to dealing away Backes lies in cap relief, plain in simple. Such wasn’t the case for the Oilers when it came to trading Lucic.
Rather than add sweeteners in a deal with the Flames to get Lucic’s $6 million cap hit off the books, the Oilers instead opted to take another unfavorable contract in winger James Neal — who will count as a $5.75 million cap hit over the next four seasons.
For both the Oilers and Flames, this deal wasn’t struck as any sort of cap maneuver, but rather as a way for two struggling wingers to get a fresh start, with Edmonton in particular looking like the winners in this one — given that Neal had tallied 20 or more goals in his first 10 seasons in the NHL prior to last year in Calgary.
If the Bruins find a trade suitor for Backes, they’re certainly not taking another bad contract in its place, especially with McAvoy and Carlo still waiting around.
The case with Clarkson is a bit more complicated, but given the veteran forward’s current status — his unsavory deal stands as more of a cap-relief tool than an actual burden at this point.
Despite parting ways with a backup netminder in Sparks, the Maple Leafs now have the ability to make use of Clarkson’s contract on the long-term injured reserve (LTIR) — with the 35-year-old winger failing to appear in a game since March 2016 due to a career-ending back injury.
While the Leafs’ current projected cap hit of $83,659,699 exceeds the league ceiling of $81.5 million (and leaving them zero room to re-sign Mitch Marner), $10.5 million of that $83.6 million belongs to both Clarkson and Nathan Horton — two players technically on the Leafs payroll that, as LTIR selections, will not count against the cap once the season begins.
Again, not the same case as Backes, who will be looking to play regular minutes in 2019-20, either in Boston or elsewhere, despite his continued dip in terms of production.
So while it can be a pain to see other big contracts sent out on the transaction wire, the Bruins are staring at a much more daunting challenge — unloading a brutal contract while not being forced to retain much of anything back other than cap relief.
The closest comparison to a Backes’ deal was the price that the Maple Leafs paid last month to get rid of the $6.25 million cap hit that Patrick Marleau represented in the final year of his contract, with the Leafs having to give up a conditional first and seventh-round pick in 2020 in order to get that money off the books.
That’s a steep price to pay, but one that the Leafs needed to make given their cap situation. The cost for the Bruins to replicate such a feat will likely be even more, given that Backes has two years left on his deal, as opposed to Marleau’s one.
As such, the waiting game for the Bruins and Backes continues.
Bruins set to take part in Prospects Challenge once again
While most of the Bruins will be looking to get back up to speed at the club’s regular training camp at the start of September, a number of the B’s most promising prospects will be working on their craft over in Buffalo.
For the fifth year in a row, the Bruins are set to take part in the Prospects Challenge at the HarborCenter in Buffalo, which will be held from September 6-9.
Boston’s rookies will compete against the Buffalo Sabres, Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils' rookies in the round-robin challenge featuring prospects from each team. The participating teams will each play three games over the course of the challenge, which is being held entirely at HarborCenter. The full Bruins roster will be announced at a later date.
Quite a few participants in last year’s challenge ended up logging games up in the NHL ranks with the Bruins in 2018-19, headlined by Connor Clifton, Karson Kuhlman, Urho Vaakanainen, Anders Bjork, Trent Frederic, Jeremy Lauzon, Zach Senyshyn and Jakub Zboril.
Here’s the full schedule for the 2019 Prospects Challenge:
Friday, September 6 (HarborCenter, Buffalo, NY)
-Pittsburgh vs. Boston, 3:30 p.m.
-Buffalo vs. New Jersey, 7 p.m.
Saturday, September 7 (HarborCenter, Buffalo, NY)
-New Jersey vs. Pittsburgh, 3:30 p.m.
-Buffalo vs. Boston, 7 p.m.
Monday, September 9 (HarborCenter, Buffalo, NY)
-Boston vs. New Jersey, 9:30 a.m.
-Buffalo vs. Pittsburgh, 12:30 p.m.
Marc Savard joins Blues
The St. Louis Blues already snagged a Stanley Cup title away from the Bruins. Now, they’re taking one of Boston’s most beloved players from the past two decades.
Center Marc Savard, who won a Stanley Cup with Boston in 2011 and racked up 305 points (74 goals, 231 assists) in 304 career games with the Bruins, is set to join Craig Berube's staff in St. Louis for the 2019-20 season, with the former pivot serving as an assistant coach.
While Savard did not play another game in the NHL after Jan. 22, 2011 due to symptoms of post-concussion syndrome from a cheap hit from Pittsburgh’s Matt Cooke, Savard has remained around the game — taking part in broadcasts for Hockey Night in Canada while helping to coach the OHL’s Peterborough Petes.
Savard might have served as fan banner captain for Game 5 of Boston’s opening-round series against Toronto, but now the 42-year-old will look to fix up a Blues power play that stalled throughout the postseason.
Welcome back, @MSavvy91!
Marc Savard and @SpOlympicsMA athlete Tyler Lagasse were tonight’s fan banner captains. pic.twitter.com/AdHFgvyEq2
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 19, 2019