In a perfect world, the Bruins shouldn't have had to worry all that much about a cap crunch this season.
After all, Don Sweeney and the Bruins have pulled the trigger on a number of deals this season to secure more fiscal flexibility — clearing $5.8 million off the books in deals involving both David Backes and Danton Heinen.
Add in the additional $3 million saved this offseason when Dennis Seidenberg’s buyout deal and Matt Beleskey’s deferred salary are cleared off — and the Bruins could have had plenty of breathing room to re-up the multiple players set to hit the open market.
As we discussed last month, had the cap ceiling jumped from $81.5 million to anywhere between the projected limit of $84 - $88.2 million, the Bruins very well could have retained all of its top free-agent targets with room to spare. To recap from our cap projection, here were our predictions for what these free agents would command on an annual basis:
Torey Krug — $7.5 million AAV
Zdeno Chara — $2 million AAV – with additional performance bonuses
Jake DeBrusk — $3.5 – 4 million AAV
Matt Grzelcyk — $2.75 million AAV
Anders Bjork — $1.5 – 2 million AAV
Karson Kuhlman — $1 – 1.2 million AAV
(We predicted that Kevan Miller and Joakim Nordstrom would likely go elsewhere — while Jaroslav Halak potentially could be retained, based on how much money would be left over).
Had the Bruins been granted that $88.2-million limit, they could have had around $8.4 million left to sign Halak and set aside some cash for when Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy hit unrestricted free agency. Even if it was the low limit of $84 million, they'd still have room left to at least keep Halak and max out this Cup contention window.
Now, with the cap likely remaining at $81.5 million due to the loss of revenue, what should have been a potentially calmer offseason for Sweeney and Co. has now been thrown out of sorts — for multiple reasons (stating the obvious), but especially from a cap perspective.
"We don't have the knowledge of where that will be right now," Sweeney said Friday of what he expects the sum 2020-21 cap limit will fall on. "Obviously we don't know whether or not we're going to resume games, or what the projection would be if we were able to in some fashion. We know that there would be a shortfall in revenues, so there will adjustments accordingly.
"The way this system is you have to find that equilibrium point with a 50/50 balance and go from there. The cap is set on projections, so it's going to have to be negotiated in this case like it was in previous years, but we don't have any knowledge where that will rest with Mr. Bettman and Bill Daley and the Players Association."
If you wipe out the $2.5 - $6.7 million in cap room that the Bruins and other NHL clubs were expecting to command this season, the decisions become much tougher. The worst-case scenario would feature Krug walking away during free agency — a future that Krug himself acknowledged could become a reality.
Even if Grzelcyk could thrive if handed the keys to Boston's power play unit in the coming years, losing a player of Krug's caliber due to cap constraints remains a major subtraction to a roster fixated on a "win-now" mindset.
But when compared to some of the other Cup contenders in the Atlantic, the Bruins very well could be in the best shape to weather the storm that this flat cap will bring.
Even with the number of players on Boston's roster set to hit free agency, the Bruins do have a hefty amount of change available to at least re-up most of them without twisting themselves into a bind. If the cap remains at $81.5 million next season, the Bruins are projected to have around $20.2 million in available cap space before they can sign their free agents — according to CapFriendly.
Again, not enough to sign both Krug and/or Halak, but enough to at least retain most of the talent set to hit the market — and re-assess what to do with whatever UFA they prioritize.
Not ideal, but a far cry from the crunch that both the Maple Leafs and Lightning are set to face next season, especially if the cap limit remains stagnant at $81.5 million.
For a team with so much dynamic, young talent up front, the Maple Leafs' reign as perennial Cup contenders might be shorter than the decade-long run that most expected once players like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander all started to hit their stride.
As far as roster construction goes — especially in regards to the cap — Toronto is a mess. Even though Kyle Dubas and the Leafs have tried to shore up their D corps after repeatedly getting picked apart by Boston during playoff bouts over the past two seasons – it doesn't seem as though help is going to be on its way via free agency in 2020.
After all, Toronto already has a whopping $76.9 million committed to next season before free agency can even begin. If the cap remains at $81.5 million, that means Toronto will begin the offseason with just $4.6 million freed up to improve its roster.
(All charts courtesy of CapFriendly).
Of course, it'd be one thing if most of the same roster was signed through 2020-21 — but such isn't the case with this Leafs team — and committing $40.3 million annually to just four players (Matthews, John Tavares, Marner and Nylander) has left the Leafs with not enough fiscal flexibility, and far too many holes to fill in.
At this point, it seems like a given that an already depleted Leafs blue line is going to lose both Tyson Barrie and Cody Ceci to free agency, complicating things even further in an area over the roster that should be adding, not subtracting.
Add in the fact that Toronto also has a few RFAs due for pay raises in Travis Dermott, Denis Malgin and Frederik Gauthier, and things are looking awfully dire for this club in terms of having the means to improve a roster that largely underperformed for most of this season.
Trading middle-six options like an injured Andreas Johnsson ($3.4 million cap hit) or perhaps Kasperi Kapanen could create some cap space, while Toronto could also turn to younger, cheaper options like KHL star Alexander Barabanov and prospects like Nick Robertson and Timothy Liljegren to make some immediate contributions.
Still, for a team that still seems to be missing one or two impact players away from their top-heavy forward corps, it seems as though the Leafs simply don't have the financial means to add to a roster desperately looking to orchestrate a deep playoff push in short order.
Toronto is in rough shape, but Tampa Bay isn't much better — given that the Bolts have already committed $76.16 million through next season. With an $81.5 million cap limit, that means the Lightning would only have $5.3 million left to spend before free agency.
Granted, Tampa Bay does boast a much more balanced roster than Toronto, but the Lightning were already looking at a cap dump or two even if the cap ceiling increased next season — given the amount of talented young players due for pay raises this offseason.
Up front, the Bolts are going to have to open up their wallet for a trio of RFA forwards in Anthony Cirelli, Mitchell Stephens and Carter Verhaeghe. While Stephens and Verhaeghe are more depth options in the bottom-six, Cirelli, just 22, blossomed this year into one of the more promising two-way forwards in the league — shutting down top-six opponents while tallying 44 points through 68 games.
Meanwhile, blue-line regulars in 21-year-old Mikhail Sergachev and 22-year-old Erik Cernak are also due for new deals as RFAs. Even if Tampa lets the rest of its UFAs walk (Patrick Maroon, Kevin Shattenkirk, Zach Bogosian, Luke Schenn and Jan Rutta), the Bolts are going to have to still free up a ton of cash in order to get players like Cirelli, Sergachev and Cernak all paid within market value.
So, yes, a flat cap space is going to cause some major headaches for the Bruins — and could led to the departure of a blue-line regular in Torey Krug.
But $20.2 million in available cap space certainly trumps $5.3/$4.6 million, and could save Boston for selling off valuable young assets just in order to stay out of cap hell next season. Fair to say, the Maple Leafs or Lightning aren't in the same boat.
Sweeney talks scouting, contingency plans in midst of COVID-19 pandemic
Along with shedding some light on the futures of Torey Krug, Zdeno Chara and Kevan Miller during Friday’s conference call with the media, Don Sweeney also provided some additional insight on the current state of the Bruins’ scouting and management staff in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the realities facing the league going into the spring and more.
Here are a few selected clips from Sweeney’s conference:
Sweeney on how the organization’s scouting and management staff is functioning during the shutdown:
“As far as our own scouting efforts and planning purposes for free agency or drafts or any of those things — they're ongoing. We have a lot of different video options to be able to do conference calls. Our amateur group is meeting regularly — Going over this and going over names and doing character checks. Obviously the combine won't be taking place, so we have to do some things through the phone or through FaceTime or Zoom. We've used Microsoft teams and all of our staff and small group, big group meetings. Coaches have now utilized that as well, video staff. We're doing everything we possibly can.
“It's not business as usual, we all know that. Life is not normal for any one of us. But we're trying to remain some semblance of normalcy and how we go about our job. I think you saw that with the spike of college free agent stuff that you know was coming to the timeline. And that's part of the whole thing going forward. We have transition rules and things we have to put in place in order to hopefully have some ability to play.”
Sweeney on the future of the 2019-20 season and any potential contingency plans:
"We have a lot of time to sort of still ponder what-ifs. We're hopeful and still hopeful that we will have the ability to play regular season games or some form of them ... and then jump into the playoffs. I think the end result is going to be a combination of a lot of things. Obviously the health sectors and federal governments are gonna have to determine when it's healthy to return to any venue, including ours, around the league and really in North America. So that will determine and outline the ifs and whens.
“I think logistically, the NHL and the players are going to work together in this and we have to work together in this to find hopefully a result and be some part of the storyline here of being able to resume in fashion. I think everybody knows it's going to take an extended training camp period of time to get back up to full speed for the health and well-being of the players. First and foremost, we have to be healthy. We have to have standards in place to make sure we have the wellbeing of the players and people, if they're able to attend games, are remaining healthy. ... The commissioner has made that pretty clear.
“But I do believe it's going to take a partnership with the players and all the teams to find an equitable solution to hopefully resume — if not, it will be some form of exhibition or some form of extended training camps, because you just can't jump into games. I know people talk about just jumping into playoff games. And that's a far cry from just getting back on the ice, to tell you the truth. You've been off the ice for almost a month now and you just can't assume, regardless of how much work players have done, that they're going to be in game shape and ready to play and what it's going to require. So we need a lot of lead-up and build time."
Sweeney on keeping track of Boston's current roster:
"Some players are back in Europe. (Joakim) Nordstorm is in Sweden. ... Our players right now have all been healthy and remained healthy up until this point. None of them have been tested nor tested positive, obviously. We’re thankful for that and hopefully it remains as such. We do have to keep track of the whereabouts of the guys, so that we're able to get up and sort of get back to opening up our training environments and players do want to return, that we can comply with whatever the protocol is going to be."
Chara laments Brady’s departure from Boston
He may not follow the “TB12 Method”, but Zdeno Chara has done awfully well for himself over in the latter stages of his career — with the 43-year-old defenseman still serving as one of the anchors of Boston’s blue line.
For years now, Chara was joined by Tom Brady as the two Boston-based stalwarts for their respective teams that have continued to thwart Father Time as they pad their already stacked resumes.
But with Brady now off to Tampa Bay, that leaves Chara — who signed with the B’s in July 2006 — as one of the oldest-tenured athletes in Boston.(That honor goes to Patrice Bergeron, who made his debut in 2003).
“I have to be honest, it was obviously a little mixed feelings. I was a little bit sad to see Tom leave,” Chara said when speaking on WEEI’s “Dale & Keefe” earlier this week. “He meant so much to the Boston community, to the fans, to probably every little boy growing up. All these inspiring stories, and just a great example on and off the field.
“So yeah, it was kind of sad to see him leave the Boston area, but at the same time I’m very supportive of his decision and what he’s trying to go for. I will always be his fan and his friend and wish him nothing but the best.”
Chara took to Instagram last Sunday to send his best wishes to the former Patriots signal caller:
(Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
Bruins
NHL Notebook: Why a flat salary cap could do even more damage to Bruins' top foes, Sweeney talks next steps for 2019-20 season
Loading...
Loading...