Ryan: No, the Bruins' Cup window is not officially closed … yet

Something didn't feel quite right in the immediate aftermath of the Bruins' disappointing second-round exit at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night.

The sight of another promising campaign coming to a premature end always opens the floodgates when it comes to pessimism, second-guessing and candid examinations of the product put out on the field, ice, diamond, what have you.

But with this Bruins core, the pains associated with coming up short of hockey's top prize has often been assuaged by the assurance that this group — with the key foundations in place for over a decade — would have another crack at it the following winter. But as Boston departs the bubble up in Toronto, such sentiment does not seem to be as prevalent among many circles.

Hell, the Bruins' own postgame comments didn't do much to dispel the narrative that the 2019-20 campaign represented this group's final legitimate shot to hoist the Stanley Cup once again. After all, players like Patrice Bergeron (35 years old), David Krejci (34), Tuukka Rask (33) and Brad Marchand (32) are not getting any younger — while an offseason filled with plenty of uncertainty could see 43-year-old Zdeno Chara potentially hang up his skates, along with Torey Krug departing in search of a major pay day.

"I don't want to speculate if those are their last games, so those are decisions that will be made by the player and management going forward," Bruce Cassidy said of Chara and Krug's futures in Boston. "I’ve said all along, grateful to have an opportunity to coach Z. It was early in my NHL career so to speak, later in his playing career, so he helped me a lot.

"Torey is a little different, I got him more well into my American League career and he was just basically starting out, so it’s a much different situation, where you almost feel like Z probably helped me more than I've helped him and with Krug it was a little more of watching him grow and being a bigger part in his development. Both great Boston Bruins and we'll see what happens down the line because like I said, those are decisions that will be made and as I said, I love both those guys and what they mean to the Boston Bruins and hopefully what they’ll continue to mean for the Boston Bruins."

So what's next for this Bruins team in 2020-21 — a season already riddled with uncertainty that could see an older (or drastically different) B's roster hit the ice come December.

Of course, falling 60 minutes short of a Cup in 2019 will haunt this club forever — nor will we see "What If" narratives for this past season subside in quite some time.

But no, this Bruins core's window as a title contender is not shut — not quite yet.



 

Will the road be harder for players like Bergeron, Krejci and more to orchestrate another run? Of course. But even if a key cog like Krug departs this fall, there still should be optimism that this group has at least one more legitimate shot at lifting the greatest trophy in all of sports.

Why?

1. A flat salary cap is going to crack some other Cup contenders in 2020 and beyond

The logic is there for those who think the levees are going to break for this Bruins team when it comes to its viability as a true contender — especially when charting out another course through a grueling playoff gauntlet. After all, Boston was soundly beaten by a Tampa Bay club that was already better on paper and boasts a considerably younger core, while other teams like Philadelphia, Toronto and the Islanders are always a threat.

But this eventful offseason could help clear the way for the Bruins when it comes to assessing their odds in 2020-21. While initial projections were for the NHL's salary cap ceiling to expand from $81.5 million to anywhere between $84-88.2 million next year, those estimates were decimated due to the massive loss in revenue for the league due to COVID-19 — leading to a flat cap of $81.5 million.

It's not an ideal scenario for Boston, who managed to rid themselves of most of David Backes' remaining contract and will free up an additional $3 million after retained salary for Matt Beleskey and buyout cash from Dennis Seidenberg are finally off the books.

Still, the Bruins do have more fiscal flexibility than plenty of other teams going into this offseason, with about $15 million in available cap space for Don Sweeney and his staff to work with. While a pretty hefty chunk of change would have to diverted to re-up Krug, Boston could suddenly have some room to shuffle up its lineup if their playmaking blueliner does depart.

https://twitter.com/bruinscapspace/status/1300634628634669056

This flexibility is not shared by many other Cup contenders in the East, with some clubs potentially having to chip away at their rosters just in order to remain under the upper limit.

Tampa Bay could be in plenty of trouble next year, with just $5.3 million in available cap space to re-up key RFAs in Anthony Cirelli, Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak. Don't be surprised if the Bolts have to take a long look at dealing regulars like Alex Killorn, Ondrej Palat or Tyler Johnson just to accumulate the necessary funds to keep their RFAs under control.

Toronto, even after committing ROBBERY against the Penguins by dumping off Kasperi Kapanen for a boatload of players and the 15th overall pick in the upcoming draft, still have plenty of things to sort out on its own end. The Leafs have close to $8 million in available cap space, but also must hand out pay raises to RFAs in Travis Dermott and Ilya Mikheyev this fall — and need to account for a porous defense that is also going to lose two regulars in Tyson Barrie and Cody Ceci. Add in other financial constraints for other clubs (Islanders need to hand out plenty of cash for RFA Mathew Barzal) and this league-wide cap crunch could help make things easier for Boston as it prepares for one more push in 2020-21.

2. Boston still has a strong core in place...

As constituted, are the Bruins good enough to win a Cup, even if other clubs might need to take a step back? Nope. But Sweeney still has a solid foundation to build off of, even if Krug and (potentially) Chara are out of the picture.

Boston still has plenty of talent down the middle in Bergeron, Krejci, Charlie Coyle and Sean Kuraly, while perhaps 2020-21 is the year that David Pastrnak finally breaks through that elusive 50-goal threshold. On the blue line, Charlie McAvoy continues to round into form as the team's next franchise defenseman — with Chara's retirement or acceptance into a role as more of a defensive stopper and third-pairing option potentially opening the door for Boston to try out different combinations in its D corps.

In particular, look to for a duo of McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk to get some heavy minutes together, with Boston holding a 25-18 edge in goals and absurd 110-69 advantage in high-danger scoring chances during their 455:54 of 5v5 TOI together.  Add in the expected goalie rotation (at least the plan for now) in Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak (giving youngsters like Dan Vladar and Jeremy Swayman a chance to battle for reps down in Providence), plus the injection of more young talent such as Jack Studnicka (almost a lock it seems to crack the NHL roster out of camp), and this club should once again be at least primed to punch their ticket to the postseason once again.

3. ... And renewed urgency to swing for the fences 

Ultimately, what's going to determine if this core has another legitimate run left in it will come down to the efforts made by Sweeney and his staff to put this team over the top by adding legitimate talent to the roster.

Time and time again, the Bruins have relied on the luxury of a dominant top line, elite power play and strong play in net to justify offseason and midseason transactions that, while often helpful, have failed to make the most of this limited Cup window.

We saw this in 2018 when Boston failed to scoop up Ryan McDonagh to bolster their blue line. Even with the additions of Coyle and Marcus Johansson the following summer, imagine if the B's went scorched earth on the competition and filled out their top six with Mark Stone? And in Boston's final game of the 2019-20 season, Karson Kuhlman was Boston's first-line right wing — with an ineffective Nick Ritchie unfit to participate, Pastrnak trying to spark the second line and Ondrej Kase relegated to fourth-line duties by the end of the night.

Yes, Boston has some intriguing talent on the wings — whether it be Jake DeBrusk, Kase, Anders Bjork, Studnicka and more. But with Boston now staring at one final shot at a legitimate playoff run, now is not the entire for Boston to enter training camp hoping that a breakout season from a 21-year-old Studnicka or Bjork will be enough to supplement Boston's lack of consistent 5v5 scoring.

Teams with an extended window of contention might be able to live with the growing pains of these youngsters in top-six spots, but not this Bruins team — not with how much mileage its veterans have logged. Rather than plug in players either still finding their footing or far too inconsistent to regularly log top-six minutes, now is the time for Boston to swing for the fences this fall and add a legitimate, proven winger to this mix.

Even if some of the big fish on the open market like Taylor Hall might be out of Boston's price range, other options like Mike Hoffman (averaged 28.1 goals over the last six seasons) could be available, while the league's trade market could be quite robust when it comes to wingers, especially with plenty of whispers already surrounding the likes of scoring talent like Kyle Palmieri, Johnny Gaudreau, Nikolaj Ehlers, Josh Anderson and many others.

Even adding one of these players could either solve the lack of scoring to Krejci's right, or allow Cassidy to slot down Pastrnak into the second line and add another proven scoring threat next to Bergeron and Marchand. That could create a logjam down in the bottom six with players like DeBrusk, Kase, Bjork and Studnicka all vying for playing time with Coyle. But it's a good problem to have if such talent is pushed further down the lineup, while some of these youngsters very well could be used as trade chips to bring in a player like Palmieri.

Boston has often shown a hesitancy to wager all of its chips in an effort to prepare for the future, but a future for this Bruins club is already set to have key pieces like Pastrnak, McAvoy and others locked in. What the Bruins don't have in the present is enough proven talent on paper to contend for a Cup — but that can change if Boston decides to finally go all in in search of their own "Last Dance" with a group that has provided them with so much success for over a decade.