Boston Bruins: Still Trying To Keep Loui Eriksson
Last season, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney had a dilemma on his hands. He had to either keep Swedish forward Loui Eriksson or find a way to get a good defenseman before the trade deadline. Sweeney took a roll of the dice, and it turned up snake eyes as the Bruins failed to make the playoffs for the second straight season.
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Sweeney knew it would be hard to keep Eriksson. Keeping Loui would force the Boston Bruins to put a lot of their eggs into the top six forwards when it came to cap space. The choice was made even harder as the 30-year old winger had a solid 63 point (30 goal) season. Eriksson’s overall performance is what drove Sweeney into taking the big risk that never panned out.
“Loui was having a fantastic year, had a fantastic year, and was a big part of our success to that point,” said Sweeney of Eriksson at the B’s final press conference.
“I’ve never discussed what may or may not have been thrown our way. There’s been a heck of a lot of speculation in that regard, but they’re not getting it from me. I felt I was always, and always will do, what’s best for this organization in the here and going forward. And this team at that time deserved the opportunity to have players to add to our group. We needed to. But in the context of Loui I’d been clearly in favor of trying to reach signing Loui Eriksson. Whether or not that materializes still remains to be seen. He has options lying in front of him, but it doesn’t take away that he was an important part of our group. And I felt I did what was best for the organization at that time.”
The Bruins seem reluctant to commit long-term to players over 30 (no doubt the decline of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg are good reasons why they wouldn’t). They also know that Eriksson is looking for a four-or-more year kind of contract, and his asking price will be in the 6-7 million dollar range.
There will certainly be other teams interested in the veteran winger. Recent rumors place the Philadpelphia Flyers as deeply interested in acquiring the services of Eriksson. It might be in the best interests of the Bruins organization to pass on Eriksson. They’ve got to have the money to sign Brad Marchand next year, and that cash will be hard to find if Eriksson gets a huge paycheck.
Still, it seems the Bruins are trying to find a way to make it work. According to Elliott Friedman of Sportsnet, the Black and Gold are still trying to make it work.
From Sportsnet:
“On unrestricted free agent-to-be Loui Eriksson: there were some conversations when Boston GM Don Sweeney and agent J.P. Barry were both at the World Under-18s in North Dakota. There are plans to talk again in the near future. Sounds like both sides searching for more common ground.”
Hopefully, the Bruins and the Eriksson camp can come to terms that won’t haunt Sweeney later. He’s had to inherit enough problems from the final years of the Peter Chiarelli administration. The last thing he needs is to add more problems to the Bruins plate.