Boston Bruins 2016-17 Salary Cap Breakdown
Boston Bruins 2016-17 Salary Cap Breakdown Based on Current Projections from General Fanager
The hockey world is ready for the 2016 NHL Entry Draft on June 24th and 25th. While it’s an exciting time, it’s also important to remember that a very limited amount of players coming from the draft will make the NHL at any points in their career, let alone make an immediate jump to the NHL. The Boston Bruins may have three selections in the first two rounds this year, but general manager Don Sweeney should be paying as much attention to free agency and the trade market as he is the draft.
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Based on current salary cap projections by General Fanager, the Boston Bruins currently rank seventh in available cap space for the 2016-17 season with a projected $20,048,333. With the exception of the Florida Panthers, each team that projects to have upwards of $20,000,000 available this off-season missed the playoffs during the 2015-16 season. The Bruins currently project to join the likes of the Arizona Coyotes, New Jersey Devils, Carolina Hurricanes, Buffalo Sabres, and Calgary Flames.
While Boston may have a ton of cap space available, it’s important to note that they only have nine forwards, four defenders, and one goaltender under contract excluding AHL contracts.
While it’s looking like the Bruins are definitely going to sign Torey Krug, and the term being the only thing up for discussion as of now, it’s safe to assume roughly $4,000,000 to $5,500,000 will be spent on the 5-foot-9 defenseman. This in no way means that Krug should get any contract worth $5,500,00 per season, but it’s better to be safe than sorry when analyzing potential contracts – especially when Sweeney is coming off of contracts in consecutive seasons to Adam McQuaid and Kevan Miller than both seemed out of place and overpriced.
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Loui Eriksson remains a question mark as he and his camp await a new contract offer from the Bruins management. J.P. Barry, Eriksson’s agent, had this to say about the on-going negotiations when speaking to ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun “Don (Sweeney) and I have been in regular communication,” Barry said . “We were expecting a new offer from the club at some point but we haven’t received one yet. I’m sure we will speak again prior to the draft about their intentions.”
If the Bruins and Eriksson cannot come to terms on a contract extension, the Bruins will be left with a huge hole to fill in terms of minutes played, goals, points, possession numbers, and all-around accountability. Veteran’s like Eriksson aren’t easy to come-by, and if the Bruins do intend on signing him to an extension it will likely be worth $5,000,000 to $6,000,000 depending on the term.
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Between Krug and Eriksson, the Bruins’ will likely be losing half of their available cap space, leaving roughly $8,000,000 to $11,000,000 available for trades, and free agency to fill the rest of their openings.
It’s been rumored already that the Bruins have kicked tires on potentially trading for, or signing players such as Dmitry Kulikov, Kevin Shattenkirk, Alex Goligoski, Kris Russell, among others. It’s unlikely that the Bruins will get a chance to sign someone like Goligoski or Russell for under $4,000,000, and both Kulikov and Shattenkirk are also already under contract for contracts worth upwards of $4,000,000, taking off another chunk of the Bruins available cap space.
Players like Landon Ferraro, Tyler Randell, Joe Morrow, Zach Trotman, Colin Miller, and Jeremy Smith shouldn’t cost the Bruins too much, with each likely to receive below $1,000,000 in bridge deals.
In terms of in-house promotions, the Bruins could look to promote Malcolm Subban, or sign Jeremy Smith to a cheap, one year contract to back-up Tuukka Rask. Skaters such as Matt Grzelcyk, Austin Czarnik, Sean Kuraly, Seth Griffith, Rob O’Gara, Danton Heinen, and Brandon Carlo could all see time with the big club next season. The Bruins three first round draft picks from the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, Jakub Zboril, Jake DeBrusk, and Zach Senyshyn will also likely compete hard at training camp to try and make an impression, but it’s unclear if any of them will be able to jump straight from the CHL to the NHL.
The wildcard for the Bruins off-season will be determined by August 15th when Jimmy Vesey of Harvard officially becomes a free agent. The young Massachusetts-native will have the opportunity to sign with any club he wants, and the Bruins have been linked to him for quite some time now with his father being a former-Bruin as well. If the Bruins can guarantee that they will sign Vesey this off-season, they might be forced to let Eriksson go to work on fixing their ailing defense.
Players who could be traded to save Boston some cap space include Dennis Seidenberg, Jimmy Hayes, Zdeno Chara, and Adam McQuaid. Finding a team that will take on the contract of any of those players won’t be easy, and will likely come with an additional cost such as a prospect or a draft pick as well as some salary cap retention.
Next: Torey Krug Deserves a Raise
The Bruins have a lot of cap space this off-season, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to fix all of their holes as contracts to players like Zdeno Chara, and Dennis Seidenberg are hurting the team now, more than ever. There is potential for Don Sweeney to get creative, but only time will tell what moves he makes and does not make.