UFA Defenseman Wade Redden. Photo credit: Getty Images.
They say Wade Redden played well with current Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara when he was paired with the monster of a man that is Big-Z during their days as Ottawa Senators. They say that Redden can still be a serviceable NHL-level defenseman and that the Bruins are one of the teams interested in his services. Do you believe it?
Do you think the Bruins should add a veteran d-man like Redden, who will most likely get the veteran minimum after recently being bought out of the final 2 years of his 6-year, $39 million contract by the New York Rangers? Its very well a possibility as we all know Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli will do anything and everything he can do in order to get the Bruins back to the promised land and as Causeway Crowd editor Andrew Thompson often says, “Rescue the cup”.
But what about cap space? Aren’t the Bruins up against the salary cap? Yes, yes they are. In fact they have one of the larger payrolls in the NHL. However, the Tim Thomas trade market isn’t dead just yet as a handful of teams are still below the cap floor and may take on a contract like Thomas’ (who as we all know is planning to sit out the entire 2013 season) and they could add him for cheap and not touch their projected starting lineups.
They pay Thomas to sit at home, they reach the cap floor and the Bruins are rid of Thomas’ $5 million cap hit for this season. Sounds like a win/win for everyone if you ask me. That would then open the door for the Bruins to trade for a bigger contract (looking at you Bobby Ryan) or add a few free agents to help solidify their already solid organizational depth, but truth be told they could probably use another veteran defenseman and Redden could be that man.
This all could open the door for Redden or someone else, maybe the B’s may never deal Thomas and just find another way to sign Redden, or quite possibly none of this could ever happen. But it’s important to notice that the B’s adding Redden and subtracting Thomas are both currently being talked about, so the possibility of one or the other happening is just that, a possibility.
If they could deal Thomas that would be very ideal, if they were able to rid themselves of that now useless cap hit I would love it and love their salary cap flexibility.
If they add Redden for cheap I don’t have a problem with that either, however I would love to see what the kid Dougie Hamilton can do at the NHL-level for at least 5 games. But, if they do sign Redden or another veteran defenseman I will never have a problem with it, you can never ever have too much depth at any position. Especially during what should be an injury plagued, condensed 48-game NHL schedule.