The Boston Bruins understand the terrible situation they’re in right now. The Boston Bruins made poor draft picks over the last few years. This forced the B’s to retain players that could have been moved. They further complicated their lives by giving some of these movable players no-trade clauses.
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So, the Bruins are in serious cap hell, and there aren’t many ways to get out of it. Even factoring Marc Savard‘s LTIR money, they’ve only got eleven million dollars before they hit the cap ceiling. So, how will the Bruins tough it out the next few seasons?
The B’s are using a two-part plan to save themselves from cap jail. The first part requires having to have an awful lot of faith in the Bruins players that have bounced back and forth between Providence and Boston. In the last few weeks, the Bruins have been signing a lot of their AHL players to limited year, two-way contracts. Which means the fourth line could be a constantly shifting group of AHL talent, most likely centered by Alexander Khokhlachev.
The other way the Bruins are fixing up Chiarelli’s mess is that they’re letting some of their veterans go. Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell, and now Carl Soderberg have been told that they will not be coming back in September. The Bruins were loathe to get rid of the their third line center, but there wasn’t the money available to give Soderberg a raise.
With Soderberg gone, and Niklas Svedberg now playing in Russia, will the Bruins complete the Swedish hat trick and trade away Loui Eriksson? Eriksson found his best fit with Soderberg last season, and freeing up four million dollars could mean a lot to the Black and Gold.
Puck Prose
From Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe:
“Soderberg will have company leaving Boston. It could even be Eriksson, his former right wing. Eriksson was an important player for the Bruins in 2014-15. He played in all situations. But his best fit was on the third line with Soderberg. The two clicked, both in open ice and in-tight offensive-zone setups.
Without Soderberg, Eriksson’s future becomes less clear. Coach Claude Julien hasn’t liked Eriksson with Bergeron and Marchand. The initial plan was to play Eriksson with Krejci and Milan Lucic. But that fizzled when Krejci couldn’t stay out of the trainer’s room.
Eriksson is a good player, even better than Soderberg. But Eriksson is also 29. He will be unrestricted after 2015-16.”
That puts him in the same boat as Milan Lucic. They’ll have to sing for their supper. Unfortunately, the Bruins are probably looking to only serve Lucic dinner after next season.
The $4.25 million dollars in Eriksson’s contract could lock up Adam McQuaid, Ryan Spooner, and Brett Connolly in one fell swoop. While I like what Loui Eriksson has done in Boston (I just don’t understand how someone who finishes second in overall points can be regarded as a ‘Soft Swede’), the Bruins will need to get the cap monkey off their back. Moving Eriksson before the start of the season could just be what the Bruins need.