It’s been a busy day for the Boston Bruins and the National Hockey League. On the home front, the Boston Bruins signed goaltender Zane McIntyre two a two-year, two-way contract.
“The Bruins are very excited to have Zane as a part of our organization,” said Sweeney of McIntyre. “He had a tremendous career at North Dakota and while it was a difficult decision for him to leave, we all feel he is ready to start his pro development and that he will be an NHL goalie.”
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McIntyre was selected by the Bruins in the sixth round (165th overall) during the 2010 NHL Entry Draft. He has spent the last five years participating in the Boston Bruins development camps.
The 6′2″, 206lb McIntyre has played the last three seasons at the University of North Dakota, putting up a record of 58-24-9 for the Fighting Sioux. Last season McIntyre tallied an impressive 29 wins. He had a solid 2.05 goals-against average and a similarly strong .929 save percentage.
On the NHL front, the Boston Bruins now know their exact fate. The NHL announced that the salary cap would be fixed at $71.4 million dollars. (We at Causeway Crowd had the cap at somewhere between $70 and $71.5 million.)
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The final number didn’t really surprise Don Sweeney. “Everybody is sort of trying to get a real good solid view of the landscape ahead of each and every one of us heading into the draft,” said Sweeney of the upcoming cap announcement. Now that the Bruins know what kind of breathing room they have, they’ve likely already sent a call to Dougie Hamilton‘s agent to start the finalization of his contract.
The Bruins organization was preparing for a cap that could have been as low as $69 million, so the extra cash will certainly give the Bruins a little more breathing room as they try to resign players like Hamilton, Ryan Spooner, Brett Connolly, and Adam McQuaid. The Bruins currently have about $6.8 million in cap space. The B’s will be able to get an additional four million to play with once they put Marc Savard on long-term injured reserve.
So, expect the first round of trading frenzy to begin sometime tomorrow, and expect at least one surprise during the Draft on Friday.