Mar 8, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Bruins left wing
Brad Marchand(63) is congratulated at the bench by Boston Bruins center
Maxime Talbot(25) and left wing
Milan Lucic(17) after scoring against the Detroit Red Wings during the first period at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
A lot of people were hoping for some serious free agency frenzy this season. By and large, a lot of people were disappointed. The Boston Bruins did jump into the free agency market this year. In all, the B’s made a good pick (Jimmy Hayes), a few decent picks (Matt Irwin, Matt Beleskey), and a certified head-scratcher (Zac Rinaldo).
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Overall, it was an unusually slow go in this free agency period. Why did so many teams (including the Bruins) not engage in the usual free agency frenzy we’ve come to expect? There are several reasons why:
The National Hockey League and the NHL’s players union finally agreed to have a solid salary cap ten years ago. (All it took for them to get together and agree on it was the loss of the entire 2004-05 season.) After all this time, the salary cap is finally working the way it was supposed to. The latest model of the collective bargaining agreement even got rid of a loophole to circumvent the cap. Teams no longer had the ability to dump under-performing, cap-killing players in the minors.
This put at least a dozen teams in the ugly position of being unable to move or hide bad contracts(like Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Cody Franson), causing a lot less commotion this off season. NHL profits weren’t as great as they were thought they would be. This is part of the reason why the salary cap didn’t go up very much. The struggling Canadian dollar certainly didn’t help matters on that front either.
Could the Boston Bruins have done more this free agency period?
The Bruins might have found a top-four defenseman in Matt Irwin. Irwin is a bit more mobile than other defenseman and in that regard, he is a good short-term substitute for Dougie Hamilton. The Bruins have enough forwards to fill out their roster, and once again have more than enough centers to fill out their roster (and perhaps find a way to move players like Chris Kelly and Alexander Khokhlachev to find the right blueliner in Boston). The Bruins might be done with free agency, but there are still gaps a lot of the fans would like to see filled.
It’s certainly hasn’t been easy for the new Bruins GM. Don Sweeney had a lot of damage to repair after the departure of Peter Chiarelli. He had to get the salary cap under control (which he did), he had to retain all the right possible players (the loss of Milan Lucic and Dougie Hamilton rate that as a ‘no’), and he had to make a team that can get back into the playoffs (we’ll find out the answer to that later). Sweeney made many moves that made sense for the Bruins. He also left a few questions unanswered going into the start of the season.