Boston Bruins: Four bold thoughts on possible moves this off-season
The Boston Bruins have two remaining restricted free agents, and it is nearly August.
While there are still many unsigned and fairly big-name players on the market, the Bruins situation is fairly unique. With just a hair under $7.295M in cap space, the Bruins have two top-four defenders to bring back. Those defensemen are Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo.
Using EvolvingWild’s contract projections and Sean Tierney’s public.tableau visual, we can determine how expensive McAvoy and Carlo likely will be. Both McAvoy and Carlo are expected to garner a long-term, six-year deal.
For Carlo, EvolvingWild has him cashing in for $25,879,428, or $4,313,238 per season. As for McAvoy, he could receive a $43,561,662 contract, which amounts to an average of $7,260,277 per season.
With those two contracts put together, the total amount of money the Bruins spend this season would be $11,573,515. That would lead to the Bruins being $4,279,348 over the cap ceiling. There’s some work that needs to be done and moves to be made.
Torey Krug comes to mind, for me, when it comes to someone the Bruins could move to create room. For one, he is in the final year of his current contract that carries a cap hit of $5.250M. He would end up being 29 next off-season when he gets his new deal, and knowing Don Sweeney and how he handles contracts to older players (David Backes, looking at you), that’s a disaster waiting to happen.
Nothing against Krug but he is consistently involved in the physicality of the game, and you have to start to question how long his body can take that. However, I don’t believe he is a trade candidate anymore, with a recent interview airing with Krug stating he wants to play in Boston for the remainder of his career. While many athletes say that all the time, there’s no doubt Krug is a favourite within the fanbase and the organization, and likely will in fact stay for many more seasons.
With the recent Milan Lucic and James Neal deal taking place, there’s a sense that there may be ways to move a not-so-good contract. David Backes is that player for the Bruins who has a less-than-ideal contract that may need to be moved before the season begins in October.
Who might do the Boston Bruins a favour?
However, what teams would be willing to do the Bruins a favour by taking that contract off their hands? Our site expert here at Causeway Crowd, Ryan Darnley, put out an article himself on the matter. He picked out three general managers that Bruins GM Don Sweeney has dealt with on several occasions.
He stated the following, “Namely the Florida Panthers’ Dale Tallon, the New Jersey Devils’ Ray Shero and the New York Rangers’ Jeff Gorton.” Darnley then went on to eliminate two of those three GMs, stating “Safe bet, given their status as a fellow Atlantic Division team, is that the Florida Panthers will be unlikely to instigate any sort of deal that gives true value back to the Boston Bruins… Jeff Gorton, with his recent contract extension he gifted to Jacob Trouba and the big summer signing of Artemi Panarin, rapidly jumped from being a General Manager of a team committed to rebuilding to be the General Manager of a team with limited cap space and a few bad contracts still left to get rid of. Perhaps the only hope for calling in a favour lies with Ray Shero.”
For those that don’t know, the New Jersey Devils have had themselves quite the off-season, bringing in defenseman PK Subban and winger Wayne Simmonds, as well as drafting future superstar Jack Hughes with their first overall selection in the draft.
Yet, despite all of those moves, the Devils still have $16.945M in cap space. So yes, the Devils are absolutely in the realm of possibilities when it comes to where the Bruins could move Backes. But there’s no way around the fact that the Bruins have very little leverage in trade talks.
The Devils have the talent to contend for the playoffs, so long as they stay healthy, and the Bruins are in their conference and ultimately competing against them. The Devils don’t want to make a competitor stronger by allowing them to quickly offload a contract and bring back big pieces to their team.
That being said, the Devils’ Ray Shero will absolutely force the Bruins to sweeten the deal up to the max. It’s also important to note that Shero has been a master at trade negotiations, somehow reeling in Taylor Hall for just Adam Larsson, a sub-top 4 defenseman. The Bruins would be treading on dangerously thin ice and could ultimately regret making a deal with the Devils. So, who else is there?
Would the Canucks really consider doing a deal with the Boston Bruins?
The Vancouver Canucks and the Bruins are rivals, for one big reason. The 2011 Stanley Cup Final, that saw half of Vancouver go up in flames due to riots. But that shouldn’t stint any trade talks between the two teams at all.
Both teams have a bad contract on their hands, and both teams have big pieces to re-sign. This will wind up leading to the Bruins not being able to bring back one of McAvoy or Carlo, but this deal could work wonders.
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Both teams lack leverage in trade talks, so that allows Sweeney to work some magic with a potential deal. The Canucks are rumoured to move Loui Eriksson, who has the same contract as Backes, but for one year longer.
There’s a chance the Bruins can convince Canucks GM Jim Benning to retain 15% of Eriksson’s contract ($900,000). With that, the Bruins add in a 2020 2nd round pick and 6th round pick.
Eriksson played three seasons in Boston, spanning from 2013-2016. He recorded 62 goals and 85 assists for 147 points in 224 games played. In that same three-season span with Vancouver, he recorded 32 goals and 44 assists for 76 points in 196 games played. That’s 30 fewer goals, 41 fewer assists and 71 fewer points in just 28 fewer games played.
Why does this matter? Well, how does a player coming off a 30 goal season immediately drop to scoring just 32 goals the next three years? Yes, Eriksson is far past what he used to be, especially at 34 years old. But he found a lot of success with the Bruins before he went free-falling through his sudden decline.
Taking on the Eriksson deal a risk worth taking for the Boston Bruins
It’s certainly a risk, but one that may be worth trying. For one, the Boston Bruins have a much more talented top nine than the Vancouver Canucks, and Loui Eriksson could certainly benefit. Even if his offensive game doesn’t get better, he is still solid in the defensive end and could help improve an already solid penalty kill.
Meanwhile, David Backes brings a veteran and leadership presence to Vancouver. He changed his role with the Boston Bruins to better fit in with the organization, because he is willing to do whatever it takes to help the team. He adds a physical presence to a team who lacks that such trait. It’s a decent fit both ways, plus the Canucks reeled in draft picks in a really good draft year.
With the salary retainment on Eriksson, the Boston Bruins cap space jumps up to $8,194,167. Let’s say that Charlie McAvoy takes the projected contract that EvolvingWild speculated ($7,260,277 per season), that leaves the Bruins with $933,890 left (before sending down Pavel Shen).
Once all roster moves are made, and the Bruins have one extra forward and two extra defensemen, they are left with $1,743,057 in space. Here’s what that lineup would look like, using CapFriendly’s Armchair-GM tool; it’s not half bad at all!
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron-David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk–David Krejci–Charlie Coyle
Joakim Nordstrom–Danton Heinen-Loui Eriksson
Brett Ritchie–Sean Kuraly-Chris Wagner
Extra forward: Par Lindholm
Zdeno Chara-Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug-Matt Grzelcyk
Extra defensemen: Connor Clifton, Steven Kampfer
What says Charlie McAvoy wants to stay with the Boston Bruins?
But wait, this isn’t the end of my article. Don’t go anywhere, it’s only just getting started. So remember McAvoy’s viral tweet from way before he was even considered an NHL talent? You know, the one where he said that he hates the Bruins? What if, and don’t get too upset Bruins fans, McAvoy wants to go elsewhere?
That could be a huge blow to the Bruins, but it could also explain why the process of re-signing him has taken this long. Maybe he is asking for a ridiculous amount of money to stay, which the Bruins obviously can’t afford. While this is all a shot at the dark, there is a very real possibility he could be on his way out of Boston. If that’s the case, the Bruins can re-sign Carlo for the projected $4,313,238 per year salary. That would leave the Bruins with $4,690,096 in space.
That opens the door to a potential McAvoy trade, and he may want to go home to New York. While the New York Rangers don’t have the cap, there’s a second New York team that does: the New York Islanders. They desperately need a number one defenseman like McAvoy on their team, along with the fact they need anyone who can push the pace offensively, whether it be a forward or defenseman.
The Bruins could get so much back in a McAvoy trade, including the picks they gave up in the Eriksson trade and then some. They can also add a guy like right-shot defenseman Ryan Pulock, who has a $2M cap hit for just one season and is still young at 24 years old.
How would the Boston Bruins line up after an Islanders trade?
For that deal, I had the Islanders send over Pulock, goalie prospect Linus Soderstrom, as well as a 2020 first and a 2020 second-round pick. Pulock adds to a somewhat bare right side of the blueline, at a cheaper price than most.
Linus Soderstrom is a solid goaltending prospect, and with Rask at 32 years old and two years left on his current deal, as well as Jaroslav Halak at 34 with one year left on his deal, it’s time to look at the future in goal.
The Bruins get back the second-round pick they lost in the hypothetical Eriksson trade, as well as a first, in a really good draft. Here’s what that team would look like, using CapFriendly:
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
DeBrusk-Krejci-Coyle
Nordstrom-Heinen-Eriksson
Ritchie-Kuraly-Wagner
Extra: Lindholm
Chara-Pulock
Krug-Carlo
Grzelcyk-Moore
Extra: Clifton, Miller
Rask
Halak
There are a lot of ways the Bruins could slice and dice this off-season, no doubt. There’s also a scary possibility that McAvoy very well could be on his way out. Not to mention, bringing both Carlo and McAvoy back together is very difficult.
That said, with a few moves, the Bruins could remain serious Cup contenders for the remainder of their core players’ time, despite losing one of their top-four defensemen.
It’s also important to keep in mind a few prospects could make the jump to the NHL, such as Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson, Trent Frederic, Anders Bjork and Zach Senyshyn for forwards as well as Urho Vaakanainen and Jakub Zboril on defence.
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