Boston Bruins: Their lucky escape from Kevin Shattenkirk

The Boston Bruins were in pole position to make a terrible free-agent signing in three consecutive years. Luckily for them, back then unrestricted free agent defenseman in Kevin Shattenkirk chose to go elsewhere.

The Boston Bruins would have been in an even more vulnerable position now with their salary cap issues as Kevin Shattenkirk almost landed in Boston two years ago. It would’ve marked another foolish free agency big-money contract signed by the team.

Kevin Shattenkirk is a tremendous defenseman, nothing against him. The Colorado Avalanche drafted him in the first round of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.  Following his draft, Shattenkirk spent three years playing for the Boston University at NCAA. In his last season there, he seemed ready to go to the NHL, as he was also given the captaincy at B-U.

He has an impressive rookie season with 44 points, while he was traded in 2011 to the St. Louis Blues. After regularly succeeding 40-point marks with the Blues in the full seasons, Shattenkirk went to the Washington Capitals at the trade deadline in 2017. He played 32 games there in the regular season and the playoffs combined, in which he posted 20 points.

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As the 28-year-old puck-moving elite defenseman coming off a 56-point season while being healthy, he was the most requested defenseman on the free-agent market in 2017. One of the teams heavily interesting was the Boston Bruins. The New Rochelle, New York native, rather chose to sign with his hometown team, the New York Rangers.

Although there were rumors about a long seven-year deal worth at least $7 million per season, he signed a ‘team-friendly’ deal for four seasons worth $6,650,000 per campaign. Some of the Bruins fans were raging and fuming that the Bruins couldn’t land such a defenseman on such a discount price.

Two summers before that, the Boston Bruins signed Matt Beleskey and David Backes to five-year deals with the total worth of $9,8 million per season. Even though the Bruins wanted to sign Kevin Shattenkirk, as they thought about the signing of his former St. Louis Blues teammate David Backes or Matt Beleskey. As we now know (I understand that speaking from the future is much easier), the side which wouldn’t sign either of these three would be the actual victor.

In his first season at the Madison Square Garden, Kevin Shattenkirk missed almost the half of the season while collecting only 23 points. Last season, he wasn’t able to bounce back, as he posted 28 points in 73 games.

The New York Rangers decided to buy him out. If the Boston Bruins already have a lot of the salary cap space issues now, adding Kevin Shattenkirk and his contract to this misery, it would require such a deal with Charlie McAvoy and/or Brandon Carlo as the Doug Wilson signed with Kevin Labanc in San Jose.

Interestingly, once a strong pair of two leaders for the St. Louis Blues; Backes and Shattenkirk are now prime buyout candidates. After they both left the team, the Blues finally won the Stanley Cup, ironically beating the Boston Bruins with Backes in the Stanley Cup Final. And the New York Rangers helped the Bruins with their salary cap issues with absorbing 50% of Matt Beleskey’s contract in a trade sending Rick Nash to Boston in 2018 for a first-round draft pick.

Don Sweeney might not be ‘Sweenius’, the genius among NHL general managers, but he is learning. After he couldn’t learn with Beleskey in 2015 and David Backes in 2016, he almost fell in the same hole with Shattenkirk in 2017. Luckily for him and his Bruins, Shattenkirk avoided Boston. That;s why Don Sweeney has stayed put for the past two summers and also during the last trade deadline, not willing to give up a first-round draft choice anymore.

Imagine that the Bruins signed Kevin Shattenkirk and then bought him out this summer. That would leave them with the salary cap hit elevation (compared to the current situation) by $6,083,333 in 2020. That’s the year when they need to re-sign Torey Krug, Charlie Coyle, Matt Grzelcyk, and Jake DeBrusk.

At the end of the day, the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers don’t like each other. Maybe also because the Rangers have to pay $1,900,000 for Beleskey and another $300,000 for Ryan Spooner, two former Boston Bruins’ cap casualties. Plus, it was the Bruins whom the Rangers beat in those Shattenkirk sweepstakes two years ago.