Boston Bruins: 5 ways to create cap space

With the Boston Bruins being in salary cap trouble this season, here are five ways the team could create cap space.

The Boston Bruins haven’t done much this offseason in regards to free agency — their two biggest signings are middle-six forward Craig Smith to a three-year deal with an annual cap hit of $3.1 million and extending restricted free agent (RFA) defenseman Matt Grzelcyk for four years with an annual cap hit of $3,687,500.

Besides these two signings, the rest have been minor and include one-year, two-way deals to forwards Greg McKegg and Zach Senyshyn and goalie Callum Booth. Forward Karson Kuhlman was also signed to a two-year, two-way deal.

A couple of more important signings were defensemen Kevan Miller to a one-year deal with a cap hit of $1.25 million and Jakub Zboril to a two-year deal with a cap hit of $725,000.

After these signings, the Bruins are now left with just $6,657,686 in cap space to re-sign RFA left wing Jake DeBrusk and fill some holes like goalie depth, another solid left-shot defenseman (they could just bring back captain Zdeno Chara on another cheap, one-year deal), and a winger to fill the hole of either Brad Marchand or David Pastrnak while they are out recovering from offseason surgeries.

With the likelihood of DeBrusk’s new cap hit being between $3 and $5 million, the Bruins will be left with just $2 to $3 million in cap space. Moves will have to be made to open up cap room — here are five potential ones that could be done.

The Boston Bruins could create cap space by trading defenseman John Moore.

Defenseman John Moore signed a five-year deal with a $2.75 million cap hit with the Bruins back in July of 2018.

This deal doesn’t seem so bad looking at just the first season. Moore played 61 games, scoring 13 points (four goals and nine assists) while also having an even plus/minus (+/-).

However, this season Moore played just 24 games. When you consider that Moore was being paid more than Chara was — who played 68 games — you see that Moore may be being paid a little too much.

The Bruins consider Moore a depth/seventh defenseman, however, he’s being paid like he’s in the lineup regularly as a low-tier second-pairing/high-tier third-pairing defenseman.

Now don’t get me wrong, Moore isn’t bad. In fact, he’s still a serviceable defenseman that can play every game.

With that being said, I think the Bruins could shed his entire contract. With three years left on his deal and the fact that Moore is only 29 years old, I think the B’s could get as high as a fourth-round pick for him.

The Boston Bruins could create cap space by trading defenseman Kevan Miller.

The Bruins signed Miller to a one-year deal with just a $1.25 million cap hit early this October. Miller hasn’t played a game since April of 2019 after suffering a kneecap injury.

At nearly 33 years old and having not played a game for over a year, Miller’s value is probably extremely low. However, before he was injured, Miller was playing over 17 minutes a game and was solid defensively.

With that being said, I don’t see the Bruins being able to trade Miller without other teams seeing him in game action first. If healthy, the Bruins will probably have to wait until after the season starts to deal him.

Even if the Bruins are able to trade him at all, I can’t see them getting very much for the veteran defenseman — probably at most a late fifth-round pick.

To be honest, I’m really unsure why the Bruins re-signed him. With all the setbacks Miller has had with his injury you would think they would have just let him walk.

But maybe the Bruins know something we don’t and think they can get something of value out of Miller, whether it be from him playing or from trading him.

The Boston Bruins could create cap space by trading forward Chris Wagner.

The Bruins signed Chris Wagner to a three-year extension with an annual cap hit of $1.35 million last November. However, with the looming cap issues and the amount of bottom-six forward depth the Bruins have, they could afford to move him.

Wagner is a reliable bottom-six forward who has played at least 65 games in each of his two seasons with the Bruins. But with the amount of bottom-six forwards and prospects ready and waiting to come up the Bruins have, they may want to deal him.

I think he Bruins would be better served shedding the cap hit of Wagner and letting Jack Studnicka take his place in the lineup. They would probably get around the same amount of production, but for less money.

If the Bruins were to trade Wagner, I don’t think they would get much due to his age (29 years old) and his role (bottom-six forward). The most you would probably see the Bruins get for Wagner is a late fourth-round pick.

The Boston Bruins could create cap space by trading goaltender Tuukka Rask.

Many will think that trading goalie Tuukka Rask is a ridiculous idea, but this one more will create more cap space ($7 million if the entire contract is unloaded) than all of the other four moves combined ($6.85 million).

Additionally, trading Rask will most likely bring the Bruins multiple NHL-ready players that can be slotted into the lineup right away. This may include a top-six left-shot defenseman and a middle-six winger.

However, this will get rid of something the Bruins have but many other NHL teams don’t — an elite starting goalie.

But, overall, this may be more beneficial as the Bruins would be able to re-sign DeBrusk and Chara and also sign unrestricted free agent (UFA) winger Mike Hoffman while also having the additions of whoever they got in the Rask trade.

If you want to know more about this idea, I went over it in greater detail in one of my latest articles.