Don Sweeney has been a busy man the last few days. After having what many believed was a very good NHL Draft over the weekend, he has inked some players to deals ahead of free agency on Tuesday.
Last week, he signed Mason Lohrei to a deal with a $3.2 million AAV over two years, then he extended Marat Khusnutdinov and Michael Callahan on Sunday afternoon, before extending his biggest free agent, Morgan Geekie, on Sunday night to a six-year, $5.5 million AAV. On Monday morning, the Bruins' GM announced three more signings.
Bruins re-sign Michael DiPietro, John Beecher, and Henri Jokiharju
The Bruins announced that Sweeney has re-signed defenseman Henri Jokiharju, forward John Beecher, and goaltender Michael DiPietro. Jokiharju gets a three-year deal that carries an AAV of $3 million, while Beecher gets a one-year deal for $900,000, and DiPietro signed for two more years with a cap hit of $812,500.
Jokiharju was acquired from the Buffalo Sabres at the trade deadline and played well with Nikita Zadorov over the final six weeks of the season, but if this is the right-side addition that the Bruins are going to leave free agency with, then what a disappointment it would be. There needs to be an addition either through a trade or free agency soon.
As far as Beecher goes, this is a depth signing for the fourth line, and Beecher does bring speed, solid work on faceoffs, and a good penalty killer. The one-year deal tells him this is a make-or-break season for the former first-round pick.
There were rumors that NHL teams were hoping that DiPietro was going to hit free agency, but Sweeney locked him up on a two-year deal for $812,500, which could open the door for a Joonas Korpisalo trade to free up more cap space and move the frustrated netminder. Time will tell.