When it comes to contracts this offseason, not only does general manager Don Sweeney have one eye toward the upcoming 2026-27 season, but also the 2027-28 season.
Why would he have an eye on both? Well, the salary cap is going up, but there is also the new CBA that kicks in the middle of September, which drops the length of deals from eight to seven years. SO that means some Bruins players are eligible for an extension before then who are going to be free agents in the summer of 2027. What does Sweeney do? That got us thinking: how much cap space does Boston have right now for the 2027 offseason?
How much cap space does the Boston Bruins have for the 2027 offseason?
According to PuckPedia, the Bruins, at the time of this article being written, are projected to have just over $35 million. There is time to figure out just how Sweeney will go about spending what will be available, but we might start to get some answers soon.
The projected Bruins unrestricted free agents (UFAs) as of now include Casey Mittlestadt, Pavel Zacha, Sean Kuraly, Mikey Eyssimont, and Michael DiPietro. That is a very interesting list, to say the least. There have been trade rumors surrounding Mittlestadt and Zacha, and they will continue to be rumors until they are either traded or signed to an extension.
If we had to guess, Zacha is more likely to receive an extension from the $4.75 million he's making this season than Mittlstadt, who is making $5.75 million in 2026-27. It feels like this will be Mittlstadt's final season in Boston after being acquired at the trade deadline in March of 2025 from the Colorado Avalanche. DiPietro will also be a name to watch as Jeremy Swayman's backup after they traded Joonas Korpisalo to the New York Rangers in July.
As for restricted free agents (RFAs), Boston is looking at Mason Lohrei, Marat Khusnutdinov, and Fraser Minten. The latter two are players that Sweeney would likely love to extend sooner rather than later, while there are a lot of questions surrounding Lohrei, who has been the subject of trade chatter.
It remains to be seen what Sweeney does before the middle of September and how he goes about using his cap space in 2027. There is a lot of it, but how it's spent is going to go a long way in determining how things pan out.
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