In A Salary Cap World Change Is Inevitable For Boston
Change is on it's way for the President's Trophy winning Boston Bruins, the fans know, general manager Don Sweeney knows and so do the players on this roster. It was an end of an era season for Boston and they sure went out with a bang posting a 65-12-5 record, breaking two NHL records for the most wins and most points in a regular season.
Boston is facing a salary cap crunch. Their is a good chance the team could be forced to lose their deadline acquisitions Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, and Tyler Bertuzzi.
Boston has approximately $6,087,500 in available cap space for next season. The deadline UFAs need contracts along with RFA goalie Jeremy Swayman. The Bruins need to wait to see if veterans Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci want to continue their pro careers and if they do they will also need new contracts. The pair of 37 year old's proved they still have it with Bergeron scoring 58 points in 78 games (finalist for the Frank Selke trophy) and Krejci scoring 56 points in 70 games.
Hockey Insiders believe everything is on the table this offseason so Boston can elevate some of the cap pressure. The Bruins could look to move a couple veteran defenceman off their roster in Matt Grzelcyk and Derek Forbort who are both on expiring contracts.
If Sweeney believes that 24 year old Swayman is the franchise's goalie of the future, could Sweeney cash in on soon to be 30 year old Linus Ullmark's career season where he was nominated for a Vezina Trophy? Ullmark's value has never been higher, he is signed for two more seasons at a team friendly $5,000,000 per season. As good as Ullmark was during the regular season, he failed to replicate that play during the playoffs.
General Managers have traded goalies after Vezina Trophy seasons in the past just ask Dominik Ha�ek and Marc Andre Fleury.
| POLL | ||
Who out of this list has the highest chance of not being back with Boston? | ||
| Patrice Bergeron | 132 | 42.6 % |
| David Krejci | 55 | 17.7 % |
| Tyler Bertuzzi | 90 | 29 % |
| Linus Ullmark | 33 | 10.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
