The Boston Bruins vs. the Salary Cap

The Boston Bruins vs. the Salary Cap 

Earlier on in the season, a scant six months ago or the day Henrik Lundqvist got his ass paid, I wrote about the potential struggle the New York Rangers management may face in the off season with pending free agents that need re-signing, and space becoming limited as a small amount of players would take over half the cap space. Then, a few days later, Rogers Communications made their monster $5bn deal for exclusive English language NHL game broadcasts in Canada to be shown on their SportsNet network. Making my whole New York Rangers vs. the Salary Cap post utterly and completely irrelevant. Thanks, Rogers. Thanks, Bettman.

Now, with all the big TV deals set in place for many a year, I can write another (insert team with expensive players and/or financial sanctions) vs. the Salary Cap post.

The Boston Bruins went all out to win the Stanley Cup this season. Like all big market, successful franchises the Bruins spent as close to the leagues limit as they wanted to, allowing small space for potential player bonuses. This includes Jarome Iginla's, bargain on the surface, $1.8m contract. Dig deeper and you'll see that Iggy earned $4.2m in bonuses over the course of the season, bumping up his end of season cap hit to $6m. Wow. That is a huge jump. Another move they made in their pursuit for a 2nd Stanley Cup in four seasons was to trade for Andrej Meszaros, sending a 3rd round draft pick to the Philadelphia Flyers. Adding an extra $4m cap hit to the team total. 

In short, the Bruins went over the $64.3m salary cap for the 2013-14 season somewhere in the region of $3.7m. Now, the NHL will take that $3.7m and penalise the Bruins for the 2014-15 salary cap. With the cap likely to rise to around $68-71m. 

OK, still following along? Good.

Heading into the offseason there are only seventeen players signed to the Bruins pro roster next season, totalling a $62.2m hit. For the purpose of this exercise we'll use the upper projected figure of a $71.1m salary cap. With a $3.7m penalty the Bruins salary cap will be $67.4m. That means they have $5.2m to spend on six players to bring the roster size up to the standard twenty-three players.

The top five earners on the Bruins books are Tuukka Rask ($7m), Zdeno Chara ($6.9m), Patrice Bergeron ($6.5m), Milan "I'm going to (expletive) kill you next year!" Lucic ($6m), and David Krejci ($5.25m). These guys should be safe as Bruins players next year. It's the next level where the tradable players enter the discussion, the Loui Eriksson's, Brad Marchand's, Dennis Seidnberg's and Johnny Boychuk's earning between $3.3-4.5m. Not to mention Chris Kelly and Adam McQuiad who account for a joint $4.56m.

If the Bruins upper management sees the business and teams future as they should. A business. Then you have to expect that anyone below the "big five" are up for trades. 

Now we visit an interesting area. Impending free agents. On defense Andrej Meszaros and Corey Potter are UFAs. They will most likely not be back. Jarome Iginla and Shawn Thornton represent the offensive UFAs. plus goalie Chad Johnson. I imagine Thornton is the priority signing of those five UFAs. Justin Florek, rookie sensation Reilly Smith, Jordan Caron, Torey Krug and Matt Bartkowski are RFAs to be. If they wish to keep all five it'll cost them a minimum of $3.803m, and it won't be that cheap. No way. There is no way Reilly Smith accepts his minimum qualifying offer of $850k after a 48 point regular season and 5 more in twelve playoff games. Torey Krug led the Bruins in scoring throughout the playoffs with 10 points, adding to the 40 he put up in the regular season. A performance worthy of a reward higher than his calculated $874k qualifying offer. Matt Bartkowski also had an impressive offensive output from the defense but struggled in the playoffs and made a couple of rookie mistakes that led the opening Montreal goal in their game seven 2nd round elimination.

I have to be honest and say I have absolutely no idea what might happen. I'm sure Peter Chiarelli has some kind of plan. Hell, that's why he's an NHL GM and I'm not. As I've shown there is very small room to breathe, and that's with the cap at it's highest projection. If the cap is below $70m then two or even three of the five players earning between $3-4.5m will most likely find themselves in a new city when the puck drops again in October.

With the rise of the Canadiens, Lightning, and the ageless Red Wings in their division this summer could spell tougher times than what Bruins fans have had in recent times.