The Boston Bruins are in a situation quite a bit like Anaheim’s: they have some assets that can turn their middling roster into a serious contender. Unfortunately, they don’t have anything near the Ducks’ talented young troika (instead, their roster is full of slightly problematic deals). The good news, though, is that they’ve stockpiled some quality draft picks for the near future. Trading Phil Kessel might have hurt their goal scoring, but the Bruins received Toronto’s first round picks for 2010 and 2011 along with the Leafs’ second rounder for this year. With their own picks, the picks from the Kessel trade and the second rounder they received for Chuck Kobasew, Boston will have four picks in the top two rounds for both the 2010 and 2011 drafts.
On some level, the Bruins’ future depends almost as much on Toronto’s performance as it does on their own. Even though the Leafs have been hot lately, they are still the second worst team in the league. If Toronto finishes that low, they should end up with a fantastic pick out of Toronto’s 2010 first rounder.
Here’s a snapshot of their 2010-11 cap commitments (some amounts rounded up).
Forwards (7 out of 12): Bergeron ($4.75 million); Lucic (4.08); Savard (4.07); Ryder (4); Krejci (3.75), Sturm (3.5), Marchand (822k)
Defense: (3 out of 6): Chara (7.5); Wideman (3.94); Hunwick (1.45)
Goalies: (2 out of 2): Thomas (5) and Rask (1.25)
Cap space: about $12.2 million
More analysis of the Bruins’ cap situation after the jump.
It’s pretty hard to believe that Bergeron and Lucic are making more than Savard (and Ryder is making almost as much). Savard was already a bargain at $5 million per year with his last contract; all he needs to do is get healthy and he’ll have one of the league’s best contracts going forward. Blake Wheeler and Dennis Seidenberg are probably the most likely guys for Boston to re-sign this off-season. The most interesting situations will come in the summer of 2011. Ryder and Sturm will come off the cap (combined $7.5 million) but the real curiosity is the big Z. His contract expires in 2012, so the Bruins could go in any number of directions. Will they go in a younger direction by letting Chara walk or would they rather sign the gigantic Slovakian defenseman to one more contract? That will certainly be something to watch.
Boston is going through some growing pains right now, but they have the potential to revamp their roster in a serious way. The question is: will GM Peter Chiarelli be able to take advantage of the situation?