The Boston Bruins appear to be headed towards sweet salary cap freedom today. The Bruins have agreed to trade injured left wing Marco Sturm to Los Angeles for a conditional draft pick. Sturm’s salary cap hit is a solid $3.5 million this season. It’s the final year of Sturm’s contract so he’ll be a free agent at the end of the season. There have been rumblings about what the Bruins will do with Sturm when he got healthy and ready to play again. Given his salary, the Bruins were set to have quite a mess on their hands when it came to the salary cap.
Of course, when trying to deal a player whose coming off of a knee injury and who hasn’t participated in training camp nor any part of the regular season as of yet, things can get a bit sticky. Such is the case here as Sturm will need to pass a physical in order for the deal to be approved. With a guy coming off of major knee surgery, it’s curious to see if he will pass the exam.
If Sturm is fine, he’s a great pick up for the Kings. He can still score and he’ll thrive in a system with the likes of Anze Kopitar, Justin Williams, Ryan Smyth, Jarret Stoll, and Dustin Brown. Sturm figures to be a top six left wing and giving the team another guy that can just score goals. Sturm has been capable of scoring 20+ goals before in the past and he’s a guy that GM Dean Lombardi is familiar with from his years with the Sharks. Keeping him healthy will be the main issue. Thankfully, the Kings don’t have much in the way of salary cap worries this year.