With all the money thrown around on July 1 each year, you hear a lot of appraisals - both good and bad. You don’t hear about honest-to-goodness restraint too often, though, but Joe Haggerty’s report indicates that the Boston Bruins exercised that today.
Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli said that the team simply didn’t target high-end or middle-of-the-road free agents this summer, but ownership would sign off on a move if needed. Chiarelli agreed with Haggerty that it’s a far cry from the days of signing Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard as part of a rebuild.
Of course, he could also have a move or two up his sleeve, too.
“Certainly that showed our ownership’s commitment to getting good players and making those funds available to get good players,” Chiarelli said. “Every once in a while there are free agents like that will come around, and we were able to go after those two guys.” “I would anticipate that based on need if those circumstances were to come around again we would have those resources available. It’s a good sign to know that I can call up Charlie or Mr. Jacobs, and talk frankly about these guys, their cost and where they will be. If we wanted to be, we could be in the game for a lot of these guys.”
As appealing as it might be to add Zach Parise to an already-impressive mix, Chiarelli is probably right to take a more measured approach. The Bruins can bank on a team that’s still pretty similar to the one that hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2011 and hope that young players such as Tyler Seguin take the next step.