Filene’s Basement may be a thing of Boston’s glorious past, but the Bruins found their own bargain section of the free agent market on Saturday.
Working on a tight budget, GM Don Sweeney signed five players for $5.8 million – a little less than Taylor Hall’s $6 million cap hit that was dealt away earlier in the week – bringing back a fan favorite, an aging one-time explosive forward, a promising young bottom-six forward, a veteran defenseman and a depth forward.
Meanwhile, the B’s still have approximately $8 million left under the cap, which should be enough to sign restricted free agents Jeremy Swayman, Trent Frederic and Jakub Lauko with a little left to sign one of their top two centermen on a bonus-laden deal, should either Patrice Bergeron or David Krejci surprise us and decide not to retire.
Anyone who was paying attention knew these painful days were coming. They are not going to be the same dominant team they were when they won 65 games last season, taking a Reggie Jackson-like swing on the season and whiffing in the playoffs. But it remains to be seen if Sweeney built a sturdy enough bridge to get the B’s to the playoffs and then to next offseason, when the salary cap is expected to rise.
Sweeney was generally pleased with the crop he signed without anchoring themselves long-term contracts. The B’s added snarl with the signing 35-year-old Milan Lucic (one-year, $1 million plus bonuses), a potential net-front specialist in James van Riemsdyk (on-year, $1 million) to replace that part of Tyler Bertuzzi’s game, signed 24-year-old bottom six center in Morgan Geekie (two years, $2 million) and veteran defenseman (one-year, $1 million) Kevin Shattenkirk. They also added depth forward Patrick Brown on a two-year deal with an AAV of $800,000.
“I don’t think you ever feel comfortable of where you sit in July. I don’t think you fully build your team out,” said Sweeney. “But with the conjecture of the marketplace as it relates to the cap and where we were, I think we did a lot things we set out to do in addressing the depth overall in our hockey club in getting back. We’ve got plenty of opportunity for younger kids to come in and take their place if they earned it, but we’ve also complemented the group with players we felt we needed to fill some holes and address some needs.”
Sweeney continued to say that they’ll they’ll give Bergeron and Krejci their own timeline on when they make a decision on their playing futures.
Meanwhile, Lucic was over the moon for a return to the place where he had some of his best success. The two sides had been talking for a while about a deal (Lucic had been given permission by Calgary to talk to other teams) and, at 12:01 p.m., he texted to Sweeney a photo of himself with his brand new Bruins baseball cap that he went out and bought.
Lucic conceded that he’s not the same 30-goal player that he once was. He now plays in the 10-12 minute range and is more of a fourth-liner. But the passion remains, as do the Boston ties. He caught himself rooting for the Celtics, Red Sox and Patriots and tuning to see how the B’s were doing. Lucic feels like he’s coming home.
“I’ve thought about this moment, I’m not going to lie, for the last seven years, I’ve been thinking about what it would be like to put on the spoked-B, the Black and Gold again. That’s why I’m so grateful for this opportunity,” said Lucic, dealt away in the summer of 2015. “When you start somewhere, I don’t want to say I took it for granted, because you guys all know me. I lived it and I truly did appreciate what it meant to be a Boston Bruin and living in Boston and playing for an Original Six team and playing in front of those fans every single night. But to get to relive that, it’s almost like I’m more grateful now than I was at the beginning, just because as time goes on, you don’t realize how good things are until it’s gone. A lot of players don’t have this opportunity again like I get to have. No only for myself and the fans and the city, I get to do this in front of my kids. “
Asked if he’d talked to any of his new/old teammates, Lucic may have let the cat out of the bag on the two veteran centermen that the club is waiting on.
“I talked to (David Pastrnak) and (Brad Marchand). Those are the only two guys that I’ve played with that are still Bruins that are still kicking around,” said Lucic, leaving out Bergeron and Krejci, consciously or not. “I’ve been teammates with Derek Forbort twice, in LA and in Calgary. I got to meet Charlie McAvoy last year at (Tuukka Rask’s) wedding, so I talked to him and he’s pumped as well. And the other free agents. I talked to JVR today and Kevin Shattenkirk, two guys who are also really excited to be Bruins. We’re all excited to be together wearing the Black and Gold.”
How much top-six juice van Riemsdyk has left remains to be seen. He had 12-17-29 totals in 61 games with the train wreck that was Philadelphia last season, but he had 24 goals the year before.
“The style of game that I bring, the net-front presence, some smarts, hockey sense, things like that, I think I definitely fits in well with how the team likes to to play,” said van Riemsdyk.
Now the B’s have enough players to ice a team. Sweeney may not be done, but he’ll take a breath and see where everything else across the league falls into place. And eventually he’ll get definitive word as to whether Bergeron and/or Krejci are in or out.
But for the most part, the reins are now turned over to coach Jim Montgomery to make it all work.
Meanwhile, the eastern power Carolina Hurricanes scooped up Dmitry Orlov on a short-term, big money (two years at $7.75 million AAV) while sparkplug Connor Clifton stayed in the Atlantic Division, signing a (three-year, $3.33 million). Mike Reilly, bout out on Friday, signed a one-year, $1 million deal in Florida…
The B’s also signed Jayson Megna, Anthony Richard and Parker Wotherspoon to one-year, two-way contracts worth $775,000. They also signed forward Luke Toporowski to two-year, two-way deal worth an AAV of $870,000.