The free agent period is now less than one month away from opening up and there are several prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign. Here is a breakdown of Boston’s free agent situation.
Key Restricted Free Agents: F David Pastrnak – Pastrnak is coming off a breakout season that saw him finish second in team scoring while setting career highs across the board. The Bruins will be penciling him in as a top line winger for the foreseeable future but they’ll have to reach an agreement on a new deal first. Both sides are believed to be interested in skipping a short-term deal in the hopes of reaching a long-term contract. That could delay things a little bit (and Pastrnak is not arbitration eligible) but all indications are that talks are going well so far.
F Ryan Spooner – It wasn’t a great year for Spooner who saw his role diminish towards the end of the season, hardly the way to head into restricted free agency. His name is out there in trade talks while he is eligible for arbitration. Despite ending his season on a sour note, Spooner is still poised to land a sizable raise from the $1.1MM in salary he earned in 2016-17 (which also represents his qualifying offer). At this stage, the question is whether or not Boston will be the one signing him to that next contract.
Other RFAs: F Noel Acciari, F Austin Czarnik, F Colton Hargrove, G Zane McIntyre, D Joe Morrow, F Tim Schaller, G Malcolm Subban
Key Unrestricted Free Agents: F Drew Stafford – After a tough season in Winnipeg, Stafford looks reenergized as a member of the Bruins, providing some key secondary scoring after joining the team as he collected eight points in just 18 games. He’s going to be faced with taking a pay cut from the $4.35MM he earned in each of the last two seasons but if Stafford decides to look for a short-term deal to restore some value, re-upping with Boston would make some sense. While the team has several youngsters on the cusp of making an NHL impact, bringing Stafford back shouldn’t affect things too much and would provide them with some extra scoring depth on the wing.
F Dominic Moore – The veteran center has been a hockey nomad in recent years (since 2007-08, he has played for nine different teams) but brought some stability to Boston’s fourth line while chipping in some unexpected offense. A shift towards speedier bottom six players has worked in his favor and Moore will be in line to reprise that role next season whether it’s with the Bruins or elsewhere.
Other UFAs: D Chris Casto, D Tommy Cross, F Brian Ferlin, D Alex Grant, D John-Michael Liles, F Tyler Randell, F Zac Rinaldo
Projected Cap Space: The Bruins currently have $62.5MM committed to 18 players for next season per CapFriendly which would slot them about $10.5MM below the 2016-17 upper limit. A significant chunk of that will be eaten up with new deals for Pastrnak (and if he’s still around, Spooner) which makes it unlikely that GM Don Sweeney will be active on the open market aside from adding or re-signing some depth players. There will be several teams to watch for in free agency but as things stand, Boston won’t be one of them.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Would think Pastrnak comes in around the same as Marchands $6.125 per.
Stafford unlikely to come back with additions of bjork, debrusk, heinen, and/or kuraly and probably no room on the roster for him $-wise