Before the unexpected crash in the playoffs, the hockey Bruins were having a dream season. Everything clicked. But not for everyone. Swedish defenseman Anton Stralman feels that the club betrayed him after his definitive end in the NHL.
When he signed a one-year, million-dollar deal with Boston last season, he couldn’t have expected to play well over 20 minutes per game as a career high.
However, Stralman hoped that he would get a chance to fight for the Stanley Cup in a less prominent role.
“I wanted to go to a team that had a chance to win. I wanted to fight for a place in the lineup. I made it quite clear that I wouldn’t just be on a short-term loan,” the experienced defender told the Swedish daily The Express.
At the beginning of the season, when Boston had several running backs on the loose, led by star Charlie McAvoy, Stralman actually played. Irregularly, but he played.
However, his time on the ice – also due to zero productivity – gradually decreased. In his eighth contest, he spent just under nine minutes on the ice. He’s been warming up the stands ever since, until finally ending up at a farm in Providence.
“They did what they probably had in mind when they signed. I only came on loan for a few months. Then they got rid of me by sending me to the farm. You feel betrayed because we didn’t agree on this,” Stralman said.
“They tell you something, they push you to do something, and in a few months it doesn’t matter. It was tough and I personally didn’t enjoy the season one bit. I understand how it sounds when NHL pros complain in quotes. But it’s an example, how it works in this league,” added the defenseman, who earned about $47 million gross from hockey overseas.
In addition to Boston, he also played for Toronto, Columbus, the New York Rangers, Tampa, Florida and Arizona. As a good skater who understands the puck, he received up to 5.5 million a year.
The years among hockey’s cream of the crop brought him “great memories”, but also the realization that the famous competition has its dark side.
“It’s not a dream employer in the sense of how they treat you there. It’s a ruthless business. How it works is already well documented. It’s not easy to navigate when you compare it to working conditions in any other industry in Sweden, ” recounted Stralman.
“You often find that someone lies to you or stabs you in the back. They send you up and down. They tell you something, but then they behave completely differently,” he added.
He will not add any more games in the NHL. At the age of 36, he signed a contract in the highest Swedish league, where he will play for a club from Jönköping.
In addition to Stralman, another quarterback, Mike Reilly, did not enjoy the last season for Boston, who also jumped on the farm after emptying the defense, and not for purely hockey reasons.
In terms of performance, he had at least the position of the seventh back, but he took up too much space under the salary cap – three million dollars. The Bruins preferred to keep the almost three times cheaper Jakub Zbořil as the number seven defender.
After the season, the 30-year-old American Reilly received a buyout from his contract, which means that he will receive a total of about 2.7 million from Boston over the next two years. In addition, he signed a one-year contract with Florida for one million.
2023-07-17 18:34:12
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