Home » News » Heartbreaking Choices in Boston

Heartbreaking Choices in Boston

A fixed salary cap of $ 81.5 million next season could be good news for the Boston Bruins, who want to keep a few key things in 2020-2021.

The recent agreement between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Players’ Association would leave Massachusetts general manager Don Sweeney with flexibility ranging from $ 16 million to $ 19 million. Already, he and his associates have started to work on various scenarios for the upcoming campaign.

Boston would therefore have logical chances to keep under its defender Torey Krug, eligible for full autonomy in October. In addition, the organization would have enough money to sign a contract with Jake DeBrusk and Matt Grzelcyk, who will become free agents with compensation.

Obviously, everything would be conditional on certain decisions, including that of submitting another inexpensive pact to veteran Zdeno Chara. Sweeney would have hoped to get more space under the salary cap, but he is aware that with the coronavirus crisis, the situation could have been worse, given the expected drop in income in the Bettman circuit.

“Certainly everyone was hoping that the trend would continue upwards, but no one could have foreseen a pandemic that was going to hit us all,” he said during a media interview with Zoom on Sunday. So we had to deal with this reality. We have tried to work within a framework in which we treat each player fairly from the point of view of the compensation to be offered. (…) We have decisions to make and some are difficult. ”

Open to negotiation

Even if his club will have other cats to whip in a few weeks, the GM of the Bruins says he is ready to hold contractual discussions during training camp or the playoffs.

However, he does not intend to force the score, regardless of the hockey player concerned.

“I never said we will never have interviews. Ultimately, I believe there will be. It will be case by case. I will not be aggressive in negotiations during phases 3 and 4 of the NHL recovery plan, but if something seems logical to me, we will act, said Sweeney, whose remarks were reported by the WEEI radio station. Some players don’t want to have these conversations until the season is over and I respect that. ”

“We will be placed to speak, but will I be a go-getter?” I just plan to keep in touch with each guy and that includes compensated free agents who want to know where they will be at the start of next season. ”

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.