Boston Bruins Rumors To Start And Put To Sleep
Boston Bruins Season has been over for a little more than a month now and the rumors have already started about sign this guy or trade this guy. Some of them are feasible and many are far-fetched. I will give my opinion on some current rumors and maybe start a couple.
Let us start off with some easy stuff Brian Gionta, Paul Postma and Kenny Agostino are gone officially. Now the others have not been ruled out the main ones being Rick Nash, Riley Nash, and Anton Khudoban and Tim Schaller Also, Austin Czarnik, Tommy Wingles, and Nick Holden are up for free agency.
Don Sweeney has said that talks are ongoing with all of these guys. He also said in an ideal world he would like to keep all of these guys. This is not an ideal world, although the Salary Cap is rumored to be increasing for the 2019 season. All of these guys with the exception with Rick Nash who was acquired in a trade with the Rangers at the Deadline had career years.
Keepers If Price Is Right
The big guy is Rick Nash. Will he be resigned? I think Nash wants to stay and show he is better than what we saw. Also, he is a good fit for David Krejci. I see him being signed if the Bruins feel that none of the prospects is a better fit that Rick. Again as always, the big question will be about the salary. Last year he was a $7.8 million cap hit. Sweeney cannot afford that. If he is willing to take a cur then he will stay if not they will shop around or plug in a prospect.
The problem is that the power forward id dying. There is a rumor that they are going to bring Milan Lucic. Let me just say no no no no, absolutely not. He has done nothing since he left and is just about as bad of a cap hit as Nash. At that point just keep Nash.
Now to the real world and who should they keep. I would keep Riley Nash if the price is right. Yes, it is that way with any guy but him in particular because he only had a salary of $900,000 last season. Now coming off a career year he is going to want anywhere from $3-5 million.
Now he is in the right to ask for that as he produced 41 points for the team. If he would take $2-2.5 I would love to have him if not, I think he could be replaced with a guy like Ryan Donato or another prospect.
Another guy they will most likely want to keep is Anton Khudobin who also had a stellar year which allowed Rask to be a ton better this year. His cap hit was only $1.2 million. If it is possible to stay close to that number it would be awesome. Khudobin fits in well and there are not really any other choices at the moment as the B’s prospects just are not ready yet.
The final guy to keep but is a bit far-fetched is Czarnik. He is a great player but has just been lost in the shuffle the past couple years. He for sure test the waters but I will not be disappointed if he gets signed and slots in on the Third or Fourth line.
Thank For Coming
Tim Schaller is out. He is a great player but there is room for him anymore. Schaller does fit that mold for a fourth line guy but I Think they can do better. The other guy that we will see go is Tommy Wingles, who was acquired at the Trade deadline because of injuries.
Be Loud Or Stay Quiet?
Sweney has two option this offseason and those are staying quiet and keep your money or spend spend spend. Now by this, I mean going out and either trading and signing a big name guy to bring in. I see him being relatively quiet as the new mentality is youth. They also still have David Backes‘ contract to worry about especially with his career in question with his concussion suffered in the playoffs.
The Bruins prospect pool is a very large pool and paid off this year with guys like Danton Heinen and Jake Debrusk, and Matt Grzelcyk. Other guys had a shot but wither did not make the cut or got hurt. I am talking about JFK and Anders Bjork. Then on top of that, we got a little taste of Ryan Donato at the end of the year. All this leads me to believe that Sweeney will stay quite this off-season and stick with the youth.