As the NHL proceeds further into the offseason, teams will be looking to strengthen their lineups and resign key players.
For the Boston Bruins, there does seem to be a lot of work needed. Working with a very tight salary cap, the Black & Gold are going to be restricted with what they can do, meaning GM Peter Chiarelli is going to have to be very careful, and sort his team out intelligently.
There has been three pieces of news coming out of Beantown thus far, the first major announcement was that long time enforcer Shawn Thornton was no longer going to be a Bruin. The team announced that they were not going to re-sign Thornton, who has been a true warrior for Boston over the years, and was a key part of the Bruins 4th line, also known as the Melot line, which as far as 4th lines go, was one of the best in hockey, and has always been one of the teams most effective lines. There isn’t many ‘enforcer’ type players that have the skill set to be more than a goon, but Shawn Thornton was one of them, and he will without a doubt be missed in Boston, but it seems a nesseccary move and sacrifice for the Bruins, who are in great need of cap space. I don’t see Boston chasing after another player to fill Thornton’s gap, as a call up from the minors seems to be a more likely outcome here.
The next announcement was the departure of Bruins assistant coach Geoff Ward, who has left to become the head coach of the Mannheim Eagles of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in Germany. Ward had been behind the B’s bench for seven years, after joining the Bruins in 2007, as part of head coach Claude Julien‘s coaching staff, after a previous 12 years of coaching in the OHL and AHL. This wont be the first time Geoff Ward has coached in the Germany, he had the experience of coaching for two years overseas before making his way to Canada and the United States. Not only will the Bruins be thinking over player possibilities, they now have an assistant coach vacancy, which will have to be filled sooner rather than later.
The final piece of news comes from between the pipes, as the Bruins announced last week that they had resigned Swedish goaltender Niklas Svedberg to a one-year, one way contract worth a cap figure of $600,000. The 24 year old started just one game for the Bruins last season, and it came in the fashion of a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators, in front of the TD Garden faithful. He recorded a 1.97 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage on the night.
Definitely one for the furture, but the signing of Svedberg also means the end of last years back up, Chad Johnson. Johnson was easily one of last years biggest surprises, as he was one of the best back-ups in the NHL last season, posting a stellar record of 17-4-3, GAA of 2.10 and a save percentage of .925. It seems as if the Bruins have taken the cheaper option here, and believe Svedberg is capable of doing what Johnson did last season, for a cheaper price. Expect Johnson to be picked up, and be given a shot at starting for another team, failing that, he’ll be capable of backing-up any goaltender in the league.
Perhaps a little busier than some thought, or maybe not busy enough. Either way the Bruins organisation are making a start and trying their best to get things done, with barely any cap space at all.
