Boston Bruins GM confident in current group
By Cory Buck
The Boston Bruins could have done something drastic after losing in the second round of the playoffs to their biggest rival, the Montreal Canadiens. However, one look up and down the team’s roster justifies GM Peter Chiarelli’s view that nothing major needed be done. The Bruins remain arguably the best team in the Eastern Conference and one of the best teams in the NHL. What more can a GM ask for?
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“One thing I knew was we were going to be relatively quiet after we resolved the Iginla thing (Jarome Iginla left Boston for the Colorado Avalanche),” Chiarelli said per NHL.com. “We’ve been in on two or three deals that maybe are percolating a little bit. A couple fell through, so we’re continuing to work at it.”
The Bruins will need to make a transaction of some kind to get back under the salary cap. Per CapGeek, the team is less than $1 million over the cap, but still has yet to sign restricted free agents Reilly Smith and Torey Krug, who made solid contributions to last team’s squad. Still, that won’t require dumping another top forward the way the team did last summer when the Bruins traded Tyler Seguin to the Dallas Stars.
This summer has seen no drastic moves like the Seguin trade and it likely won’t unless the salary cap forces Peter Chiarelli to do something drastic. The team has lived off a cap exception that allows them to bury the contract of Marc Savard, who will never play in the NHL again, which should free up enough money to once again maintain a roster that should contend for the Stanley Cup.