Winning a Stanley Cup in the midst of a global pandemic isn\u2019t the only tough task the Bruins will face in the coming months.<\/p>\n
The league\u2019s salary cap is expected to stay at $81.5 million for the foreseeable future, as COVID-19 has taken a sledgehammer to the NHL\u2019s plans for increasing the cap. For Boston, this means a tougher time re-signing their unrestricted (and restricted!) free agents this \u201coffseason\u201d.<\/p>\n
All of the attention is on UFA-to-be Torey Krug, and rightfully so \u2014 the dynamic, offensive d-man is projected to make the most money and is one of the best power play quarterbacks in the league. Some guess he\u2019ll pull in $7.5 million per season. Others predict Krug to cash in even more.<\/p>\n
The Bruins have just under $18 million in cap space this upcoming offseason, according to CapFriendly. With that, they\u2019ll look to find a way to re-sign Krug, as well as Zdeno Chara. It\u2019s hard to imagine they bring back UFA-to-be Joakim Nordstrom. On the RFA side of things, the most interesting case will certainly be Jake DeBrusk, and he seems to be the other deal most overlooked.<\/p>\n
That was until this week.<\/p>\n
Rick Valette, Jake DeBrusk\u2019s agent, went on Bob Stauffer\u2019s Oilers Now radio show<\/a> and was asked about his client taking a team-friendly deal like Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t really consider that at this point,\u201d Valette said. \u201cWill it play into it? Maybe. I would hope not. That\u2019s not typically how I would approach that. The one thing I would add to Jake is that you want to look at his playoff performance and what he\u2019s done in the playoffs in big games. The Toronto series from a couple of years ago, for example. He\u2019s a big-game performer and he\u2019s been a top-six forward almost from the moment he stepping into the National Hockey League.<\/p>\n \u201cBoston certainly has some internal things that they like to look at, but I\u2019m going to try not to look at that.\u201d<\/p>\n This answer came after Valette proclaimed DeBrusk to be a $6 million-a-year forward.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s unpack all of this.<\/p>\n For one, the Bruins have that limited cap space to re-sign Krug, Chara, DeBrusk, Matt Grzelcyk and Anders Bjork. That’s already an extremely tight window to sign those five players, especially considering Krug could take up nearly half of that space.<\/p>\n If Krug were to get $8 million per year and DeBrusk were to get $6 million, that would leave a little less than $4 million in space for Chara, Grzelcyk and Bjork. As good as Don Sweeney is at doing cap cartwheels, even he probably wouldn\u2019t be able to execute such precision. From a salary cap perspective, $6 million per season for DeBrusk doesn\u2019t make sense for the Bruins. Best of luck to Valette who isn\u2019t too fond of the whole hometown discount idea.<\/p>\n ?GOAL!?<\/p>\n Jake DeBrusk scores to break the tie! #Sabres<\/a> 1#NHLBruins<\/a> 2 pic.twitter.com\/dUCvzzXp8Z<\/a><\/p>\n — Boston Bruins on CLNS (@BruinsCLNS) December 30, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n