While Marcus Johansson has certainly played well since joining the Bruins at the deadline, Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe opines that they won’t be able to afford to keep the winger around. Defensemen Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo should take up the bulk of their cap space over the summer as they get new contracts in restricted free agency and while the idea of buying out David Backes’ final two years makes some sense in theory given his struggles, the structure of the signing bonuses makes that an unlikely option to save cap space either. Johansson has made $4.75MM over each of the last three seasons and his next deal should be around that price tag as well.
More from around the league:
- The Canucks have yet to decide whether or not they’ll tender forward Markus Granlund a qualifying offer, agent Todd Diamond acknowledged to Sportsnet 650’s Rick Dhaliwal (Twitter link). The 26-year-old is owed a qualifier of $1.475MM and has the ability to play all three forward positions. However, his production has dipped over the last couple of seasons relative to his 2016-17 performance and Vancouver has plenty of forward depth already. Non-tendering Granlund would free up another roster spot to utilize some of that depth while giving Vancouver a little bit more cap room to work with.
- While it has been nearly a month since the Sabres hired Ralph Krueger as their new head coach, they’ve yet to finalize the rest of their coaching staff. Bill Hoppe of the Olean Times Herald reports that Buffalo hopes to have their assistants in place by the end of the month and those that worked under former bench boss Phil Housley are under consideration as are external candidates. Postmedia’s Jim Matheson notes that former Iserlohn assistant Rob Daum is someone that may be seeking a position on Krueger’s staff.
I believe the Bruins will try to re-sign Johansson. It won’t be easy to fit him in cap-wise, but it could happen. They are likely to trade a defenseman due to the emergence of Connor Clifton. That will open up some more space. Also, there is a chance Backes retires if the Bruins win the Stanley Cup. That would free $6 million in cap space. If that happens, the Bruins would have more than enough cap space to bring back Johnansson.
Tough to give up 12 mil if your Backes. Better off packaging him with a prospect at the draft.
You do know retiring does not free up the cap space. Just the obligation to pay player.
Tough to do. Unless you’re Ottawa or the Coyotes, who need to make the minimum on salary cap.