Oct 12: The contract has been officially filed and announced by the Bruins, confirming the $1MM salary.
Oct 11: Defenseman Anton Stralman has converted on his PTO with the Boston Bruins, signing a one-year, $1MM contract, according to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun.
Stralman brings 930 games of NHL experience to a Bruins blueline that’s battered with injuries, missing two of their three best defensemen in Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk. While he’s no longer the player he was at his peak with the Tampa Bay Lightning in the mid-2010s, he’s still a capable right-shot man who can log bottom-pairing minutes comfortably. He’ll be supporting Brandon Carlo, Connor Clifton, and Jakub Zboril on the team’s right side with McAvoy remaining out until around Thanksgiving.
Playing last season with the Arizona Coyotes, Stralman notched eight goals, 15 assists, and 23 points in 74 games, his best offensive totals in six years. He won’t be asked to play the 21-plus minutes per game he did in Arizona last season, either, and with a bit more support around him, expect him to play comfortably on the Bruins blue line.
Stralman could easily form a shutdown third pairing alongside Derek Forbort to begin the season, or he could also be a defensive anchor on the team’s second pairing alongside a more offensively-minded Mike Reilly.
Good signing. The Bruins are deeper this year with capable depth players. I’m excited to see how they handle the roster crunch when everyone is healthy.
That’s a very good veteran signing on the cheap. I can’t believe they managed to sneak Reilly through waivers as well. Obviously neither are anywhere close to Mcavoy, but they are nice depth to somewhat lessen his absence.
3 million is reason no one claimed Reilly
Just goes to show how hard it will be to offload salary when everyone is healthy.
Another key factor to take into consideration is that Bergy and Krejci are very likely hitting their escalators which will count against the cap next year if they can’t create flexibility for it. I think it’s $2.5 for Bergy and $2 for Krejci for a total of an extra $4.5 mil to offload if they don’t want to take that cap hit next year.
I haven’t looked at the numbers but big decisions will have to be made. Personally, I would prefer Coyle to be traded and free up ice time for Studnicka who whether we like it or not is part of the future. Coyle is an excellent 3C but his cap hit is tough to swallow over the next couple of years before the cap rises sharply.
You might see a surprise move too like DeBrusk, Carlo or Grzelcyk.
Otherwise, it’ll likely be a waiver wire trading game shuffling players back and forth. Honestly I’d rather have the young guys up anyway who just appear to be more motivated than the vets even if they come with more risk.
Legend! Happy for him to have found a competitive team.
Mgmt probably saw how Zboril played the last two games and said AW HELL NO and made the call to Stralman’s agent.
Swayman & Ullmark for the Jennings