Now he just has to decide which parts of it he will have to tear down.
The Bruins completed their summer shopping on Tuesday by signing top pick Tyler Seguin to a three-year entry-level deal. Seguin’s addition completes a lineup Chiarelli is happy with, but there is one rather significant problem. The Bruins didn’t quite stick to their budget, and currently sit in excess of the $59.4 million limit under the league’s salary cap.
How bad are the Bruins’ cap problems? CapGeek.com has the club over the cap by $3.088 million. That figure includes Marco Sturm’s $3.5 million salary, but does not factor in a spare forward up front. Sturm is recovering from knee surgery and is not expected to be ready to play until mid-November at the earliest.
That leaves him eligible to be placed on long-term injured reserve, which in turn would give the Bruins relief for his contract. Taking Sturm’s hit off the cap might even be enough to carry that 13th healthy forward, though CapGeek.com’s numbers suggest even a minimum-salary player making $500,000 wouldn’t fit if Sturm’s LTIR is the only move Chiarelli makes.
Still, Chiarelli insisted Tuesday that he can field a team without making any other moves, at least until Sturm is ready to return.
"Right now we can ice a team with 13-14 [forwards], seven D and two goalies," said Chiarelli, who later clarified that the 14 forwards would include Sturm on LTIR. "So right now we don’t have to do anything really, but we may still do something."
The options available are limited. To clear enough space with just one move and assuming the likes of Zdeno Chara ($7.5 million cap hit), Patrice Bergeron ($4.75), Milan Lucic ($4.083), Nathan Horton ($4.0) and David Krejci ($3.75) are untouchable, the Bruins would have to trade Tim Thomas ($5 million), Marc Savard ($4.007), Michael Ryder ($4.0) or Sturm himself once he’s healthy while taking little or no money in return.
That helps explain why Thomas and Savard have been the subject of trade rumors all summer despite the fact that they each possess no-trade clause they would have to agree to waive to be moved. Thomas’ contract is probably too tough to trade with just about every club having settled its goalie situation and Antti Niemi and Jose Theodore still available on the free-agent market. Savard could probably be moved despite the money owed him ($28 million over seven years) and concerns about his concussion history, but do the Bruins really want to give away their top playmaker for pennies on the dollar after finishing last in the NHL in scoring in 2009-10?
Chiarelli could try to swing a series of deals to move out a combination of salaries, but that would really tear apart the roster he has built and it would be difficult to send away enough money as every body that is moved would need to be replaced. Even if cheaper alternatives can be found, that’s a lot of turnover for a club Chiarelli has worked hard to put into position to compete now.
Ryder thus becomes the best option to move almost by default. His cap hit and declining production (18-15-33 totals last year after 27-26-53 in his first season in Boston) don’t exactly make him an enticing target for other teams, so the Bruins would have to either include an additional draft pick or prospect to try to find a trade partner, or they could simply waive him and hope that another team will take him for nothing.
If neither of those scenarios plays out, then the Bruins will have the option of assigning him to Providence. He would still collect his full salary, but the money would not count against the cap. That might not go over well with ownership or any players the Bruins hope to sign in the future, but it might just be the best option available.
Thanks to Sturm’s LTIR, Chiarelli doesn’t have to make a decision right away. He can carry the current roster into the season and hope that Ryder regains his scoring touch to the point that he is tradable before Sturm comes back. Or he could even play well enough to prove too valuable to give up and the Bruins could try to find a taker for Savard or Thomas if other teams find a glaring need for scoring help or goaltending once the season starts. If Ryder is struggling again like he did last year, waiving and demoting him would at least be a lot more palatable to everyone involved, save Ryder of course.
"We have the ability right now to ice a team, and a good team," said Chiarelli. "If that’s all we do between now and the start of camp, I’ll be very happy.
"Right now we’re over the cap, but we also have a player, Marco Sturm, that we will put on long-term injury," added Chiarelli. "At some point we’ll have to make some changes when Marco is ready to come back, but that’s the reason you have long-term injury. You can go in excess of the cap and see how your team unfolds while the other player is rehabbing and recuperating."
NESN.com will answer one Bruins question every day in August.
Tuesday, Aug. 3: What can the Bruins expect from Tyler Seguin this year?
Thursday, Aug. 5: Can Mark Recchi defy Father Time for another year?
