Boston Bruins 2024-25 Roster and Salary Cap Discussion II

[bruinmann77]

The Bargain guys he picked up for Bargain did perform pretty well

 

[goldenblack]

Gryz was never a FA, and honestly was probably underpaid for half his contract, as much as he frustrated me.

I was of course thinking the Belesky, Backes and arguably Foligno (although he probably played close to value his second year). Not sure what we learn from these, Belesky certainly calls out the concern of overpaying for that one year wonder . Backes and Foligno bring concerns around overpaying for character/heavy game in older players

I think if we're fishing back to Backes and Belesky, we're really searching for problems.

Don has arguably gotten better at his craft since. Which makes him like all of us. Experience helps.

To me recently his mistakes have been small. That's as good as it gets in this league. This is the offseason he's gotta be careful imho.

 

[TSBruins13]

He can't overpay and then be called bargain bin Donnie, can he?

Donnie goes into thrift stores and pays the original unit cost. We all knows this.

 

[Bodit9]

Thank you for the graph, it is informative. It also has Grizz making 3.2M so I would be interested to know how they came up with that number.

If you scroll to the right, it shows contract comps. Looks like they compare age, stats, and percent of cap. For Gryz, they used Justin Schultz, Kevin Shattenkirk, Cody Fransen, Erik Gustafsson, and Matt Hunwick.

 

[MarchysNoseKnows]

Donnie goes into thrift stores and pays the original unit cost. We all knows this.

What bad contracts do the Bruins have on the books now?

 

[GordonHowe]

5 priorities for the Bruins this offseason

The Bruins will have over $20 million in cap space this offseason. What should they do with it? Here are five priorities.

www.boston.com

KPD, FWIW,

re the Panthers the litmus for the Bruins?​

By Kevin Paul Dupont Globe Staff,Updated May 20, 2024, 7:28 p.m.

49

The Bruins were sent packing by the Panthers in Game 6 Friday night.MATTHEW J. LEE/GLOBE STAFF
The Panthers, fresh off scattering the Bruins to various poolside cabanas and swanky golf courses, open up the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals vs. the Rangers Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. If they can grind through the Blueshirts as they did the Black and Gold, the Panthers will reach the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight season.
“Florida is a great team,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said Sunday as the Bruins packed their goods for a final time in Brighton. “What I like about their group is, they play a playoff-type style. They’re confident with their structure. They play their game without fault and just keep going. They don’t change.
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“They believe in their structure — and just keep going.”
RELATED: Dupont: When it comes to the Bruins’ goalie situation, it looks like Linus Ullmark is a goner
Be it right or wrong, and Marchand is inclined to disagree with the premise, the Panthers must be considered a litmus for the Bruins. This was the second year in a row they’ve seen their bountiful regular-season success rendered fool’s gold under the intensity and pressure of Florida’s thorough, meticulous playoff attack.
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The Panthers once again proved to be faster, harder on pucks, vastly more plentiful with their shots, and simply more proficient at finishing their scoring chances — the latter feat all the more impressive given an otherworldly Jeremy Swayman in the Boston net.
To win the Cup means beating the best, and from a Boston perspective, Florida has become the team it can’t beat at this time of year. It was the first time since the Devils in ‘94 and ‘95 that the same team ushered the Bruins out of the playoffs in consecutive springs. The Devils in ‘95 went on to win the Cup, something that looks well within the reach of the Panthers.
RELATED: Dupont: Justin Brazeau’s journey to the Bruins isn’t your typical development path
The difference between the teams this time around? By the eye of Brandon Carlo, “being assertive” proved to be a “little bit of a separator between the two groups.”
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Spot on, Carlo.
“Just their entire game … ... breaking out pucks … just having that mentality to stay assertive,’' said the veteran defenseman. “At times, and I’m thinking of the games we lost, 6-1 and 6-2, we were kind of waiting for the game to come to us. You never really see that in them. Even if they’re down by a goal, they continue to come at you in the same way.”
Strong. Relentless. Consistent. Florida general manager Bill Zito branded it his club’s method of “graceful brutality” before the postseason began. The Bruins couldn’t match the grace or the grunge.
All of it was the trademark of a Panthers club that succeeded even without a major contribution from Matthew Tkachuk. Their top dog and instigator on offense, Tkachuk potted a goal in the series opener, then chipped in with a ho-hum four assists over the next five games. The big boy barely wrinkled his nose, never mind flex biceps. Yet the Panthers won four of those next five, by the lopsided scoring margin of 18-8. Unlike most teams, they got the job done without their best players being their best players. A true rarity at this time of season.
RELATED: Notebook: With playoff run over, Jake DeBrusk deals with possibility of leaving Bruins behind in free agency
How do the Bruins put more on the table? That’s the charge of team president Cam Neely and GM Don Sweeney, who’ll join Charlie Jacobs and coach Jim Montgomery Wednesday at the Garden for the annual end-of-season press conference. Neely and Sweeney have a little bit north of $20 million to spend this summer, money they’ll use to keep some assets (most importantly Swayman) and also to land a free agent or two.
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Neither Sweeney nor Neely will offer up names of potential free agent targets, be it now or even before the UFA market opens July 1. They might not even say the quiet part out loud: the overarching need for a bona fide No. 1 center who can drive a more determined, grittier, obstinate, and potent offense.
To take on the Panthers or other bona fide contenders in the Original 32, the Bruins also need to add some of those steely ingredients in a top-six winger, one who can bring at least Jake DeBrusk levels of production along with pugnacity, a bit of broad-shouldered truculence. They don’t need a fighter, but they need more forwards, throughout the lineup, who show up hungry to fight for pucks, win one-on-one puck battles, get to high-danger scoring areas and … above all ... finish … finish … finish. They need that in back, too, where Derek Forbort (now a free agent) offered those qualities on the No. 3 pairing. They need someone with Forbort’s long stick and battle factor who can play, say, 20 minutes as a top-four contributor, which would allow Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, and Carlo to be more productive on both sides of the puck across the nightly 60:00.
RELATED: PWHL: Aerin Frankel claims Game 1 of Walter Cup Finals for Boston over Minnesota
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Marchand, ever the realist, was sincere in his praise of the Panthers, comments echoed throughout the room including by Charlie Coyle, McAvoy, David Pastrnak, and Pat Maroon, just to name a few that your faithful puck chronicler chatted with during Lockers-and-Lamentations Day.
“Listen, for me, I think Florida is a helluva hockey team,” said Maroon, the owner of three Cup rings and a sharp, realistic eye. “They play the same way all the time. They are simple. They are hard. They tight check. They do everything the right way.”
What Maroon, Marchand, McAvoy, Coyle, and Pastrnak equally opine is that the Bruins “are close”... that they’re “right there” ... that the “margins are thin” … that with a “break here or there,” they, like the Panthers, would be four wins from returning to the Cup Final for the first time since ‘19.
“Do I look at Florida or other teams and say we need to get there? No, I don’t,” Marchand emphatically stated. “We are right there. We are good enough. We just didn’t get that one more play that we needed. That doesn’t mean that it’s not going to come next year. I think this group can get it done.”
No surprise to hear that from Marchand. He is the captain. He also is wired with that obstinate, unremitting Li’l Ball o’ Hate gene that has made him one of the game’s top offensive producers for the better part of 10 years now.
If the Bruins had just two or three more on the roster wired a la Marchand, they’d be, well, a lot closer to the bunch of talented, ornery, and graceful brutalists who’ll be lining up against the Rangers. They’d also be closer to the Rangers, who are about to feel the deep bite of those Panther fangs.
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In theory, the Bruins are close, with an ample sprinkling of talented parts, backed by the best goalie they’ve ever drafted and developed. In reality, all of that has proven to make for a boffo regular season, topped off these last two years by a big bonk on the nose from a stiffer, more playoff-fit Florida squad.
Close, maybe. True Cup contenders, not close.
The grind goes on, the elusive Cup gone elsewhere, with it left once again for Neely and Sweeney to deliver the goods for a different ending.

 

[chizzler]

Thank you for the graph, it is informative. It also has Grizz making 3.2M so I would be interested to know how they came up with that number.

Fuzzy math. A lot of it is subjective. They throw in what they think it should be. The do a lot of projections. You can say if I have two apples and add two more, you can see that you have four. The math is proven. Analytics is the craze now but there is a lot of made up shit. One wrong number in the equation, and your in trouble. I see it in real life at my place of work. They’re all gung ho on it. You can see it hasn’t helped Donnie get over the hump.

 

[Bmessy]

There is one dman in the entire conference final that is under 6'0". keep that in mind when adding to this D core

 

[BamBamCam]

What bad contracts do the Bruins have on the books now?

McAvoys overpaid him by about 2 Million

 

[Shaun]

mcdonagh back to tampa

 

[JOKER 192]

Donnie goes into thrift stores and pays the original unit cost. We all knows this.

Hum,

Hienen .775M
JVR 1M
Shatty 1.05M
Geekie 2M
Boqvist..775

Yup, checks out, you're right.

 

[Bmessy]

#nailguns only this offseason please

 

[Bodit9]

Fuzzy math. A lot of it is subjective. They throw in what they think it should be. The do a lot of projections. You can say if I have two apples and add two more, you can see that you have four. The math is proven. Analytics is the craze now but there is a lot of made up shit. One wrong number in the equation, and your in trouble. I see it in real life at my place of work. They’re all gung ho on it. You can see it hasn’t helped Donnie get over the hump.

It's not really analytics, it is just contract calculations based on other comparable players' stats, age, percent of cap, etc. It is not much different than valuing real estate based on comps. It could vary of course, but is a good baseline to work off of. And as always, there are good values and bad values based on opinion, as in real estate.

 

[AngryMilkcrates]

Remaining days to the signing of Elias Lindholm:

40

 

[Lobster57]

What bad contracts do the Bruins have on the books now?

Lindholm's contract isn't looking great.

 

[Sheppy]

@DKH has a little birdie around this, but it’s involving Freddy too which you wouldn’t mind

I'll show you a little birdie if you keep it up!

 

[SPLBRUIN]

mcdonagh back to tampa

The Stamkos situation just got more interesting.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

5 priorities for the Bruins this offseason

The Bruins will have over $20 million in cap space this offseason. What should they do with it? Here are five priorities.

www.boston.com

KPD, FWIW,

re the Panthers the litmus for the Bruins?​

By Kevin Paul Dupont Globe Staff,Updated May 20, 2024, 7:28 p.m.

49

The Bruins were sent packing by the Panthers in Game 6 Friday night.MATTHEW J. LEE/GLOBE STAFF
The Panthers, fresh off scattering the Bruins to various poolside cabanas and swanky golf courses, open up the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals vs. the Rangers Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden. If they can grind through the Blueshirts as they did the Black and Gold, the Panthers will reach the Stanley Cup Final for a second straight season.
“Florida is a great team,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said Sunday as the Bruins packed their goods for a final time in Brighton. “What I like about their group is, they play a playoff-type style. They’re confident with their structure. They play their game without fault and just keep going. They don’t change.
Advertisement

---

---

“They believe in their structure — and just keep going.”
RELATED: Dupont: When it comes to the Bruins’ goalie situation, it looks like Linus Ullmark is a goner
Be it right or wrong, and Marchand is inclined to disagree with the premise, the Panthers must be considered a litmus for the Bruins. This was the second year in a row they’ve seen their bountiful regular-season success rendered fool’s gold under the intensity and pressure of Florida’s thorough, meticulous playoff attack.
Get Garden Party
A seasonal pop-up newsletter covering everything you need to know about the Celtics' and Bruins' postseasons.
Enter Email
Sign Up
The Panthers once again proved to be faster, harder on pucks, vastly more plentiful with their shots, and simply more proficient at finishing their scoring chances — the latter feat all the more impressive given an otherworldly Jeremy Swayman in the Boston net.
To win the Cup means beating the best, and from a Boston perspective, Florida has become the team it can’t beat at this time of year. It was the first time since the Devils in ‘94 and ‘95 that the same team ushered the Bruins out of the playoffs in consecutive springs. The Devils in ‘95 went on to win the Cup, something that looks well within the reach of the Panthers.
RELATED: Dupont: Justin Brazeau’s journey to the Bruins isn’t your typical development path
The difference between the teams this time around? By the eye of Brandon Carlo, “being assertive” proved to be a “little bit of a separator between the two groups.”
Advertisement

---

---

Spot on, Carlo.
“Just their entire game … ... breaking out pucks … just having that mentality to stay assertive,’' said the veteran defenseman. “At times, and I’m thinking of the games we lost, 6-1 and 6-2, we were kind of waiting for the game to come to us. You never really see that in them. Even if they’re down by a goal, they continue to come at you in the same way.”
Strong. Relentless. Consistent. Florida general manager Bill Zito branded it his club’s method of “graceful brutality” before the postseason began. The Bruins couldn’t match the grace or the grunge.
All of it was the trademark of a Panthers club that succeeded even without a major contribution from Matthew Tkachuk. Their top dog and instigator on offense, Tkachuk potted a goal in the series opener, then chipped in with a ho-hum four assists over the next five games. The big boy barely wrinkled his nose, never mind flex biceps. Yet the Panthers won four of those next five, by the lopsided scoring margin of 18-8. Unlike most teams, they got the job done without their best players being their best players. A true rarity at this time of season.
RELATED: Notebook: With playoff run over, Jake DeBrusk deals with possibility of leaving Bruins behind in free agency
How do the Bruins put more on the table? That’s the charge of team president Cam Neely and GM Don Sweeney, who’ll join Charlie Jacobs and coach Jim Montgomery Wednesday at the Garden for the annual end-of-season press conference. Neely and Sweeney have a little bit north of $20 million to spend this summer, money they’ll use to keep some assets (most importantly Swayman) and also to land a free agent or two.
Advertisement

---

---

Neither Sweeney nor Neely will offer up names of potential free agent targets, be it now or even before the UFA market opens July 1. They might not even say the quiet part out loud: the overarching need for a bona fide No. 1 center who can drive a more determined, grittier, obstinate, and potent offense.
To take on the Panthers or other bona fide contenders in the Original 32, the Bruins also need to add some of those steely ingredients in a top-six winger, one who can bring at least Jake DeBrusk levels of production along with pugnacity, a bit of broad-shouldered truculence. They don’t need a fighter, but they need more forwards, throughout the lineup, who show up hungry to fight for pucks, win one-on-one puck battles, get to high-danger scoring areas and … above all ... finish … finish … finish. They need that in back, too, where Derek Forbort (now a free agent) offered those qualities on the No. 3 pairing. They need someone with Forbort’s long stick and battle factor who can play, say, 20 minutes as a top-four contributor, which would allow Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, and Carlo to be more productive on both sides of the puck across the nightly 60:00.
RELATED: PWHL: Aerin Frankel claims Game 1 of Walter Cup Finals for Boston over Minnesota
Advertisement

---

---

Marchand, ever the realist, was sincere in his praise of the Panthers, comments echoed throughout the room including by Charlie Coyle, McAvoy, David Pastrnak, and Pat Maroon, just to name a few that your faithful puck chronicler chatted with during Lockers-and-Lamentations Day.
“Listen, for me, I think Florida is a helluva hockey team,” said Maroon, the owner of three Cup rings and a sharp, realistic eye. “They play the same way all the time. They are simple. They are hard. They tight check. They do everything the right way.”
What Maroon, Marchand, McAvoy, Coyle, and Pastrnak equally opine is that the Bruins “are close”... that they’re “right there” ... that the “margins are thin” … that with a “break here or there,” they, like the Panthers, would be four wins from returning to the Cup Final for the first time since ‘19.
“Do I look at Florida or other teams and say we need to get there? No, I don’t,” Marchand emphatically stated. “We are right there. We are good enough. We just didn’t get that one more play that we needed. That doesn’t mean that it’s not going to come next year. I think this group can get it done.”
No surprise to hear that from Marchand. He is the captain. He also is wired with that obstinate, unremitting Li’l Ball o’ Hate gene that has made him one of the game’s top offensive producers for the better part of 10 years now.
If the Bruins had just two or three more on the roster wired a la Marchand, they’d be, well, a lot closer to the bunch of talented, ornery, and graceful brutalists who’ll be lining up against the Rangers. They’d also be closer to the Rangers, who are about to feel the deep bite of those Panther fangs.
Advertisement

---

---

In theory, the Bruins are close, with an ample sprinkling of talented parts, backed by the best goalie they’ve ever drafted and developed. In reality, all of that has proven to make for a boffo regular season, topped off these last two years by a big bonk on the nose from a stiffer, more playoff-fit Florida squad.
Close, maybe. True Cup contenders, not close.
The grind goes on, the elusive Cup gone elsewhere, with it left once again for Neely and Sweeney to deliver the goods for a different ending.

Found the picture with DeBrusk off to the side of the rest of the team somewhat ironic.

 

[Blowfish]

I really liked Domi as well. I agree that he would fit nicely and add what we are missing. Skill that can bring physicality in the playoffs.

Cheaper than "for whatever reason" Lindholm who really didn't look good with Vancouver this playoffs. I would love to see Domi and Marchand together. It would kill leaf fans to see Domi with Marchand (in Boston). Note there are rumours Debrusk could end up in TO. Doubt that, he couldn't handle leaf media etc...constantly under the microscope.

How much are you willing to commit to a guy who has been on 5 teams in 3 seasons, largely because no one wants to keep him, and he's is a 3rd liner

Did he look like a 3rd liner to you this playoffs?

 

[Carl Hungus]

Tampa gonna move Stamkos, Cirelli, or Cernak?

 

[ON3M4N]

Tampa gonna move Stamkos, Cirelli, or Cernak?

Stammer is a UFA

 

[ON3M4N]

mcdonagh back to tampa

So combining the trades together and removing McD....

TO TBL: Philippe Myers, Grant Mismash + '24 4th
TO NSH: '25 2nd + '24 7th

I think NSH wins this deal

 

[Carl Hungus]

Stammer is a UFA

Yeah - just curious what their plan is... move someone to re-sign Stamkos or let him walk. I think they move someone else to make space

 

[JoeIsAStud]

Cheaper than "for whatever reason" Lindholm who really didn't look good with Vancouver this playoffs. I would love to see Domi and Marchand together. It would kill leaf fans to see Domi with Marchand (in Boston). Note there are rumours Debrusk could end up in TO. Doubt that, he couldn't handle leaf media etc...constantly under the microscope.


Did he look like a 3rd liner to you this playoffs?

Lindholm didn't look good in the playoffs, he had 10 points in 13 games, won more than 50% of his faceoffs, had 36 hits.

Max Domi had 4 points in 7 games with 5 hits, and apparently he was awesome. He did have a great FO percentage. Domi had a nice run in 22/23 with Dallas, but that's about it. He's a #3, or really a mid to low end #2, because he doesn't have the physicality you want in a #3

By the way Domi had 84% offensive zone starts, Lindholm had 36%

 

[Sheppy]

Yeah - just curious what their plan is... move someone to re-sign Stamkos or let him walk. I think they move someone else to make space

I think he gets 2-3x$8.5M. Not sure where though!