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The Boston Bruins 2010-11 salary cap breakdown
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With Blake Wheeler and Tyler Seguin inked and ready-to-go for the 2010-11 NHL season, the Boston Bruins are still in a bit of a salary-cap predicament. Now the club has 22 roster players signed, but are also more than $3 million over the $54.9 million NHL salary-cap ceiling.
The good news for the B’s is that they still have time to get that number right — by opening night in Prague. Of that $3 million that the team is over, $3.5 million will be cleared by the season opener — against the Phoenix Coyotes — when Marco Sturm hits the long-term injured-reserve list (LTIR).
A little over a week ago, I posted a possible line-up that we may see the Black-and-Gold open the season with in Prague on October 9. It didn’t have Wheeler, but it did have Seguin. Below is an update ‘possible line-up’, with the total salary-cap-hit breakdown (via capgeek.com) for each line and defensive combination:
Lucic–Savard–Horton = $12,090,476
Recchi–Bergeron–Seguin = $10,450,000
Wheeler–Krejci–Ryder = $9,950,000
Paille–Campbell–Thornton = $2,987,500
Chara–Boychuk = $9,375,000
Hunwick–Seidenberg = $4,700,000
Ference–Stuart = $3,925,000
Rask
Thomas
= $6,250,000
Plus Carry-over bonus penalty of $1,759,759 and $725,000 in buyouts, the Bruins should be $412,229 under the cap after stashing Sturm’s salary away until mid-late November. But after that, someone’s got to go.
How do you see the Bruins line-up shaking up to clear sufficient cap-space?
I think Boston will try to move Ryder (for less than the Flyers got for Gagne) – injury will determine where – I’m guessing they’d love to move Thomas but who wants that contract? Maybe they can convince someone Seidenberg is worth what they pay him (am I wrong – I thing Seidenberg is grossly overpaid – he puts in the minutes and he’s steady but for that cash…) – what you think?
I think $3 million for a No. 2 defenseman who lead the NHL in blocked shots last year, and is a first unit blue-liner on the PP and PK, is a very, very good deal. To put it in perspective — he’s getting $750,000 more than Ference.
I’d love to see them somehow unload Ryder and his contract but I don’t see that happening via a trade, he has the double whammy of a high contract and low skill. If they would stash him and his contract with the P-Bruins once Sturm comes back, it would be a good chance to bring up one of the young kids (Joe Colborne, Jordan Caron, Max Sauve etc)and see how they play against NHL players.
I really don’t understand the Ference signing, in my opinion there are defensemen of equal skill available every year that could be had for much less money, not to mention Ference’s injury history. He’s not a bad player but there also isn’t much upside there.