Boston Bruins 2023 Off-Season CAP, Trade Rumors and Free Agent Talk IX

[Gonzothe7thDman]

Still absolutely baffles me that we traded away Hall for nothing and we still have Derek Forbert, Matt Gryzleck on this team making close to 7 million combined ughhhh.

Sweeney panicked no doubt about it. The Hall trade is horrible, I can't even believe people would defend it.

You got 0 assets from a top 6 forward who won the Hart trophy. It's bad.

Not sure if it has been mentioned before but cap space was the asset for trading Tqylor Hall. Were there any other players moved to free up cap that also returned assets? I haven't paid attention to moves this offseason.

 

[Ned Bouhalassa]

But Forbort+Ullmark is 6+

Marchand-Bergeron-Debrusk
Hall-Zacha-Pastrnak
JVR-Coyle-Frederic
Lucic-Geekie-Lauko

Grzcelyk-McAvoy
Lindholm-Carlo
Zboril-Shattenkirk

Swayman
Bussi

Something like this works. You can tinker with Geekie’s money if you’d rather have a better backup goalie or whatever, but you’d be under the cap with something like that.

Hall is back! Nice!

 

[Blowfish]

I really like this lauko kid . Hes got jam.

And speed. Dude created power plays routinely.

 

[KrugAvoy]

Hall is back! Nice!

Maybe Curtis will set the world on fire during camp?

 

[GordonHowe]

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[MarchysNoseKnows]

But Forbort+Ullmark is 6+

Marchand-Bergeron-Debrusk
Hall-Zacha-Pastrnak
JVR-Coyle-Frederic
Lucic-Geekie-Lauko

Grzcelyk-McAvoy
Lindholm-Carlo
Zboril-Shattenkirk

Swayman
Bussi

Something like this works. You can tinker with Geekie’s money if you’d rather have a better backup goalie or whatever, but you’d be under the cap with something like that.

How's the goalie trade market been working? How's the trade market been in general? Would giving Ullmark away for nothing make sense when you are a year away from a cap increase, and he just won the Vezina? And that's assuming you could find a team not on his no trade list who wants to take on $5M in cap. The whole NHL needs an enema right now - the shortsighted decision of the owners to go flat this year has had huge repercussions.

 

[RHR37]

Not sure if it has been mentioned before but cap space was the asset for trading Tqylor Hall. Were there any other players moved to free up cap that also returned assets? I haven't paid attention to moves this offseason.

You don't trade away top 6 forwards to save cap space and you certainly need to get a better return. The Bruins cupboard is bare yet we are handing out top 6 guys for tik tacs.

All I ever read on this board is how good Grezlyck is yet we couldn't dump him for cap space? We dumped a top 6 forward to keep a bottom pairing defensemen.

Also Forbert, Frederick, Ullmark whose trade value will never be as high as it is now.

Don't sign JVR for a million.

There were so many other options.

It's easy to say well cap space.

 

[lopey]

Where do we put dk?

Retirement home

 

[MarchysNoseKnows]

Ullmark whose trade value will never be as high as it is now.

That's not remotely true given the landscape.

Trading Forbort and Frederic doesn't get you close either.

 

[Yeti34]

Not sure if it has been mentioned before but cap space was the asset for trading Tqylor Hall. Were there any other players moved to free up cap that also returned assets? I haven't paid attention to moves this offseason.

The comparable would be Reilly Smith who’s 5 million cap hit netted a 3rd round pick.

I still don’t agree with it. Especially since we filled his spot with JVR.

 

[Dizzay]

I agree that trading Taylor Hall was painfully dumb. I really don't want to hear "it was for cap space" from the folks here.......I understand why he was traded. Where I don't agree is there were several other options we could have employed here that we didn't.

1. Ullmark- choked 2 straight playoffs now and we have the future in Swayman behind him
2. Buy out Forbort and trade Gryz. Gives you basically the same as the 6 million we got from Hall
3. Use an asset to trade Coyle and his 5.25 million dollar deal, include Zboril to get you to over 6 million, ala Hall.

I would much rather have gone into 2023, assuming Bergy is back, with:
Marchy-Bergy-Debrusk
Hall-Zacha-Pasta
XXXX-Geekie-XXXX
vs
Marchy-Bergy-Debrusk
Zacha-Coyle-Pasta
XXXX-Geekie-XXXX

 

[duffy]

You don't trade away top 6 forwards to save cap space and you certainly need to get a better return. The Bruins cupboard is bare yet we are handing out top 6 guys for tik tacs.

All I ever read on this board is how good Grezlyck is yet we couldn't dump him for cap space? We dumped a top 6 forward to keep a bottom pairing defensemen.

Also Forbert, Frederick, Ullmark whose trade value will never be as high as it is now.

Don't sign JVR for a million.

There were so many other options.

It's easy to say well cap space.

Agree we could have traded away others and all the D minus Charlie and Lindholm got my vote! But TH was a 6 mill 3rd liner,so I won't miss him.

 

[Over the volcano]

I agree that trading Taylor Hall was painfully dumb. I really don't want to hear "it was for cap space" from the folks here.......I understand why he was traded. Where I don't agree is there were several other options we could have employed here that we didn't.

1. Ullmark- choked 2 straight playoffs now and we have the future in Swayman behind him
2. Buy out Forbort and trade Gryz. Gives you basically the same as the 6 million we got from Hall
3. Use an asset to trade Coyle and his 5.25 million dollar deal, include Zboril to get you to over 6 million, ala Hall.

I would much rather have gone into 2023, assuming Bergy is back, with:
Marchy-Bergy-Debrusk
Hall-Zacha-Pasta
XXXX-Geekie-XXXX
vs
Marchy-Bergy-Debrusk
Zacha-Coyle-Pasta
XXXX-Geekie-XXXX

I was a big fan of Hall coming in and thought he was our best forward in the playoffs - even if he was playing an individual game. But I get the trade and think, given the market, it was a good deal.

In his two seasons in Boston he was a 16-20 goal player. Maybe they used him wrong, maybe he should have had more time on the PP, maybe he was derailed this year by injuries, whatever it was that's not a ton of production for 6mil/per.

They weren't dealing the reigning Vezina goalie for also probably nothing given the market.

They can't trade away two defensemen (who they'd probably have to sweeten with other assets) only to have turn around and have to pay more to replace.

I don't get Charlie Coyle but with their top two centers possibly leaving they weren't going to trade him (again probably with other assets attached).

I hope he blows up next year and has a great back end of his career. It's too bad it didn't work out here in this little window they had for him.

 

[RHR37]

That's not remotely true given the landscape.

Trading Forbort and Frederic doesn't get you close either.

Not sure what you mean about landscape.

But

Forbert- 3 Million
Gryz- 4 million

That's 7 million for 2 5-6 D men.
(Now I know your going to say Gryz is not a 5-6)

Agree we could have traded away others and all the D minus Charlie and Lindholm got my vote! But TH was a 6 mill 3rd liner,so I won't miss him.

Taylor Hall is far from a 3rd liner and was arguably your best forward all playoffs. He got hurt near the end of the season and Monty did not know how to use him. (Hence why we went packing in RD1)

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Agree we could have traded away others and all the D minus Charlie and Lindholm got my vote! But TH was a 6 mill 3rd liner,so I won't miss him.

Would have been a top line winger this season with Zacha and Pastrnak.

 

[PlayMakers]

1. Ullmark- choked 2 straight playoffs now and we have the future in Swayman behind him
2. Buy out Forbort and trade Gryz. Gives you basically the same as the 6 million we got from Hall
3. Use an asset to trade Coyle and his 5.25 million dollar deal, include Zboril to get you to over 6 million, ala Hall.

1. Ullmark has a 16 team NTC, and all of the teams looking for goalies are places likely to be on his no trade list (WPG, EDM, BUF, etc.

2. Buying out Forbort and trading Gryz only clears $4m. $3.6 for Gryz + 2.3 for Forbort buyout = $6m in space, minus $1m for Gryz replacement minus $1m for Forbort replacement equals $4m. So you still don't have enough for Hall and there's a rookie or old UFA on his last legs in the top pair.

3. This might work have worked but we don't have any picks to give up next year, we don't have any centers at the moment and Coyle has a 10 team no trade list so you'd have to hope he doesn't just put the 10 teams with $5m or more in cap space on his no trade list.

Fwiw, I’m not saying it’s impossible, but the one golden ticket move (Ullmark) seems blocked at the moment and the other options, at least to my eyes, produce an even worse final product.

 

[PlayMakers]

You don't trade away top 6 forwards to save cap space and you certainly need to get a better return. The Bruins cupboard is bare yet we are handing out top 6 guys for tik tacs.

All I ever read on this board is how good Grezlyck is yet we couldn't dump him for cap space? We dumped a top 6 forward to keep a bottom pairing defensemen.

Also Forbert, Frederick, Ullmark whose trade value will never be as high as it is now.

Don't sign JVR for a million.

There were so many other options.

It's easy to say well cap space.

No, it's easy to say, there are lots of magical options I haven't really thought through...

Whether you sign JVR or call up Beecher it's going to cost you $1m in cap space. You have to have a full roster. They can't keep Hall and play with 5 less players than the rest of the league.

I think they could move Gryz anytime they want, but if they move him they have to slot in someone making $1m next to McAvoy and that's a massive downgrade. I don't think they're willing to do that. I think that if/when Gryz moves there will be a top4 D coming back.

Ullmark has a NTC and cap space is so tight teams are giving away players just for space. The Bruins, so far at least, have decided he's too valuable to give away. If there's a team out there that is not on his NTC list and is willing to pay up for a Vezina winner then I could still see them moving him, Sweeney said as much, but if there isn't they decided he's worth more to the Bruins in terms of wins/losses than Hall.

Moving Frederic only frees up $1m. I could see them moving him, but it would take another expensive asset or a lot of additional inexpensive assets to get to $6m in space. It just doesn't seem reasonable.

 

[DiggityDog]

I agree that trading Taylor Hall was painfully dumb. I really don't want to hear "it was for cap space" from the folks here.......I understand why he was traded. Where I don't agree is there were several other options we could have employed here that we didn't.

1. Ullmark- choked 2 straight playoffs now and we have the future in Swayman behind him
2. Buy out Forbort and trade Gryz. Gives you basically the same as the 6 million we got from Hall
3. Use an asset to trade Coyle and his 5.25 million dollar deal, include Zboril to get you to over 6 million, ala Hall.

I would much rather have gone into 2023, assuming Bergy is back, with:
Marchy-Bergy-Debrusk
Hall-Zacha-Pasta
XXXX-Geekie-XXXX
vs
Marchy-Bergy-Debrusk
Zacha-Coyle-Pasta
XXXX-Geekie-XXXX

I love arguments like this. Ullmark sucked in the playoffs. Ok then, why would another team want him if he sucks in the playoffs? That’s your argument right?

Or my other personal favorite trading a center from a center desperate club to free up cap space. But wait a second won’t we have to sign a center to take his place? So much for that space, oh and we attached an asset to do it? Sick

 

[DiggityDog]

Nobody wanted to lose Hall, it was a tough pill to swallow.

Having said that it was their best option to clear the $6 million in cap space they needed without losing more picks to move bad contracts, utilizing one of their two buyouts, or having to take money back, and lastly giving another player away for nothing.

There are consequences for going all in. They used bonuses to fit two guys we all love and wanted back.

The Bruins had nearly no space to start the offseason with a ton of holes to fill. Something had to give. Sucks it was Hall, but again, if given the choice between losing Hall for nothing or the reigning Vezina trophy winner, I thinks it’s a pretty easy decision to make.

 

[PatriceBergeron]

How's the goalie trade market been working? How's the trade market been in general? Would giving Ullmark away for nothing make sense when you are a year away from a cap increase, and he just won the Vezina? And that's assuming you could find a team not on his no trade list who wants to take on $5M in cap. The whole NHL needs an enema right now - the shortsighted decision of the owners to go flat this year has had huge repercussions.

I’d rather trade Ullmark for nothing than Hall for nothing given the construction of the team. (And I don’t think they’d be trading Ullmark for nothing)

You don’t need two 4M+ goalies. You kinda need 2nd line wingers. Hall was the best forward on the team last playoffs and Ullmark has been bad 2 playoffs in a row.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Nobody wanted to lose Hall, it was a tough pill to swallow.

Having said that it was their best option to clear the $6 million in cap space they needed without losing more picks to move bad contracts, utilizing one of their two buyouts, or having to take money back, and lastly giving another player away for nothing.

There are consequences for going all in. They used bonuses to fit two guys we all love and wanted back.

The Bruins had nearly no space to start the offseason with a ton of holes to fill. Something had to give. Sucks it was Hall, but again, if given the choice between losing Hall for nothing or the reigning Vezina trophy winner, I thinks it’s a pretty easy decision to make.

Debatable if losing a player of Hall's quality is worth saving a 2nd round pick to trade Forbort etc. Clearly the Bruins still plan on contending this season assuming Bergeron returns. Hall was a top six forward candidate this season, a role less easily replaced than Forbort and/or Gryz. They also did give away Hall for nothing.

 

[KnightofBoston]

Nobody wanted to lose Hall, it was a tough pill to swallow.

Having said that it was their best option to clear the $6 million in cap space they needed without losing more picks to move bad contracts, utilizing one of their two buyouts, or having to take money back, and lastly giving another player away for nothing.

There are consequences for going all in. They used bonuses to fit two guys we all love and wanted back.

The Bruins had nearly no space to start the offseason with a ton of holes to fill. Something had to give. Sucks it was Hall, but again, if given the choice between losing Hall for nothing or the reigning Vezina trophy winner, I thinks it’s a pretty easy decision to make.

People really just want to be able to have their cake and eat it too

If sweeney did not go all in and we lost the same round in the same number of games, people would spend the summer bitching about how we didn’t grab Bertuzzi or Gavrikov or Barbeshev or whoever and when people bring up well at least we have some cap space and picks etc they’d downplay that

This is why I think it’s so critical, if you want to be happy and healthy, to just enjoy every moment as a sports fan instead of fitting yourself into a tight box of expectations. What’s the point? Don’t we have enough stress, things to worry about, boring tedious tasks to address as adult humans?

If they win the cup that’s amazing and so fun, the summer is such a high. But if they don’t win, I enjoy watching prospects grow, I look forward to seeing who will step up, every goal and win is fun throughout the season.

Short of boycotting games and prospects as a form of protesting management decisions a when enough becomes enough and all you care about is a cup, everything else is a waste of energy and time.

TD garden will have no problems selling out their seats. Harry Sinden still consults for the team. It is what it is.

I’m just going to enjoy the upcoming season and hope bergeron (and Krejci tho that’s very doubtful) come back one more time and make it clear it’ll be their last so that way we can ceremony their time here along with it being the 100th year and they can retire with grace regardless of what happens - not a fan of seeing them go out and then fading away into nothing with a quiet retirement months later.

 

[PatriceBergeron]

Hall is back! Nice!

Yeah the whole point was that they could’ve fit Hall pretty easily just by moving Ullmark and Forbort.

 

[NeelyDan]

Nobody wanted to lose Hall, it was a tough pill to swallow.

Having said that it was their best option to clear the $6 million in cap space they needed without losing more picks to move bad contracts, utilizing one of their two buyouts, or having to take money back, and lastly giving another player away for nothing.

There are consequences for going all in. They used bonuses to fit two guys we all love and wanted back.

The Bruins had nearly no space to start the offseason with a ton of holes to fill. Something had to give. Sucks it was Hall, but again, if given the choice between losing Hall for nothing or the reigning Vezina trophy winner, I thinks it’s a pretty easy decision to make.

there really is no other answer required for the repeated bringing up of Taylor Hall

 

[RHR37]

No, it's easy to say, there are lots of magical options I haven't really thought through...

Whether you sign JVR or call up Beecher it's going to cost you $1m in cap space. You have to have a full roster. They can't keep Hall and play with 5 less players than the rest of the league.

I think they could move Gryz anytime they want, but if they move him they have to slot in someone making $1m next to McAvoy and that's a massive downgrade. I don't think they're willing to do that. I think that if/when Gryz moves there will be a top4 D coming back.

Ullmark has a NTC and cap space is so tight teams are giving away players just for space. The Bruins, so far at least, have decided he's too valuable to give away. If there's a team out there that is not on his NTC list and is willing to pay up for a Vezina winner then I could still see them moving him, Sweeney said as much, but if there isn't they decided he's worth more to the Bruins in terms of wins/losses than Hall.

Moving Frederic only frees up $1m. I could see them moving him, but it would take another expensive asset or a lot of additional inexpensive assets to get to $6m in space. It just doesn't seem reasonable.

I'm sorry but I don't agree with this post at all, so apparently we could not keep Hall because of the cap space.

Yet, we were in on Bertuzzi? Makes 0 sense.

There were moves to be made and he panicked.

Again, I'm not arguing that we should have kept Taylor Hall or not (even though I think we should have)

But Sweeney got hosed in the trade.

It's ironic that when Hall was traded here it was because of "Sweenius" not that Hall demanded to come here.

Now that we traded Hall and got hosed it's not his fault.

It's bad GMing and not cashing in on your assets.