Joe Haggerty of NBC Sports Boston: The flattening of the salary cap at $81.5 million for the next couple of seasons isn’t doing any favors to the Boston Bruins. They have $63.5 committed to the 2020-21 season and key free agents needing new deals.
The Bruins have about $18 million to re-sign RFAs Jake DeBrusk, Matt Grzelcyk, and Anders Bjork, and pending UFAs in Torey Krug and Zdeno Chara. Fitting in Grzelcyk, Bjork and Chara should be okay, but Krug and DeBrusk may not be easy.
Before the pandemic, Krug could have been looking at around $8 million a season.
Bob Stauffer on DeBrusk’s worth.
“To me, I think Jake is a $5.5-6 million player. Maybe that money comes down a bit because of the cap. I think he’s a $6 million forward. He’s a guy that’s going to be capable of scoring 25-30 goals in a full season. That’s a $6 million forward to me.”
If DeBrusk is at $6 million and Krug is at $8 million, only one of the two will be wearing a Bruins jersey.
DeBrusk’s agent, Rick Valette, was on Stauffer’s Oilers Now radio show, and it doesn’t sound like DeBrusk will be taking a hometown discount.
“I don’t really consider that at this point. Will it play into it? Maybe,” said Valette, when asked about the internal salary structure for the Bruins that sees Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand all on pretty team-friendly deals under $7 million per season. “I would hope not. That’s not typically how I would approach that. The one thing I would add to Jake is that you want to look at his playoff performance and what he’s done in the playoffs in big games. The Toronto series from a couple of years ago, for example. He’s a big-game performer and he’s been a top-6 forward almost from the moment he stepped into the National Hockey League.
“Boston certainly has some internal things that they like to look at, but I’m going to try to not look at that. I guess that’s the way I would say it to you.”
Fellow 2015 draft pick comparables for DeBrusk – Brock Boeser (three years and $17.625 million), Travis Konecny (six years and $33 million), and Kyle Connor (seven years and $50 million).
A playoff struggle could put DeBrusk under $5 million per season area. Either way, he’ll likely come in around $5 million mark.
