Keys to the offseason for the Boston Bruins
Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton of ESPN: After a record-setting regular season, they lost in seven games to the Florida Panthers. Their goaltending imploded.
Projected 2023-24 cap space: $10,587,500
2023 draft picks: 3rd, 4th, 6th, two 7ths
Patrice Bergeron is obviously the main topic when it comes to their pending free agents. Will he retire or come back for another season? The answer won’t come quickly. David Krejci faces a similar decision.
Decisions will have to be made with trade deadline acquisitions and pending free agents in Tyler Bertuzzi, Garnet Hathaway and Dmitry Orlov. Backup goaltender this season, Jeremy Swayman, is a pending RFA.
Will the Bruins be able to retool this offseason without changing too much of what worked during the regular season?
Pending free agents
2023 UFAs: Nick Foligno, Patrice Bergeron, Tyler Bertuzzi, Tomas Nosek, Garnet Hathaway, David Krejci, Dmity Orlov, Connor Clifton, Chris Wagner, Anton Stralman, Connor Carrick, Vinni Lettieri, Peter Cehlarik, and Andrei Svetlakov.
2023 RFAs: Trent Frederic, Jakub Lauko, Jeremy Swayman, Brandon Bussi, Marc McLaughlin, Michael Dipietro, Kai Wissmann, Samuel Asselin, Matt Filipe, Joona Koppanen, Shane Bowers, Kyle Keyser, Nick Wolff, and Jack Ahcan.
2024 UFAs: Jake DeBrusk, A.J. Greer, Matt Grzelcyk, Derek Forbort, Jakub Zboril, Mike Reilly, Kai Wissmann, Dan Renouf, Nick Wolff, Jack Ahcan, Jakob Frosbacka Karlsson. and Jack Becker.
2024 RFAs: Curtis Hall, Michael Callahan, and Oskar Steen.
Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com: With the Boston Bruins season ending surprisingly in the first-round to the Florida Panthers, pending UFA forward Patrice Bergeron plans to step back and ponder in his playing future.
“I’m going to take some time, talk with the family, go from there,” Bergeron said. “Right now, it’s hard to process anything. Obviously we’re shocked and disappointed and so that’s it.”
Bergeron missed the first four games of the series with a herniated disc in his back. The Bruins lost the final three games of the series.
“It hurts right now, so I’m going to have to step back and give it some thought with my family,” Bergeron said.
Bergeron had signed a one-year deal last offseason with a $2.5 million base salary and $2.5 million in performance incentives.
Forward David Krejci is in a similar situation to Bergeron. He’s spent 16 seasons with the Bruins.