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The Boston Bruins are not waiting ‘til the start of free agency to address their defensive situation.
Internally, anyhow.
In a day that began with the buyout of veteran
Dennis Seidenberg, B’s general manager
Don Sweeney followed that move up with a near-immediate signing of restricted free agent defenseman
Torey Krug to a new four-year contract worth $21 million ($5.25 million cap hit).
First, on Seidenberg.
It was somewhat surprising to see the Bruins exercise a buyout option given its status as a ‘last ditch’ option for teams looking to get out of contracts, but it’s clear that the Bruins could not find a trade partner for the final two years of Seidenberg’s contract and rather expensive $4 million cap number. That’s understandable given the struggles that the 34-year-old has gone through over the last two seasons as a top-four defenseman, and the way defensemen like Seidenberg deteriorate over time.
And, unfortunately, the deterioration has been obvious. Since Seidenberg tore his ACL on a freak play back in Dec. 2013, his ability to contribute as a defender capable of shutting down the other teams’ top lines has come into question through some straight-up disastrous nights. And since the start of the 2014 season, only eight defenseman have posted a worse Corsi-For% rel team than Seidenberg, and only two of those eight have played more than Seidenberg’s 143 games (Deryk Engelland has played 145 while New York’s Dan Girardi, the worst in the league in this category by the way, has played 156).
This year was no exception, either, as Seidenberg finished with a 47.1 Corsi-For percentage, the lowest among Boston defensemen with at least 1,000 minutes of five-on-five time-on-ice.
For Seidenberg, it’s a definite bummer that his Bruins career comes to an end like this, especially given the way he emerged as a legitimate workhorse for the B’s, especially throughout their 2011 run to the Stanley Cup, where nobody -- not even Zdeno Chara -- logged more time-on-ice than Seidenberg.
On Krug, there has to be a sigh of relief and a ‘finally’ when it comes to this new deal. After back-to-back one-year ‘show me’ deals in town, and a career-best 44 point season this past year, the 5-foot-9 defenseman has proven his worth to the organization as a premier puck-mover for the Black and Gold.
And Krug finally has his long-term contract to show for it.
The Michigan-born defender has been wrongly termed a ‘power-play specialist’ again and again, but it’s so painfully obvious that there’s not a defenseman in the pipeline that’s even close to being able to do what Krug does for your team. And there’s still some untapped potential left in the tank, too. At 25, Krug is very much still in the process of developing into a more complete top-four defenseman, and he’s maybe one of just two Boston d-men that can skate, and this payday
does reflect that.
Paid a little bit more than Anaheim’s Sami Vatanen ($4.85 million cap-hit) and way less than free agent option
Keith Yandle ($6.3 million for the next seven years), Krug’s new contract, along with the Seidenberg buyout savings, leaves the Bruins will just over $18 million to spend if they so choose.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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