Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
The compliance buyout is basically the NHL equivalent of a Get Out of Jail Free card. Replace ‘jail’ with ‘Awful, regrettable contract that’d ruin your team’s cap for way too many years’ and that’s exactly what it is, actually. And every team -- unless they one or both last year -- has two that they’ll have to use by the end of this summer’s two-week window or they’re gone forever. The Boston Bruins, a team that’ll likely find themselves in a loose version of cap-hell this summer, have yet to use one.
That -- seemingly anyways -- could change given the Bruins’ rather sticky situation.
With the rough estimate that the Bruins will be hit with $4.75 million in cap penalties next season, the B’s rather dire financial situation could make a buyout an appealing option to at the very least shave a couple million off their books without losing much of what makes them an elite club. Looking at the bigger picture, Loui Eriksson is currently the only right winger signed for the 2014-15 season, with Reilly Smith (restricted free agent) and Jarome Iginla (unrestricted free agent) up for new deals, while the team confirmed that they’re moving on from fourth line right winger and pending unrestricted free agent Shawn Thornton yesterday afternoon.
Now, let’s get the easy ones out of the way: Marc Savard (post-concussion syndrome) cannot be bought out, nor would that really serve a purpose considering the fact that his $4 million plus cap-hit is freed up via long-term injured reserve every season. Chris Kelly (back surgery) cannot be bought out, and it doesn’t seem like Adam McQuaid (quad, ankle) can be either, as both of these players ended their years with injuries that deemed them unable to perform.
Obviously, most saw Kelly as a prime candidate for this prior to his injury given his $3 million cap-hit, recent injury history, and the fact that he was ultimately usurped by Carl Soderberg as the club’s third line centerman midway through the year.
But given Kelly’s status as a leader in that Boston room coupled with the club’s unwillingness to pull the plug on Kelly’s contract last summer when they had the chance, the 33-year-old Kelly seems like the asset the Bruins would like to retain, or at the very least get something back via a trade (though nothing appears to point to a Kelly move out of Boston anytime soon as it stands right now).
And maybe you don’t want to bail on Kelly just yet. Even with all his recent injury woes -- he’s missed 51 hockey games (39 regular season and 12 playoff) since the start of the 2012-13 season -- Kelly is still a player the Bruins rely on to win faceoffs, move up and down the lineup with ease, and kill penalties (his 1:51 of shorthanded time on ice per game was sixth among Bruins this season).
On McQuaid, I think there’s a still a chance for him to be a contributor to the Bruins in 2014-15, especially after his early season chemistry with Torey Krug on the B’s third defensive pairing, but he’ll now have some competition with the affordable Kevan Miller under a one-way contract and basically fighting for the same role with the club. Like Kelly, injuries and his experience with the club would make a trade lightyears more appealing than a buyout, and even that could be a risk for the Black-and-Gold given their woeful defensive depth by the end of the season.
Just where do your buyout eyes go from there?
Maybe towards the club’s $1.6 million fourth line center, Gregory Campbell.
The centerpiece of the now defunct Merlot line featuring Danny Paille and Thornton, Campbell’s $1.6 million cap-hit, all things considered, seems like an overpayment. Much like Thornton, Campbell is a skater that plays with a tremendous amount of heart and brings a gritty element to the ice, but looked like a complete nightmare against the Canadiens in round two. You’d like to think that the Bruins could find a fourth line center to win a little less than 50 percent of his draws, chime in with a garbage goal, and get into scraps at times for half of Campbell’s price tag.
Ditching Campbell would be yet another step towards moving away from the core of the 2011 Cup team by Peter Chiarelli, but could make sense given the B’s wealth of youthful centers knocking at the door in Ryan Spooner and Matt Lindblad, who with another full camp with the big league Bruins, could prove to provide some serious competition for Campbell.
Even so, a Campbell buyout sheds less than $2 million off your cap, and leaves you with just under $10 million to fill four forward spots, find a backup goalie, and sign Krug and/or Matt Bartkowski.
This would certainly work under a youngster heavy lineup featuring entry-level contracts like a Spooner, Lindblad, and assuming that Justin Florek comes to terms on a modest one-way deal around/less than $750,000, or if you found a capable veteran center willing to play for close to league minimum, but that’d seem like an odd jump from A to B for a definite ‘win-now’ B’s club.
Beyond that, it seems silly (see: crazy, nonsensical, ridiculous, etc.) to think that the Bruins will use a buyout on a top-six forward or top-four defender, making a buyout seem like a waste if it’s on a player like a Paille (who skates with a modest $1.3 million cap-hit). But with the B’s searching for every nickel they can, I suppose it’s too early to rule anything out before the June 30th deadline.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com