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In a weird way, maybe this is the way that the Jarome Iginla story should end for the Boston Bruins. After snubbing the Bruins for the Penguins near the 2013 trade deadline, the 36-year-old winger decided to come to Boston on a one-year, bonus-laden deal that seemed more than friendly for the Black-and-Gold. “Hooray! All is forgiven!… screamed a delighted Boston fanbase.
One 30-goal season later, complete with Iginla meeting $3.7 million of a possible $4.5 million in bonuses, it looks like No. 12 already has one foot out the door of a B’s locker room that loved him.
From Sportsnet:
Without getting into specifics, Meehan confirmed to Sportsnet early Thursday that Iginla’s focus is expanding now that the hockey world has gathered in Philadelphia for the entry draft — a turn of events that says more about the current state of the Bruins’ cap situation than the player himself.This does not appear to be a case where an agent is trying to capitalize on the free agent interview period and create leverage. Meehan is simply protecting his client.
Boston’s situation isn’t directly Iginla’s fault, of course. I mean, it takes two to strike a deal, and the Bruins undoubtedly knew what they were getting into. (How could you not when you sign a player that’s rarely missed time to injury to a contract just absolutely loaded with games played bonuses?) But even when the B’s inked Iginla to that deal, there was thought that it’d be for more than a year.
In fact, B’s general manager Peter Chiarelli compared the Iginla deal to the one they came to terms with on Mark Recchi years prior; you’d take a lower total base salary, insert some bonuses, and then deduct the bonuses from the base for a friendlier term the next time around.
There’s a slight problem with this idea. Especially this time around.
From the sounds of everything and everyone around Iginla and the Bruins, it appears that the veteran still in search of his first Stanley Cup isn’t keen on yet another one-year deal with the Bruins. And unlike the one-year deal that Iginla just wrapped up, a multi-year deal prevents a team from giving a player a bonus-heavy contract that comes with a lower base salary.
Earlier in the week, Chiarelli said everything he could without saying anything at all.
“We’d like to sign Jarome [Iginla] and that’s what I can say,… Chiarelli said when asked about progress on a new deal. “He has been a valuable player for us, I think there is a good fit and we’d like to sign him.. With all due respect, I’m not going to comment on negotiations. So, that’s what I can say.
“Choices do get made July 1st, it may be that we can’t sign Jarome [Iginla], it may be that we go in a different direction, it may be that we can’t sign player X or player Y,… added Chiarelli. “We’re in the midst of making these decisions, we want to see how the market plays out. You know, I guess my point is that these decisions may stretch into the summer, they may stretch into training camp, they may stretch into November. The common denominator is that they are hard choices.…
This is all pretty crazy, all things considered. If you asked me about a month ago, I’d have almost no doubts that Iginla would be back in Boston. He likes it in Boston, his family is here after spending a decade and a half in Calgary, and he was a perfect fit on the David Krejci line with Milan Lucic. Oh, and did I mention that the Bruins are still considered an Eastern powerhouse? Now, less than a week from the start of NHL free agency and without any word one way or the other, I’m almost convinced that Iginla is on his way out the door. Call it a gut feeling, definitely, but this cap situation seems more dire and tighter every time you play around on CapGeek.com.
Do the Bruins honestly trade somebody as important as Johnny Boychuk just to keep a soon-to-be 37-year-old winger in town for two years instead of one? That seems a bit fanatical, even by a win-now Bruins front office, and especially after last summer’s Fourth of July firework show.
But the weird reality of the Bruins’ situation is that they really don’t have a replacement for Iginla lined up. Forward Loui Eriksson would be the likeliest candidate -- he’s actually the only right winger under contract right now -- and that’s actually not the worst idea given the way Eriksson played down the stretch and even on the B’s top line in the absence of Iginla late in the year. You’d also think that somebody like Alexander Khokhlachev (who scored 21 goals and 57 points in 65 AHL games this year) is still about a year away from earning actual minutes on the B’s top six.
As it stands right now, the Bruins have just under $8 million to sign Iginla, Torey Krug, Reilly Smith, Matt Bartkowski, and find a fourth line forward.
So, again, as we’ve said all spring (and now summer) long-- money’s tight.
So tight in fact, that Iginla could be making it elsewhere in 2014-15.
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