Day 1 -- or at least Afternoon 1 -- of NHL free agency has come and gone, and Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci remain unsigned.
Meeting with reporters shortly after 5 p.m., general manager Don Sweeney provided updates on the pair of veteran centers.
Awaiting the returns of Bergeron and Krejci
“Nothing’s changed. There’s no update as of right now in terms of finalizing anything,” Sweeney said. “As I referenced the other day, I think we’re in a really good place with Patrice. Just the timing and working out the details of his contract and allowing him to declare that he’s good to go. Could be any timeframe there. Just working through some of the stuff, letting some of this day pass. Again, he’s the only one that’s going to make that final announcement, because he has the final say.
“And David Krejci, we’ve had numerous discussions throughout the day. Going to try to continue to find some common ground there. Remains positive, but I just don’t have a clear-cut answer for you.”
Sweeney said that not having new deals for Bergeron and Krejci finalized didn’t really affect his approach to the start of free agency or put him in an uncomfortable spot. He also reiterated that there’s no deadline for their decisions, although he did acknowledge that the sooner, the better.
Sweeney also said it’s possible that the contracts for Bergeron and Krejci -- if and when they’re finalized -- could be structured in a way that features more incentives and lower cap hits, which teams can do for players over 35. That would help the Bruins, who had just $2.38 million in cap space entering the day, fit them under the cap for this season while reducing the amount of salary -- if any -- the Bruins would have to move out.
While fans would have obviously liked to have seen official announcements on Bergeron and Krejci as early as possible, Sweeney still struck an optimistic note Wednesday afternoon. It certainly still looks like things are trending towards both Bergeron and Krejci signing, but nothing’s official until it’s actually official.
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