Skate Pod: The Patrice Bergeron retirement episode
Don Sweeney will have a little bit more money-moving to do after all. With Trent Frederic and Jeremy Swayman's contracts now finalized, the Bruins find themselves just slightly over the NHL's $83.5 million salary cap.
The Bruins avoided arbitration with Frederic earlier Tuesday, finalizing a two-year extension worth $2.3 million per season. Later Tuesday, Swayman's arbitration ruling came in, with an independent arbitrator reportedly deciding on a one-year, $3.475 million contract.
That essentially split the difference between the Bruins' and Swayman's filings. The Bruins came in at $2 million for one year, while Swayman was seeking $4.8 million.
With Frederic and Swayman's contracts now on the books, the Bruins' 23-man roster is now roughly $375,000 over the cap.
While it's possible Sweeney could try to trade someone away, the more likely course of action would be rolling with a 22-man roster instead of using the maximum 23 spots.
Using CapFriendly's roster as a base, forward Jayson Megna would be the most obvious choice to send down to Providence. That would leave the Bruins with just 12 forwards, though. Our guess is that they'd like to keep a 13th forward, but it could very well be Jakub Lauko (currently listed in the AHL, where he technically finished the season) instead of Megna.
The Bruins have eight defensemen on their NHL roster right now, making that the more likely position to subtract from. Ian Mitchell, one of the defensemen acquired in the Taylor Hall trade, could be waived and then sent to Providence if no other team claims him. Jakub Zboril could also be a candidate to be waived if Mitchell were to beat him out for a spot.
Moving Mitchell's $775,000 cap hit off the active roster and replacing Megna with Lauko (Lauko's cap hit is $12,500 more than Megna's) would leave the Bruins with a 22-man roster and just under $417,000 in cap space.
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