The Skate Pod goes 1-on-1 with Fabian Lysell and Mason Lohrei
Last Saturday, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said it was unlikely he would be able to re-sign Tyler Bertuzzi and cited the years and money Bertuzzi was expected to get as decisive factors.
Bertuzzi, however, wound up signing just a one-year, $5.5 million deal with division rival Toronto the next day.
Sweeney has come under criticism from some corners of Boston media and fans this week for not waiting things out on the Bertuzzi front before loading up on cheaper players like Milan Lucic, James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Shattenkirk and Morgan Geekie.
Sweeney met with reporters on Friday after the conclusion of Bruins development and acknowledged that he was “a little bit” surprised that Bertuzzi wound up signing for just one year, especially since that option wasn’t on the table when he talked to Bertuzzi’s camp before free agency began.
“Again, his goal – and I’ll speak more generally than just about a player on another team at this point in time – there were players that were looking for longer-term deals,” Sweeney said. “My discussions were focused around that, and some teams were in a very good position to be able to absorb shorter-term deals at the right numbers.”
Sweeney said he had explored other moves to free up more cap space, but didn’t believe there was fair value on the trade market and had no intentions of moving other good players in salary dumps like he had to do with Taylor Hall.
“We had to go and fill our gap from [Bertuzzi], and to open up the space we needed would have required us to be more proactive and do deals that we explored, but we didn't feel that the value was there to open up even more space,” he said.
Sweeney was then asked if he considered waiting out the market and not spending on Day 1 of free agency.
“Again, there’s a risk-reward in the strategy,” he said. “Some teams were in position to probably -- some teams have an LTIR situations they may be able to utilize and be patient in that regard. Other teams were very aggressive on Day 1. … We needed to fill some holes.”
Related
