What the Swayman and Frederic deals mean for the Bruins
Whether this ends up being the Bruins’ opening night roster remains to be seen, but Boston does at least finally have a full roster after finalizing deals with restricted free agents Trent Frederic and Jeremy Swayman.
The Bruins and Frederic avoided arbitration hours before his scheduled hearing, agreeing to a two-year deal on Tuesday that’s worth $2.3 million per season. Swayman’s arbitration hearing took place on Sunday, and on Tuesday he was awarded a one-year, $3.475 million contract, with the arbitrator pretty much splitting the difference between the Bruins’ and Swayman’s filings.
The Frederic and Swayman contracts actually put the Bruins’ 23-man roster $375,000 over the salary cap, according to CapFriendly, but that could be fixed by going with a 22-man NHL roster instead of carrying the maximum 23 players.
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We know that Patrice Bergeron won’t be returning after he announced his retirement last week, and the expectation is that David Krejci will be retiring as well, although he hasn’t made any official announcement yet.
General manager Don Sweeney could potentially still try to trade for a center, which would require moving money off the active roster in the process, but for now here’s how we see the Bruins’ depth chart looking:
FORWARDS (13)
Brad Marchand – Pavel Zacha – David Pastrnak
James van Riemsdyk – Charlie Coyle – Jake DeBrusk
Jesper Boqvist – Trent Frederic – Morgan Geekie
Milan Lucic – Patrick Brown – Jakub Lauko
A.J. Greer
There are pieces that can move around here. Flipping Marchand and van Riemsdyk would create more balance in the top six, for instance. The third-line center could be Frederic or Geekie, or even Georgii Merkulov if he proves ready for NHL action during training camp and preseason. Lauko could certainly push his way up to the third line as well and beat out Boqvist.
Other AHLers who could battle for jobs in September include wingers Fabian Lysell and Oskar Steen and center/wings Marc McLaughlin and Johnny Beecher. Boqvist, Brown and Greer would seem to be the most at risk of losing their roster spots if any of those youngsters do win a job. Veteran Jayson Megna could compete for a spot as well.
DEFENSE (7)
Matt Grzelcyk – Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm – Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort – Kevin Shattenkirk
Jakub Zboril
This is where we have the Bruins trimming a roster spot, with Ian Mitchell getting waived. He would be assigned to Providence if no other team claims him. Of course, Mitchell could also beat out Zboril for a spot, or the Bruins could make another move and keep both.
The top six seems fairly set and certainly looks like a strength of the team. Shattenkirk’s puck-moving might make him a better fit next to Forbort than Connor Clifton was, as Forbort and Clifton too often struggled to clear the zone and alleviate pressure against better offensive teams, like Florida. If anyone’s going to push someone out, it could be top defense prospect Mason Lohrei, who has his eyes set on NHL playing time.
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GOALIES (2)
Linus Ullmark
Jeremy Swayman
Last year’s historically great goaltending tandem (at least in the regular season) is back and should help keep the Bruins competitive on a nightly basis. Brandon Bussi, Kyle Keyser and Michael DiPietro lurk in the minors, but it would take a trade or injury for any of them to get a look in NHL games.