Bruins general manager Don Sweeney has faced some fair criticism this offseason, as he has been pretty quiet at a time when many believed Boston was poised to make some sort of big splash.
Torey Krug departed in free agency, Zdeno Chara remains unsigned, and so far there haven't been any additions to the blue line to offset what was lost.
Up front, the signing of third-line right wing Craig Smith should help with the team's secondary and five-on-five scoring issues. There hasn't been any upgrade on the second line, though, where re-signing restricted free agent Jake DeBrusk remains the most likely course of action to fill out the group.
But there's one area where it's worth remembering that Sweeney deserves some praise. While he certainly hasn't hit on every signing he's made since taking over as GM in May 2015, Sweeney has inked some of the best contracts in the NHL for some of the Bruins' best players.
Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic recently ranked the best and worst contracts in the NHL right now based on a number of factors, including how much value a player provides relative to his salary now, and how much he is likely to provide over the remainder of his contract.
For the second year in a row, the top two contracts in the whole NHL are in Boston: David Pastrnak one, Brad Marchand two.
Pastrnak is signed for three more years with an average annual value of $6.67 million, while Marchand has five years left at $6.13 million AAV. Both are well below market value for two of the best wings in the league (NHL.com recently ranked Pastrnak second on its list of the top 20 wings and Marchand sixth).
Charlie McAvoy -- signed for two more seasons at $4.9 million per year and recently ranked the ninth-best defenseman by NHL.com -- earns honorable mention status on The Athletic's list.
The Bruins don't have any deals that land on the "worst contracts" list and few that even rate as poor deals, resulting in them being ranked as the team with the best overall "contract efficiency" by Luszczyszyn.
They finally got out from under David Backes' contract -- the one truly dreadful deal Sweeney has handed out -- and ultimately decided against trading for the player whose contract ranks as fifth-worst this year, Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
So, what does all this good negotiating mean? Well, it meant the Bruins were one of the few contenders that didn't have to shed salary this offseason with the cap remaining flat for next year.
They had the money to re-sign pretty much all of their own free agents, with Matt Grzelcyk the most notable deal on that front as we continue to await word on DeBrusk. They probably could have kept Krug had they made it a priority, which they clearly didn't. They were able to bring in Smith as well (on another contract The Athletic's model loves, by the way), and might still have money for another depth signing somewhere.
That all adds up to what is probably still a net negative offseason overall, but other top teams were forced to take even bigger steps back as a result of serious cap crunches, including the Lightning, Islanders, Canucks and arguably even the Golden Knights, who signed Alex Pietrangelo but had to get rid of multiple good players to do it. The only contender you'd say clearly got better was the Avalanche, who magically found a way to trade for both Brandon Saad and Devon Toews without giving up anything of really significant value.
The Bruins had and still have some flexibility, which could also be useful when it comes to in-season trades. And then they should have even more flexibility after next season, when David Krejci and Tuukka Rask's contracts are both up, which will free up more than $14 million. Even if the Bruins wanted to re-sign one or both of the veterans on a short-term extension, it would be for less than they are currently making.
There are a couple big paydays in the coming years that Sweeney will need to plan for. McAvoy is set to hit restricted free agency after the 2021-22 season and will command much more than his current $4.9 million AAV. Pastrnak's deal is up after 2022-23 and he too should be in line for a nice raise.
There's another concern here, though. The Bruins have struggled to hit in the draft since landing McAvoy in 2016, and as a result they don't really have any blue-chip prospects on the way who will be major contributors while making little money (maybe Jack Studnicka… we'll see).
Still, having your best players locked up for below market value, and not having any truly horrible deals, is only a good thing. It gives you more flexibility to construct the rest of your roster (like being able to pony up for a player like Charlie Coyle as your third-line center, for instance) and not turn into the Blackhawks.
Sweeney still has some work to do. But some of his past good work has at least made doing that work possible.
