Boston Bruins' Complete Guide to Free Agency

It's a new era in Boston.

After the Bruins failed to make the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons, the team handed former assistant general manager Don Sweeney the keys to the kingdom one month after it dismissed his old boss Peter Chiarelli.

Staring down some tough financial decisions to keep his team salary-cap compliant, Sweeney made a splash at the 2015 draft when he traded key players Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic for draft picks and young players. He also dealt away the rights to impending free agent Carl Soderberg.

With his immediate salary-cap issues now under control, Sweeney's next task will be to find some players to fill his roster next season.

Here's a look at how the Bruins will fare in the free-agent window.

Depth Chart

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Here are the NHL players under contract with the Bruins for the 2015-16 season, along with the most significant contract details:

10 Forwards: $36 million

• David Krejci (29) starts a new six-year contract with a cap hit of $7.25 million.
• Loui Eriksson (29) has one year remaining with a cap hit of $4.25 million before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
• Chris Kelly (34) has one year remaining with a cap hit of $3 million before becoming an unrestricted free agent.
• Marc Savard (37) has been on long-term injured reserve since early 2011 with concussion-related issues.

5 Defensemen: $17.9 million

• Zdeno Chara (38) remains Boston's highest-paid defenseman, with three years remaining on a contract with a cap hit of $6.9 million per season.
• Adam McQuaid (28) was about to become an unrestricted free agent before signing a four-year contract during draft weekend with a cap hit of $2.75 million per season.
• Colin Miller (22) is a minor league defenseman, acquired in the Lucic deal, who could jump to the NHL roster next season.

1 Goaltender: $7 million

• Tuukka Rask (28) has six years left on his contract with a cap hit of $7 million per season
• Martin Jones (25), acquired in the Lucic deal, is a restricted free agent who will need to be signed to a new contract.

Salary-Cap Status

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After their big moves at the draft, General Fanager reports the Bruins currently have $63.6 million committed against the salary cap in 2015-16 for 16 players.

With a cap ceiling of $71.4 million for the upcoming season, Sweeney now has just under $7.8 million available to sign seven more players—a number that will grow to $11.8 million when Marc Savard's cap hit is assigned to long-term injured reserve on the first day of the regular season.

In need of three forwards, three defensemen and a contract for newly acquired restricted free-agent goaltender Martin Jones, the Bruins don't have room to go on a spending spree, but they've managed to clear enough cap space to ink a complete roster to start next season.

Who's a Free Agent?

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Unrestricted Free Agents

Gregory Campbell (31) - center

• 6-6-12 in 70 regular-season games

Daniel Paille (31) - left wing

• 6-7-13 in 71 regular-season games

Matt Bartkowski (27) - defense

• 0-4-4 in 47 regular-season games

Restricted Free Agents

Brett Connolly (23) - right wing

• 0-2-2 in five regular-season games after being acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning at the trade deadline.

Ryan Spooner (23) - center

• 8-10-18 in 29 regular-season games

Martin Jones (25) - goaltender

• 4-5-2 in 15 regular-season games played; 2.25 GAA, .906 save percentage, three shutouts

Biggest Needs

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Left Wing

With Daniel Paille leaving by way of free agency and Milan Lucic getting traded to Los Angeles, Boston now has just one bona fide left winger on its roster—Brad Marchand. The Bruins don't appear to have organizational depth to fill this void, so inexpensive free-agent signings may be required.

Center

The Bruins also gave up the rights to speeding center Carl Soderberg, who was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent. As long as David Krejci and Patrice Bergeron stay healthy, Boston's one-two punch up the middle should still be reasonably powerful.

Defense

One of the biggest shocks of draft weekend was Sweeney's trade of young defenseman Dougie Hamilton to the Calgary Flames for draft choices. Rather than risk the prospect of further organization damage if the Bruins were forced to match a predatory offer sheet for Hamilton, Sweeney chose to proactively control his team's destiny.

Hamilton's trade may have been necessary, but it still leaves a big hole on the blue line. Behind only iron man Zdeno Chara and his partner, Dennis Seidenberg, Hamilton averaged a steady 21:20 per game during the 2014-15 season.

Other Teams' Free Agents to Target

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If Sweeney's planning to sign free agents, he'll need to work within a tight budget. Sweeney could use general manager David Poile's cost-conscious work last summer with the Nashville Predators as a template for his signings.

The Bruins could look at Mike Santorelli, a speedy center who's good on draws and special teams and can also play either wing. Santorelli made $1.5 million last season on a one-year deal, putting up 33 points with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Nashville Predators.

Low-cost options for the blue line could include former San Jose Shark Matt Irwin, one-time New Jersey Devil Peter Harrold, feisty Korbinian Holzer or Nate Prosser of the Minnesota Wild—all of whom made $1 million or less last season.

Predictions

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With franchise players such as Krejci, Bergeron and Rask in the prime years of their careers, it would be a shame if Sweeney can't afford to surround them with anything better than role players next season.

The Bruins could get some relief if they're able to trade the last two years of Marc Savard's contract to a team that needs help reaching the salary-cap floor, much like what Philadelphia pulled off by trading Chris Pronger's contract to Arizona on Saturday, per NHL.com.

As with Pronger, Savard is only owed $575,000 a year in payment on his back-sliding contract, so the big cap hit wouldn't cost the acquiring team much money at all.

If Sweeney's able to find a taker for Savard's contract, that would give him an opportunity to move up a tier in his free-agent pursuit on July 1. Otherwise, he'll have to stick to a low-budget plan until he's able to get cap relief when he moves Savard's contract to the long-term injured reserve list on the first day of the regular season.

The Boston Bruins' Free-Agency Period Will Be...Scrambly

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Don Sweeney made some tough decisions over draft weekend, saying goodbye to a franchise anchor in Lucic and two talents with plenty of upside in Soderberg and Hamilton.

Now that the books are (somewhat) balanced, the task of building a supporting cast begins. For all their challenges in 2014-15, the Bruins finished just three points out of a wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Despite the roster purge, they'll be trying to turn their fortunes around quickly.

Stats courtesy of NHL.com. Contract information from General Fanager is sourced from CapGeek, a now-defunct website.