Boston Bruins Sign Niklas Svedberg: What Does This Mean for Tim Thomas?

If all goes according to plan, Niklas Svedberg will not be scraping the blue paint for the Boston Bruins for at least another year. His professional transcript, featuring five seasons in his native Sweden, hardly translates to a transition right into The Show.

Nonetheless, Tuesday’s announcement that the Bruins have signed the free agent to an entry-level contract is bound to spawn speculation as to the immediate future of the franchise’s entire goalie guild.

On top of that, less than 48 hours after that announcement, beat writer Joe Haggerty of CSNNE.com has reported that incumbent starter Tim Thomas moved his family from Boston to Colorado in the middle of this past season.

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli, or any member of the front office for that matter, has yet to publicly comment on the implications of Svedberg’s signing or on Haggerty’s claim regarding Thomas. But it is easy enough to make educated guesses and conclude that, given all of the circumstances, he is on track to making the shrewdest decisions available as he tweaks the roster over the offseason.

It is not a stretch to believe that Providence workhorse Anton Khudobin is being primed, without further delay, for a full-time spot with the parent club while Michael Hutchinson assumes the AHL starting job ahead of Svedberg.

As much as Chiarelli has stressed his intent to keep the Thomas-Tuukka Rask goaltending tandem status quo, doing so could go against his other recent pledge to shore up the strike force.

If Rask, a good 13 years younger than the two-time Vezina and one-time Conn Smythe Trophy recipient, will almost certainly require a pay raise to eschew his pending free agency. As it is, Thomas will cost a $5 million cap hit through the final year of his contract in 2012-13.

Thomas is tied for third on the team in that category with Patrice Bergeron, trailing only Zdeno Chara and David Krejci.

Krejci’s cap hit is scheduled to increase from $3.75 million to $5.25 million. That, along with his egregious inconsistency on the ice, makes him less than perfect and no guarantee to copilot more Cup runs.

Then again, in that regard, the 26-year-old Czech pivot is under the same roof as the Finnish netminder. And remember that, while Thomas was the MVP in last year’s banner campaign, Krejci was the top scorer with a 12-11-23 log in 25 playoff games.

And if it’s a boost in offense Chiarelli desires, he will doubtlessly need to open substantial cap space. The Bruins presently project to have $5,274,024 of it, but that will quickly evaporate when and if they re-sign such desirables as Rask, veteran forward Brian Rolston and at least three or four other skaters.

And even if Marc Savard’s health put him on long-term injured reserve yet again and exempts the team payroll from his $4,007,143 hit, Chiarelli still cannot bank on satisfactorily paying every returnee and newcomer.

But exporting a single individual cap hit of at least $5 million could make all the difference in terms of leaving room for a prized new point-getter. And given the choice between Krejci and Thomas, the 38-year-old goaltender should be ruled more expendable simply for his age and his position.

When you want a shot in the offensive arm, why subtract a top-six center who is barely entering his prime when you can release an aging netminder who will never have another year like 2010-11?

It would be more ideal for Boston to keep Thomas for the balance of his contract and let the torch go to Rask over a smooth, 82-game transition in the 2012-13 season. Sending Thomas elsewhere will likely allow him to make at least a moderate impact on another franchise while comfortably warming up the crease for someone else’s up-and-coming starter.

But between the salary cap and the rest of the roster situation, that proposition is simply impractical, unless Chiarelli wants to utterly dismantle a core of skaters with so much potential still ahead of them.

Assuming the acquisition of Svedberg does, in fact, signal the first warning bell on Thomas’ egress this summer, Bruins buffs can be grateful their team is going with the least of the roster overhaul evils.