Uncertain free-agent period begins for Bruins

It’s one of the most anticipated days on the hockey calendar, a mix of anticipation, fun and frustration that usually kicks off both the summer and the upcoming season.

Friday’s opening of the NHL’s free-agent market won’t be quite the same. It’s autumn, and instead of this being the first week of the regular season, the NHL has announced that its hoped-for start to 2020-21 won’t be until Jan. 1. The anticipation level might be at an all-time [...]

It’s one of the most anticipated days on the hockey calendar, a mix of anticipation, fun and frustration that usually kicks off both the summer and the upcoming season.

Friday’s opening of the NHL’s free-agent market won’t be quite the same. It’s autumn, and instead of this being the first week of the regular season, the NHL has announced that its hoped-for start to 2020-21 won’t be until Jan. 1. The anticipation level might be at an all-time high, but that also could be said for the frustration level — and that was even before a new contract was even signed.

The free-agent market is at flood stage, with team after team buying out existing contracts and telling players with expiring contracts not to expect a new offer. This is largely the result of a flat salary cap of $81.5 million for next season, but cap compliance and cap space doesn’t explain everything. With no idea how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect cash flow for the 2020-21 season, teams are not as eager to spend to the ceiling, even if the rules allow for it. So, instead of teams and fans wondering, "Who can we afford to get?," a lot of the thinking is, "Who will we have to give up?"

Locally, the focus is on Bruins defenseman Torey Krug, who gets to test the open market for the first time in an eight-year career that has been marked by excellent production at a good price. After agreeing to two straight below-market, one-year contracts, he has reached the end of a four-year, $21-million deal ($5.25 million cap hit) and, under more normal circumstances, could expect to attract offers for perhaps a couple of million dollars more, likely over a longer term. (Krug is 29.) There have been reports of a Bruins offer worth in the neighborhood of $6.5 million for six years, but Krug appears to be committed to seeing whether or not another team will come up with something better.

Bruins general manager Don Sweeney floated the possibility this week that Krug might circle back to the B’s after testing the market. Ordinarily, this would be ludicrously wishful thinking, but at a point in time where so many teams will be so careful about what they spend, it may not be entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Krug isn’t the only free agent on the Bruins’ list, which is defense-heavy. It also includes 43-year-old captain Zdeno Chara, who wants to continue playing and has proved willing to accept one-year deals (two in a row) for short money ($2 million last year, down from almost $7 million in 2017-18), but the absence of a deal so far indicates that the B’s have some questions about how and where he would fit on the blue-line depth chart.

Matt Grzelcyk ($1.4 million last year) becomes a restricted free agent with arbitration rights.

That’s half of the Bruins’ top six on defense, and all of them play on the left side. Only five defensemen are under contract for next season, with two (Jeremy Lauzon, Connor Clifton) still graduating to full-time roles, and veteran John Moore used more for depth. Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo are the only proven, bona fide full-timers with deals in place through 2020-21. (Things are a little more settled at forward, where unrestricted free agent Jake DeBrusk needs a new contract, and UFA Joakim Nordstrom has been told to test the market.)

Clearly, something has to give, and the Bruins, per capfriendly.com, have more than $14 million in cap space available. But with that cap figure not likely to rise, and perhaps even fall, until some breakthrough in the COVID-19 situation makes it possible to bring paying customers back into TD Garden, the B’s also have to plan past 2020-21, when far more of their players are to become free agents. They include goalies Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak. No. 2 center David Krejci and No. 4 center Sean Kuraly are among those who will be unrestricted free agents. Carlo, Ondrej Kase and Nick Ritchie will become restricted free agents.

It’s a fascinating situation and the Bruins aren’t the only team facing it. All the buyouts across the league have made a huge number of replacement players available, but replacements don’t necessarily make a team better than originals. The B’s also have to keep in mind that there’s not much time left for longtime standouts like Patrice Bergeron, linemate Brad Marchand, Krejci, Rask, and Chara (if he returns) to challenge for a Stanley Cup to go with the 2011 edition, so any low-cost replacements have to be able to perform at high efficiency.

The pool opens at noon Friday. Time will tell how long, and how much money, will be needed to empty it.