B’s Enter Free-Agency With Big Needs & Little Money

Ray Whitney could be the veteran winger the Bruins need, but can't afford.

It was a rainy day in March when the Bruins disappointed their fans by failing to pull the trigger on a trade that would’ve brought some much needed scoring up front to bolster a pedestrian offense. Despite a near-run to the Eastern Conference Finals amidst this lack of scoring, the B’s would once again come up short on home-ice and begin to look towards next season in hopes of ending an approaching-40 year long Stanley Cup drought. Perhaps the last straw in what’s now become a midlife crisis in search of Lord Stanley, the changes came swift and with no delay in Boston.

The Bruins began by promoting Vice-President and Bruins legend Cam Neely to President of the club and later traded their fan-appointed scapegoat Dennis Wideman to Florida in exchange for former-30-goal scorer Nathan Horton and bruising fourth-liner Greg Campbell. Then, as rumors regarding essentially any Boston Bruins player not named Tuukka Rask began to swirl, the NHL Draft came and went with the Bruins nabbing Tyler Seguin while standing pat on the trade front outside of Vladimir Sobotka‘s departure for St. Louis.

Six days later, no much in Boston has changed. With an echoing silence presenting itself on both the Marc Savard and Tim Thomas fronts after a busy weekend in Los Angeles, the Boston Bruins will once again head into the vast sea of free-agency tomorrow with little money to spare with a lot of holes to plug.

Starting up front the B’s have 10 forwards signed to the club for 2010-11 if you include Providence Bruins forward and part-time NHLer Brad Marchand, perhaps a lock as the 13th skater this upcoming season. Even with the acquisition of Horton and the currently albeit unsigned but likely 2010-11 B’s Campbell and Seguin, the Bruins will need to find bodies to replace unrestricted free-agents to be Steve Begin and Miroslav Satan. With Begin already likely to be replaced by Campbell, the scoring void from the expected departure of Satan could provide the need for a short-term and low-risk veteran in the Hub.

Striking out during the trade deadline in their efforts to get Ray Whitney out of Carolina in March, Whitney, who turns 39 next May, could present a best-case -scenario for the Bruins’ search for some help on the wings. Scoring 21 goals in 80 games for the Hurricanes this past season, Whitney’s domino is likely fall once the market is set for that left-winger named Kovalchuk along with fellow goal-scorers such as Alexander Frolov, who could also be eyed by the Bruins if available.

Evidently testing the market, it appears that Bill Guerin‘s days as a Pittsburgh Penguin are near an end. Scoring four goals and finishing with nine points in 11 playoff games for the Pens, Guerin could be pursued by Boston as the veteran winger 42-year old Mark Recchi has been asking for to join him in Boston. Guerin spent two seasons in Boston where the Massachusetts-native put up 129 points in 142 games, including 69 goals. While his best days are certainly behind him, there’s no doubt that the soon-to-be 40-year old could provide some leadership and goal-scoring touch the 2009-10 Boston Bruins seemed to lack.

However, given the Bruins’ lack of cap-space and currently-jumbled cast of restricted-free-agents awaiting new deals, expect Boston’s immediate impact (if any) to be on the blue-line.

Currently without defensive-anchor Mark Stuart signed to a new deal, the Bruins’ defense is weak at best and in serious need of a bottom-pairing bolstering. In a jam-packed crop of defensemen in this year’s pool, a few names to keep an eye could ring a bell from years past such as Nick Boynton, Paul Mara, and even defensemen-turned-part-time-announcer Aaron Ward–all of whom head into today’s festivities without a team to call their home. Regardless of familiarity with the city and organization, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if Chiarelli and the B’s elect to go younger and more mobile with their choice if they are to sign a player at any point this week.

So as teams prepare for bidding wars and get their chips ready, just where do the Bruins stand?

Well let’s picture a big party where everyone is throwing money around, and even using it to lit their cigars, the cigars of course being a ‘puck-moving defensemen’ in this instance. Now look at them, and then see the guy on the ground trying to piece the burning money back together? That guy is the Boston Bruins. Still without a suitor for the five-million dollar man known as Timmy, and still without a trade-partner for that play-making center who wears #91, the Bruins are essentially handcuffed by their own contracts and impending free-agents, all of whom have yet to sign tenders offered to them for a new deal.

Now the B’s could make a minor move and sign someone such as New Hampshire’s own Freddy Meyer from the Islanders to be their seventh defensemen for near league-minimum, or they could wait until September in hopes that names such as Maxim Afinogenov, Pavol Demitra, Ruslan Fedotenko, or even Alex Tanguay remain in the NHL’s unemployment office, but in that instance wouldn’t you just prefer somebody like Jordan Caron or Joe Colborne step into the NHL?

Either way, the B’s will head into the free-agency period as the patient team, the play-it-safe team, and that’s not by choice. And while that’s not always been a bad thing for the Bruins, if you’re hoping to reel in that big fish when the clock strikes 12 tomorrow, I’d have to question the bait you’re using.

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