Now bonus is an onus

Wrinkle in cap creating squeeze

By Fluto Shinzawa, Globe Staff  |  October 7, 2008

Today the Bruins will announce their final cuts as they aim for the 23-player roster maximum.

General manager Peter Chiarelli has said that his primary job leading up to final cuts is to put forth the best team possible. But while player evaluation is the most significant factor in roster-building, the salary cap is the framework around which the Bruins base their decisions - specifically, the performance bonuses that entry-level players carry.

In the first three years of the post-lockout NHL, bonuses (available to youngsters on first contracts and players 35 and older) could be counted toward a 7.5 percent cushion over the cap. But this season, because the NHL Players Association has the option of terminating the CBA, the cushion has been eliminated and all potential bonuses, even the ones unlikely to be achieved, must count toward the cap number.

It's one of the reasons former top-five pick Blake Wheeler, despite being one of the Bruins' best forwards in camp, is on the bubble between Boston and Providence.

Wheeler's base salary is capped at $875,000. But with bonuses figured in, his annual cap hit for this year and next could be $2.825 million - standard pay for a skilled forward selected fifth overall in the 2004 draft. In comparison, the annual cap number for Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin, the No. 2 pick in 2004, was $2.85 million before the Penguins extended the center.

Anaheim, facing a similar cap crunch, assigned forward Bobby Ryan, the No. 2 pick behind Sidney Crosby in 2005, to its AHL club in Iowa. Ryan had performed well in camp, but his cap number (just south of $2 million per year) was a factor.

So while Wheeler's number is in line with his comparables, the 22-year-old's hit is putting the squeeze on the cap-tight Bruins. They must decide what to do with the underperforming Peter Schaefer and his $2.1 million cap hit, far too steep for a player who was a fourth-liner and a healthy scratch for part of last season.

They must also determine whether they're willing to lose grinders like Jeremy Reich and Nate Thompson by placing them on waivers and risking other teams picking them up for nothing.

Phil the kill

The Boston coaching staff recognizes all the skills that Phil Kessel brings to his team: game-breaking speed, a checkers-game worth of moves, and a whip-fast release. Now, for the first time, Kessel's coaches are determining whether he can apply his tools to the penalty kill.

In his first two NHL seasons, Kessel saw a total of 11:09 of shorthanded ice time, an average of four ticks on the penalty kill per game. But in Sunday's preseason-ending 5-4 shootout victory over Washington, 1:34 of Kessel's 19:04 of ice time took place while the Bruins were a man down against the skilled Capitals power play. During one penalty kill, coach Claude Julien deployed Kessel along with shorthanded specialist Stephane Yelle.

As of now, Kessel is projected to skate on the No. 2 line alongside Marco Sturm and Patrice Bergeron, and he's also expected to serve on the second power-play unit. But he might also get some PK action, depending on the situation. The Bruins want him to use his speed to pressure opposing point men and perhaps slip past them for shorthanded scoring chances.

Around the league, defense-first veterans such as Anaheim's Samuel Pahlsson and Rob Niedermayer are examples of traditional penalty killers. Yelle and P.J. Axelsson are expected to be Boston's busiest penalty-killers, but Kessel's speed could make him more of a scoring threat than his older teammates.

"In Phil's case, he's pretty quick," said Julien. "We don't want to overutilize players. But at the same time, he's got the qualities to be a good penalty killer.

"He's got speed. He can put pressure on guys and also be an offensive threat. We're looking at that aspect of it. If Phil can do a good job there, it just gives him more ice time. It's to his advantage and our advantage if he does it well."

Mile-high practice

On mornings prior to road games, the Bruins usually practice at Ristuccia Arena, then travel in the afternoon. Tomorrow, however, they'll fly to Denver in the morning and practice at the Pepsi Center in the afternoon to get used to the thinner air. They open against Colorado Thursday night . . . Based on the preseason finale, the Bruins will send out Bergeron, Sturm, Zdeno Chara, Michael Ryder, and Marc Savard on the No. 1 power-play unit. Kessel, David Krejci, Chuck Kobasew, Andrew Ference, and Dennis Wideman will be featured on the second unit.

Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com