< Back to Front Page Text size – +

Stepping back

Email|Link|Comments (9) Posted by Fluto Shinzawa, Globe Staff July 1, 2008 11:26 PM

By adding Michael Ryder's $4 million annual cap hit to the mix, the Bruins are at $54,361,666. They must still add Dennis Wideman's number (at least $3 million annually) to their total, which would put them over the $56.7 million cap ceiling. The Bruins must dip below the number by the start of the regular season.

"We'll look to improve our team, but it's unlikely that I'll continue in the free agent market unless we made a trade or move some money," GM Peter Chiarelli said.

While Chiarelli may back away from any signings, he said he'll remain involved in trade talks.

"If there are deals out there that will improve your team, you have to make sure you can participate in them," Chiarelli said. "You don't want to miss out on those."

* Chiarelli said that if he doesn't make any more moves, he'd be happy with his roster going into training camp.

* The Bruins had a two-year offer on the table for Glen Metropolit, but the center signed a two-year, $2 million deal with Philadelphia instead. It is the first multi-year deal of Metropolit's NHL career. "Glen was a real good soldier for us last year," Chiarelli said. "We made him an offer, but at his age and his point of his career, I don't begrudge him going out and testing the market. He's a good man. I'm happy to see he got what he wanted. I wish him the best. We've got some young guys that can fill in. That's part of our plan here. I don't feel badly about it because Glen's a good person and he got a deal he liked."

* The deals that went to defensemen ($7.1 million annually for Brian Campbell, $6.5 million for Wade Redden, $4.1 million for Mark Streit) showed the lack of quality puck-movers and the price that teams are willing to pay for them. "There were some deals on defense that were a lot higher than I would have thought," Chiarelli said.

tags Dennis Wideman, free agency, Glen Metropolit, Michael Ryder, salary cap

« Back to Front Page

9 comments so far...

buying out Schaefer will give us enough to resign Wideman...then this team will be ready to go.

Posted by Harry July 1, 08 11:57 PM

Trade Schaefer for a draft pick. Or send Schaefer off, let Wideman go and get Rolston. LA might be a good fit for PS and Phoenix could use another veteran.

Posted by b&g bleeder in newbury July 2, 08 01:08 AM

I gotta say that Ryder is likely to respond to Julien. Both of them know exactly what they can expect from each other. Even though fans were left wondering if there was more to his benching than just his lack of goal production, part of the reason for that could be because of his character... Never once did you hear anything negative from him while in a position that would have likely had a lot of other players howling at the media.

Good luck to him... Well? Except when he plays the Habs!

BTW: I went to Boston for game 4. I had a blast and the Boston fans were great.

Posted by connecticutman1 July 2, 08 01:24 AM

Schaefer? Don't you mean Murray?

Posted by Char July 2, 08 02:08 AM

There's no way that Schaefer would play in LA. Wideman's gotta stay, Rolston just got inked to NJ.

Murray has been on the bubble for the past 2 years

Posted by Kyle July 2, 08 09:48 AM

Ryder? I don't understand. I live in Montreal. I saw that guy too many games. He has no skating, no hands, can't move the puck. $4 million for that guy. Is Mike O'Connell back?

Posted by NorthBruins July 2, 08 09:51 AM

Signing Ryder was a horrible move, the guy had a horrible season in 07/08, i don't care if he was in the dog-house, he only scored 14 goals and picked up only 17 assists...so what do the Bruins do? they throw $4 million a season at him for 3 seasons! And how about locker-room chemistry? How are the guys going recieve this bum after losing so many games to him over the past 4 years. Chiarelli said this guy is a "shoot-first" RW, well how come he only pulled the trigger 134 times in 70 games last season. Way to destroy the momentum the B's built up last season with a late hour desperation move....Ryder must be our Hossa conciliation prize.

I'm disgusted by this move, even more so after all th progress that has been made recently.

Posted by James Byrnes July 2, 08 10:00 AM

Anyone notice the irony of this article title...or was "Stepping Back" the intention. Certainly not a step forward, maybe sideways.
Why is Murray still around? Waste of money, waste of space, eat the 1.5 mil or whatever for buying him out, just for the sake of the fans' sanity.

Posted by Sean Dempsey July 2, 08 10:15 AM

Great move by Boston, so Ryder had an off year, he was our leading goal scorer for the last three years. Montreal has a "Hab"it of letting potential star fowards leave for little, names such as Riberio, Leclair should ring a bell. With Boob Gainey as our GM, no wonder fans at HABS INSIDE/OUT are always ranting. How can we even consider this "off season" a success, Gainey had subtracted a proven scorer like Ryder and our best scoring defenseman in Striet and added only Tanguay. For a team that almost lost to "lowly" Boston, AND did get embarrassed by Philadelphia in five games, how has this off season made us any better. Fire Gainey is what Habs fans are CHanting now.

Posted by The Teacher July 2, 08 10:51 AM