Well, Monday came and went and there was no movement on Torey Krug’s situation. Whether that’s good news or Don Sweeney just taking time to weigh the best offer, we don’t know. What we do know now is that there definitely was a final offer to Krug’s camp.
The final offer from the Bruins was for 6 years and $6.5 million per, according to TSN’s Frank Seravalli.
Sounds like there has indeed been significant interest in teams trading for Torey Krug's rights (@RearAdBsBlog on the case). My belief is last offer from #NHLBruins to Krug's camp was 6 years x $6.5 million.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 28, 2020
Ty Anderson points out that the salary is a slight increase of $1.25 million from Krug’s current pay. Sweeney arrived at a cap number that the B’s can obviously afford while still signing others. And the term isn’t horrible; at the end of the contract Krug would be 35 years old.
So does Krug want more money or more term? That’s the big question. My guess is that he’d be fine with the term if the money were larger. Krug has stated in past interviews that he’s taken team friendly deals and left money on the table because he wanted to stay with the Bruins. He also stated that he didn’t want a short-deal term because he’s also done the bridge deal in the past. So, while he says things about being in the right situation, like Boston, it’s obvious that the issue must be the money aspect. A six-year deal will likely see him through the end of his career; being a smaller build, his body will wear down after all the hits and physicality. It’s just a fact of life. So, maybe $6.5 million per year might not be ideal, but he certainly wasn’t completely lowballed. I struggle to see a team right now that can afford him at more than that amount other than cellar-dwellers like Ottawa, Detroit, and New Jersey. Those are not the right situations at all.
So, we’re on Krugwatch for another day.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are the Stanley Cup Champions for 2019-2020. We all know how I feel about that. What you may not know: I find solace in the Lightning winning now knowing that they will have to sell off significant parts of their team because they only have $5.3 million in cap space next season with 8 contracts they need to sign.
I’ll sneak this in before Boomer’s walk.
I thought the Bruins would end up offering $35M / 5y. I figured the B’s didn’t want that 6th year but that Torey would probably like $7M / 7y. They wouldn’t be that close because it’s still 2 years and $10M off. I feel for Torey but paying him more than Bergy/ Marchy/ Pasta is a mistake. I think $39M / 6y is reasonable but he could get more from a worse team.
This brings up some stuff that’s been circulating in my head.
It’s a strange place the Bruins are in right now, because their top 3 forwards are all a little underpaid in general and have been performing like superstars who could garner contracts on the open market that are completely impractical.
So now the refrain is “how do you pay /player X/ more than Patrice Bergeron?” and not “How is Patrice Bergeron getting paid less than $8M/yr?”. This situation can’t really last, can it? At some point the dam is going to break, and bigger contracts are going to happen, and it’s probably going to happen for a guy who isn’t 88-37-63.
Tuukka, Krejci & McAvoy are all getting new contracts before Pasta & Marchand (Bergy is aligned with McAvoy). If the B’s bring in a free agent in the next 2 seasons, who knows what that player gets. Do the Bruins enter cap-hell when McAvoy & Bergeron re-up for $8M+ apiece?
There may be nothing in it but I can’t help but notice a correlation between teams with one (or more) huge contracts and that team being not great.
Look at the top ten cap hits:
1 McDavid – Oilers (nuff said)
2 Panarin – Rangers (Nah)
3 Matthews (also 5 Tavares and 7 Marner) – Leafs 8th in the East in Reg season
4 Karlsson – Sharks are total shite
6 Doughty – Kings almost as bad as the Sharks
8 P Kane (also 9 Toews) – Chicago 12th in the West
10 Price – Habnots 12th in the East with a .500 record.
I may be oversimplifying it but do you think maybe giving out a big contract limits the team too much? Might we soon see the end of that kind of practice?
Hah! Was ranting into an the editing window about this very thing!
And by “completely impractical” I mean stuff like this:
– Matthews/Tavares/Marner: $11.6M/$11M/$10.8M
– Jonathan Toews/Patrick Kane: $10.5M/$10.5M
– Alex Ovechkin/Nick Backstrom: $9.5M/$9.2M
– Stamkos/Kucherov/Vasilievskiy: $8.5M/$9.5M/$9.5M
– Artemi Panarin: $11.6M
It’s as if teams don’t understand that this is the NHL not the NFL or MLB, and the cap is only ~$70M divided among ~24 players with no way to drop or bury bad contracts and not enough roster to hide oversized contracts among lots of entry level & journeyman contracts. The money gets used up pretty quickly – even with all $700k ELCs, your minimum theoretical spend is ~$17M – drop $30M in big forward contracts on that and you’re 2/3 of the way to the cap without populating your middle-6 or defense or starting goaltender with competitive players.
(CapFriendly says the numbers are Cap: $81.5M floor: $60.2M)
Great minds …
Tbf there are a bunch of players just outside the top ten I listed who are on top teams and earn just under $10mil cap hit – much higher than the Bs highest player, but it’s certainly a valid point.
Other than Washington and maybe Pittsburgh I can’t think of many other teams who have been so consistently contenders over the last ten years as Boston – and how much of that is because they’ve been able to hold onto the likes of Krejci, Rask, Marchand, Bergy, Krug Pasta, McAvoy and still be able to pick up players like Charlie Coyle.
I understand it is backwards logic but still even with the smaller deal for the top players on this team, I feel like there needs to be a “read the room” moment. Yes, that sucks because it means that the player in question will not be able to break that salary barrier with the team but also, keeping salaries at a reasonable rate ensures the team will be successful because you will not have to constantly shake up the group because Player X takes up 26% of the salary cap.
Morning all. Dobby will always be the champion of my heart.
Had a dream a bunch of us were at a huge library and Boomer got loose. I was able to get down the stairs ahead of him and corral him. He was a very good boy and waited very nicely for Mummy and Daddy to get down the stairs with the leash. Then I had to leave and go to the horse farm (which was also a Disney theme park) and feed my parents horses. Except I couldn’t find the horse food so I made them a caprese salad instead because it’s a known fact horses love caprese salad.
On first pass, I read “caprese salad” as “corpse salad”
I hope that horses don’t like corpse salad.
Corpse salad!!! Yum!
Well, I guess it’s better than having living things in your salad …
Ah, Boomer is a nice boy in dreams. The trick is to rub his tummy.
Caprese salad is tasty. I can see horses digging it.
Good Morning!!
Spectacular drive through the Berkshires this morning as colors are near peak.
Tampa was the best team at Bubblefest, can’t deny it. Still. Fuck them. Enjoy some cap misery.
Do the math and sign the deal, Tory. It’s a solid offer.
Work day in Monrovia.
Oh, my peeps filed for an extension on the foreclosure sale. I hope it flies, it would buy me more time.
Hi,
I’d take that deal if I were Krug. It’s about the same as what 37-88-63 are on and is he really still going to be worth that in 6 years? No guarantee.
Well done to Tampa – I do think they deserved it. Probably deserved it more last season. Still, that cap situation could screw them for years to come …
Tory should take the money. That’s a fair offer and more than I thought the Bruins would pay.
Yeah, considering the cap situation league-wide, he’s not likely to get a better offer unless _maybe_ it’s from a bottom-feeder team who are blowing things up. Were the cap growing, he could get north of $7M from someone in free agency, but now? As I’ve said before – there’s gonna be a lot of disappointed free agents this season.