Prior to the arbitration hearing, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli was confident he would be able to do just that despite the cap commitments already on the books. With Wheeler awarded a reasonable price tag — considering the current market for goal-scorers — that task should be less taxing than feared, though some difficult decisions still remain ahead.
"We’re tight at the cap," said Chiarelli earlier this month. "We’ll be able to put Blake in the mix. Then we have the summer cap space and we’ll see where we go from there as it applies to the start of the year."
Teams are allowed to exceed the cap by 10 percent during the offseason, a temporary upper limit of $65.34 million. The Bruins will also get a reprieve at the start of the season with Marco Sturm expected to be placed on long-term injured reserve as he recovers from knee surgery. He’s expected to be out until at least mid-November. In simplest terms, the Bruins are spared his $3.5 million cap hit until then, though the exact formula for applying the LTIR exemption is more complicated. Chiarelli even joked earlier this summer that it would a take a three-hour tutorial to fully explain the nuances of the rule, reducing it simply to the statement of "I’ll have to do something before Marco returns."
But how much maneuvering will Chiarelli need to do to get Boston under the cap? As usual, CapGeek.com provides essential reading to anyone seeking the lowdown on the business side of the game. But even the wonderful folks at that site don’t provide a complete picture, as there are still so many moving parts to consider.
For example, CapGeek.com has the Bruins with just $12,229 of cap space remaining without Wheeler and top pick Tyler Seguin included. Wheeler is almost sure to be retained at his new $2.2 million cap hit, while Seguin should get the rookie max of a $900,000 base salary plus bonuses that could push his total hit to $3.75 million, which is what first overall selection Taylor Hall received from Edmonton earlier this month.
"I’m not going to comment on specifics of the negotiations,” said Ian Pulver, Seguin’s agent. "We’ve had some discussions and everything has been positive so far. It’s hard to say when [a deal will be finalized]."
CapGeek.com’s figures include Sturm’s full hit and lists Adam McQuaid ($575,000 cap hit) as a seventh defenseman, but doesn’t provide for a spare forward. Brad Marchand ($821,667) is the favorite for that role, but the Bruins could save some money with a minimum salary 13th forward like Jeremy Reich ($500,000).
They could also go without a seventh defenseman, though they’d risk losing McQuaid. He has to clear waivers to be sent down, and they would still need to call someone up if anyone on the blue line hurt. With Andrew Ference having missed 23, 35 and 31 games the last three years, Boston probably can’t afford to go with a skeleton defense.
Obviously, barring further long-term injuries, someone will have to go before Sturm returns. That’s why Marc Savard ($4.007 million) and Tim Thomas ($5 million) have been the subject of so many trade rumors all summer despite their no-trade clauses. Michael Ryder ($4 million) could also be moved to free up enough space without any other deletions, but his struggles last year combined with his high cap number make dealing him difficult.
There won’t be any easy answers for Chiarelli, but things could have been made substantially more difficult if Wheeler had been awarded a higher salary. It’s unlikely that the Bruins would walk away from Wheeler’s decision, as giving up a talented, albeit sometimes frustrating, young forward like him would be questionable asset management. But something still has to give to get the Bruins under the cap, if not by opening night, then by the time Sturm is ready to return.
