With Steve Begin, Mark Recchi, and Byron Bitz in the fold, the 2009-10 roster is rounding into form. Here's where the Bruins stand:Current cap hit: $52,487,500.
My Take: The Bruins have $4,312,500 of cap space under the $56.8 million ceiling with Kessel and Hunwick yet to sign. It would be real tough to sign both guys under the current cap number.
The only way to do it would be to sign Kessel to a one-year, $3 million deal and give Hunwick a shorter deal for $1.3 million per. Now, you may say Kessel would never take a $3 million deal. Not so fast. With the way the economy is right now, you could pitch the deal to Kessel and push the fact that he will be a UFA next season and can cash in anywhere. UFA's get much better contracts than RFA's traditionally and Kessel may find that intriguing.
The other scenario would be to trade Kessel for Tomas Kaberle. Boston wants another defenseman and Kaberle would be an upgrade. Kaberle has a $4.25 million cap hit, and would just squeak in under Boston's available cap room.
Now, this would mean the end of Kessel and Hunwick in Boston, but you would have a better back end and still a solid forward core.
You could still line up like so.
Lucic - Savard - Ryder
Sturm - Krejci - Wheeler
Recchi - Bergeron - Kobasew
Bitz - Begin - Thornton
Chara - Ward
Kaberle - Wideman
Ference - Stuart
Thomas
Rask
The odds are that keep Kessel or not, Boston will be making a deal. Stay tuned.
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