Bruins by the cap; Kessel a goner?

Patrick Eaves was not claimed on waivers by today's noon deadline. The Bruins are now free to complete their buyout of Eaves, which will have an annual cap hit of $258,333.

Here is how Boston stands (courtesy Boston.com) under the salary cap after the trade of Aaron Ward, the buyout of Eaves and the signing of Derek Morris.

Forwards
Marc Savard, $5 million

Patrice Bergeron, $4.75 million

Michael Ryder, $4 million

David Krejci, $3.75 million

Marco Sturm, $3.5 million

Chuck Kobasew, $2,333,333 million

Glen Murray, $1,383,333 million (buyout)

Mark Recchi, $1 million

Blake Wheeler, $875,000

Milan Lucic, $850,000

Steve Begin, $850,000

Byron Bitz, $687,500

Peter Schaefer, $566,667 (buyout)

Shawn Thornton, $516,667

Patrick Eaves, $258,333 (buyout)

* Phil Kessel is a restricted free agent.

Defensemen
Zdeno Chara, $7.5 million

Dennis Wideman, $3.875 million

Derek Morris, $3.3 million

Matt Hunwick, $1.45 million

Andrew Ference, $1.4 million

Mark Stuart, $1.3 million

Johnny Boychuk, $500,000

Goalies
Tim Thomas, $5 million

Tuukka Rask, $850,000

Current cap hit: $55,495,833.

The Bruins have $1,304,167 million remaining in cap space. This clearly is not enough to sign Phil Kessel. So what are the options now?

A) Trade Kessel for and other defenseman for a top of the line defenseman.

B) Trade Kessel for future draft picks.

C) Trade a forward already under contract to create room to sign Kessel. The name that would make the most sense here would be Marco Sturm, just because of the contract size. Sturm's $3.5 million, plus the $1.3 million from the available cap would give Boston $4.8 million to try and ink Kessel.

D) Another team can sweep in and sign Kessel to an offer-sheet and the Bruins can decide not to match the offer.

There are no indications that Boston is making a serious effort to get Kessel inked. It's surprising that no other teams have made an offer for Kessel.

Peter Chiarelli said he thinks he is done trading players, so that may mean he would be content in letting Kessel walk. I don't see how you can let Kessel go for nothing, but as crazy as it sounds it could happen.

So, with all of the deals going on with the Bruins, and the future of Kessel up in the air I have decided to start the, 'Save Kessel' drive.

Kessel is a talent that is being grossly ignored by Boston and it may come back to hurt them. In the post lockout NHL, speed kills and Kessel has it. He also is a potential year in and year out 40 goal scorer.

We will have to see how this situation ends up, but it is certainly intriguing.
SIGN KESSEL!