Stop us if you've heard this before, but the Boston Bruins are in need of salary cap space.
They have just $10.9 million in cap space with 14 players under contract. They have nine more roster spots to fill.
Trading players is the easiest way to create cap space. Choosing which players to move is the hard part, and it typically makes sense to dip into the areas of your roster that have the most depth.
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Goaltender is one of the Bruins' deepest positions. Linus Ullmark just won the Vezina Trophy after leading the NHL in wins, save percentage and GAA last season. His backup, Jeremy Swayman, ranked fourth in both save percentage and GAA. Swayman is a restricted free agent this summer, and if he re-signs with a contract that carries a salary cap hit of $3-4 million per season -- which would be comparable to similar RFA goalies at his age -- then the Bruins would have around $8-9 million of salary cap space (Ullmark's cap figure is $5 million) tied up in their goalies.
For a team that's facing a significant cap crunch, can the Bruins afford to pay that much money to their goalies?
"Well, we’ve been pretty fortunate over the years with what our total cap hit for goaltending has been compared to some other teams," Bruins president Cam Neely told reporters Tuesday in Nashville -- the site of this week's 2023 NHL Draft.
"We’ll see where everything plays out with Swayman, but there are certain areas where you look at goaltending, bottom six, you’re going to have to pay your top players, that’s just the way it is. So, it’s a matter of how you allocate and how you think you should allocate the bottom part of your lineup, your bottom pair D and your two goaltenders."
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney was asked Tuesday about potentially running it back with the Ullmark/Swayman tandem for another season.
"Again, congrats to Linus, the Vezina Trophy winner. Jeremy was a pretty good sidekick in winning the Jennings," Sweeney told reporters. "We were really good in the regular season, we didn’t play as well as a team and they are part of that in the playoffs and we fell woefully short of what we set out to do.
"I think we’re in a terrific spot, if we do decide (to run it back) and that is what our indications are right now, unless something else materialized between now and then. It doesn’t mean I won’t -- you guys know me well enough, I have to do my job as to what might present, and the goalie market is an interesting one right now."
Ullmark makes the most sense to trade if the Bruins are interested in making a move at that position. He just won the Vezina Trophy, so his value might never be higher than it is right now. His $5 million cap hit isn't small but it's not too large for most teams to absorb. Swayman has the potential to be a top 10 goalie for a long time and he's also five years younger than Ullmark.
It's also important to note that Ullmark has a modified no-trade clause in his contract. He can submit a 16-team no-trade list, per CapFriendly. So, he does have some say in where he lands if traded.
Running it back with the Ullmark/Swayman tandem is probably the Bruins' best path to being competitive next season. But the B's might not have a choice if they need cap space and there's no other way to acquire it.