The Boston Bruins are a team in transition. When general manager Don Sweeney pushed all of his chips to the center of the table during the 2022-23 season, he knew that it would come with a hefty debt to be paid later. That bill is due now and the Bruins are already starting to feel the pressure. The salary cap not going up this year, to significant overage charges in the form of $4.5 million as a result of signing Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci to bonus-laden deals and more, the Bruins are being forced to retool their historic roster from a season ago.
This has led to the team trading away players like Taylor Hall and the rights to Nick Foligno, not retaining free agents Tyler Bertuzzi (Toronto Maple Leafs), Dmitry Orlov (Carolina Hurricanes), Garnett Hathaway (Philadelphia Flyers) and Connor Clifton (Buffalo Sabres). It’s also led the team to sign budget players to fill holes; players like James van Riemsdyk, Milan Lucic, Kevin Shattenkirk, Patrick Brown and newly-acquired forward Jesper Boqvist.
Boqvist, a 2017 second-round pick of the New Jersey Devils, has scored 28 goals and 55 points in 189 NHL games thus far. The left-shot forward has the versatility to play at all three forward positions and fits exactly what the Bruins are looking for this season; a cheap player who has the ability to impact the team in multiple roles. While Boqvist may never become a high-end player in the NHL, he has the ability to be a well-rounded bottom-six player who can move around the lineup and contribute in ways that extend beyond the scoresheet.
Bruins Looking for Cost-Effective NHL Bodies
The Bruins are potentially losing one of, if not both Bergeron and Krejci this offseason and are already pressed right up against the salary cap ceiling with restricted free agents Jeremy Swayman and Trent Frederic left to re-sign. This means that shoring up the remainder of the roster with inexpensive players is the only option the Bruins have this offseason. They’ll also need to shore up their center depth with players like Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle likely becoming the team’s top two center options. Boqvist satisfies both of these needs as he is a very inexpensive player, signed to a one-year, $775,000 contract, and is more than capable of playing center for the team.
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Boqvist is the definition of a low-risk, high-reward type player who has more upside than he’s necessarily shown thus far in the NHL. He’s scored 10 goals in each of the last two seasons and has the ability to provide some depth goals for the Bruins who will need to find scoring in one way or another. Boqvist may or may not work himself into the long-term plans of the Bruins if he can have a successful 2022-23 campaign, but the most likely result of this signing is that he gives the team another body who can be slotted into the lineup on any given night as someone with a proven NHL experience.
Boqvist should probably already be penciled into a lineup spot for the Bruins with this one-way contract, but there’s no guarantee that he sees consistent game action over any other player if somebody else outplays him. It’s a good incentive for Boqvist to consistently give it his all out on the ice and for the players around him to do their best to force their way into the lineup.
In a season that will undoubtedly yield worse regular season results than the 2022-23 season, the Bruins will be looking to remain competitive as they try and scrape their way to a better salary cap situation the following offseason. This season should be about finding hungry players who can help weather the storm and get to a better situation in 2023-24. With basically no bad contracts on the book, the Bruins have a lot of opportunities next offseason to properly build a team around the likes of David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy.
