Boston Bruins: Is the Stanley Cup window closing?

Due to salary cap concerns and an aging core, the Boston Bruins may struggle to stay a powerhouse in the National Hockey League.

As an original six team, the Boston Bruins have been a dominant force in the National Hockey League since the beginning. With names like Bobby Orr, Phil Esposito, Ray Bourque, Zdeno Chara, and many others, the Bruins have been a team that defines excellence.

In 95 seasons, the Bruins have made the playoffs 75 times, winning six Stanley Cups, with the last coming back in 2011. The Bruins made it back to the Stanley Cup Final a few years later in 2013, where the team blew a lead and lost in the final moments of game 6 against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Last season, the Bruins were ever so close to their seventh Stanley Cup, but lost in the finals to the St. Louis Blues in seven games. Continuing where the left off a year prior, the Bruins sit at the stoppage of play with a record of 44-14-12, which is good for the most points in the entire league with 100. And there are rumors being thrown around that if the season does not resume, the Bruins will be named Stanley Cup Champions.

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Now that has yet to be determined, but regardless this team’s window to win again is closing. Just like we saw with the Blackhawks and the Los Angeles Kings, being dominant year after year is possible, but eventually time runs out, especially due to issues with staying under the salary cap.

Looking at the books, courtesy of CapFriendly, the Bruins will have somewhere between $10 million and $15 million in salary cap space. This upcoming offseason, the team has four unrestricted free agents in forward Joakim Nordstrom, goaltender Jaroslav Halak, defenseman Torey Krug, and Chara. Due to the financial issues, Nordstrom is likely walking, and Krug may be on the move as well. Chara will most likely sign a team-friendly deal, as I doubt he is interested in playing elsewhere.

Now the problem becomes what to do with the team’s restricted free agents. Forward Jake DeBrusk is having another strong year with 19 goals and 25 assists, and only being 23, has a bright future ahead of him. That being said, he will need to be re-signed which will most likely have an annual cap hit around $4 million a total worth of $16 million over four years.

But what that also means is that the team may not be able to afford defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, with potential at losing two starting defensemen. 23-year old forward Anders Bjork has not made that big of a difference for this Bruins team with just 9 goals and 10 assists in 58 games and could walk as well.

In order to create some spending money, forward Charlie Coyle, who is making $5.25 million per year for another six seasons could be dealt and the team could use a compliance buyout on center David Krejci ($7.25 mil, one year remaining) or on defenseman John Moore ($2.75 mil, three years remaining).

The Boston Bruins core players of Zdeno Chara, Tuuka Rask, Patrice Bergeron, and Brad Marchand are not getting any younger. Captain Chara is finishing off yet another season. Due to his work out regiment, and his ability to stay clear of major injuries, who knows how long the captain can continue playing for.

This season, the 6’9″ defenseman only lit the lamp five times with nine assists, identically matching his statistics from last season. And even with his age getting up there, Chara has averaged 21:01 minutes per game, a mark that had started to decrease ever so slowly since his prime in the 2006-07 season in which he was averaging 27:58 minutes per game, which is absolutely unreal.

But with every year that passes, we see Chara become less of a physical player, as his hits statistics are not where they use to be. Back in the 2017-18 season, Chara registered 141 hits, but this season only 78. To go along with this stat, we also have seen him force fewer turnovers than in the past, but has seen his turnovers spike more recently.

He is no longer that dominant defenseman he once was and he is not as much of a factor offensively. While his career may not be over, his ability to help the team like he once was is bleak. Now with Tuukka Rask as their backstop, this team can be successful every year he is still in the league. So how can the Bruins window be closing?

Well, the sad truth is that Rask’s career can be coming to a close sooner than later. Joe Haggarty of NBC Sports wrote an article about Rask and his subtle hints that retirement may be coming sooner than later.

Rask, 33, was in the middle of having his best year sine 2012, with a 26-8-6 record, a .929 save percentage and a goals-against-average of 2.12.

With two years left on his deal, Rask can look back on his NHL career, and be quite satisfied winning the elusive Stanley Cup, a Vezina Trophy in 2014, with potentially another one this year, as well as being voted into the All-Star game twice (2017, 2020).

We have seen goaltenders in the past try to play past their prime, most noticeably Martin Brodeur who struggled to end his career, as well as what is going on with Henrik Lundqvist in New York, who has seen his playtime decrease due to the arrival of younger talent.

Maybe Rask wants to avoid all that and go out on top. However, if he does leave, that creates a big hole for general manager to Don Sweeney to fill. And there are options out there following this season, such as Robin Lehner and Braden Holtby, but they come with a price tag and are not Rask.

Alternate captain Patrice Bergeron has been around for 16 seasons and in his age 34 season, he is having quite a strong one. With 31 goals and 24 assists, winning 58.2 percent of faceoffs, Bergeron clearly is not done being a consistent weapon for the Bruins.

While he has taken a step back from a year prior in regards to overall points, he is still a weapon. But again age plays a factor, and with two years left on his deal, we would hope he can continue to be this strong force in the lineup but will need more support from other forwards to help carry the offensive load.

Speaking of offensive weapons, fan-favorite, and most hated player to everyone else is Brad Marchand, who is in his prime at age 31.

And even though he has put together a 28 goal season, with 59 assists to go along with that, this has been actually a down year. Assuming all 82 regular-season games were played, Marchand would surely have reached the 30-goal mark for the fourth time in his 11-year career.

And when I say down year, I am comparing it to his career season of 2018-19 in which he hit the 100 point mark.

But Marchand has had problems with his temper in the past, resulting in plenty of suspensions and fines. And while you could say these things are in the past, if the Bruins struggle to play to what we have seen in the past, we may see that temper flare-up due to aggravation.

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This league is getting younger, faster, and stronger every year. The Bruins are tied for the 6th oldest team in the NHL with an average age of 29.7. The question becomes if the Bruins are able to get under that salary cap, is their new team going to be able to keep up with the younger and stronger teams.

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