With Colorado beating Tampa Bay to win the Stanley Cup, the offseason is officially underway. Unsurprisingly, there was plenty of news over the past seven days which is recapped in our top stories.
Boston Gets Their Guy: While it took a lot longer than anyone really expected, the Bruins agreed on a multi-year contract extension with GM Don Sweeney. Soon after, Sweeney found his next head coach as Boston hired Jim Montgomery as their new bench boss. It will be Montgomery’s second time running an NHL bench as he was in charge for parts of two years in Dallas before being let go due to “unprofessional conduct” which Montgomery himself revealed was a battle with alcohol abuse. The Bruins will be dealing with several key injuries to start next season including Charlie McAvoy and Brad Marchand so Montgomery will have his work cut out for him early on until those players return. Dallas did well with Montgomery at the helm with a .579 points percentage but expectations will be high after they let Bruce Cassidy (who had a .672 points percentage with the Bruins) go earlier this offseason.
Tampa Makes Early Moves: Just days after falling to the Avalanche, the Lightning were back in the news. First, they found a way to keep Nick Paul around, handing the forward a seven-year contract that carries an AAV of $3.15MM with some trade protection. The 27-year-old fit in quite well after being acquired at the trade deadline from Ottawa, spending time on the second and third lines both down the stretch and in the playoffs. Knowing they needed to fit in that contract and their desire to keep winger Ondrej Palat, GM Julien BriseBois then convinced defenseman Ryan McDonagh to waive his no-trade clause and moved him to Nashville for blueliner Philippe Myers and AHL forward Grant Mismash. The move frees up $4.2MM in cap space as it stands but if Tampa Bay was to have a change of heart and buy out Myers, that could jump to $7.3MM as buying out the 25-year-old would actually give the Lightning a cap credit for next season. Nashville gets a solid veteran blueliner in McDonagh to bolster their top four and take on the remaining four years of his deal at a $6.75MM cap hit.
Fiala To Los Angeles: Minnesota’s salary cap situation is well-known. The increased dead cap charge stemming from the buyouts on Ryan Suter and Zach Parise was going to force their hand with Kevin Fiala. While they wanted to keep him, everyone knew they couldn’t afford to. That…
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