Be sure to 'like' Hockeybuzz on Facebook!
Legendary winger and one-year Boston Bruin
Jarome Iginla turned 37 years old today. His gift? A three-year, $16 million contract from the Colorado Avalanche that put an end to his time with the Black-and-Gold after just a combined 90 games (78 regular season, 12 playoff). Colorado’s offer to the veteran blew Boston’s out of the water, but you can’t say that the Bruins didn’t try.
If Iginla returned for a second season with the Bruins, it would’ve been on another one-year, bonus-laden contract like the one he signed last summer. Period. The Bruins weren’t in the position to flex to a second year -- let alone a third year -- with a guy that’s on the wrong side of his 30s.
The Bruins were fully aware of that, too. They were basically prepping for his exit when asked about it at last weekend’s draft, saying that both parties ‘were big boys’ and understood that a return to Boston for No. 12 may not work out from a strictly financial standpoint. That was simply the truth.
Still, this is a monumental loss for the B’s.
In just one year with the Bruins, Iginla scored 30 goals and 61 points in 78 games. He then went on to add five goals and seven points in 12 postseason contests. But Iginla’s value to the Bruins went beyond the numbers in front your face. On Boston’s top line, Iginla was a driving force that kept
Milan Lucic and
David Krejci motivated for the full 82 plus. That was a previously unheard of belief, with week-long lackadaisical efforts and no-shows from the Lucic, Krejci, and
Nathan Horton line becoming fans’ version of an emergency root canal. (You knew it’d end at some point, typically around the postseason, but its pain was excruciating and made life hell at that very moment. OK, maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement, but you get the point.)
With his sights set on a Cup -- something that’s now eluded him in Calgary, Pittsburgh, and Boston -- a return to the Hub seemed like an easy call say, two months ago. That was before nearly four million dollars in cap penalties were heading the 2014-15 Bruins’ way, though. For Iginla, a player that’s lost significant money between two lockouts, the decision soon became finding a city where he could have the best of both worlds; he’d make some money and have a chance at his first Cup. Over in Colorado, though it’s a much harder road to the Cup, a lineup featuring young guns like Landeskog, Duchene, MacKinnon, and others presents Iginla with that opportunity over the next three years.
Like I said last week, this is a pretty fitting way for the Iginla the Bruin saga to end, huh? The dream target of B’s fans everywhere for years, the Bruins get Iginla near the 2013 trade deadline until he nixes the deal in order to go to Pittsburgh. That blows up in his face, and he comes back to Boston, basically willing to take less money to be a Bruin. Bruins fall short, bonuses are met, and Iginla wreaks millions in cap penalties. Then, just as soon as he arrived, he’s gone. Brutal. Yes, it’d be impossible for Iginla to come here in the first place without taking that deal, but it’s clear that the Bruins had a multi-year plan in place to shave bonuses off the new base as the years went on.
It’s what the Bruins did with
Mark Recchi, and what they would’ve liked to with Iginla.
But what’s done is done, and now it’s on the Bruins to find a replacement. If they even can.
There’s been a lot of chatter in regards to
Radim Vrbata, a right-shooting winger that’s hit the open market after scoring 20 goals and 51 points for the Phoenix Coyotes this past season. And while the Bruins are among the teams interested in the 33-year-old forward, the simple fact of the matter is that they don’t have the money to outbid team-x, y, or z. If Vrbata wants to be a Bruin, it’ll have to come at the risk of somebody else moving on out of town, and I really don’t think you’d see the Black-and-Gold front office willingly move pieces out of town for an unproven commodity.
Especially when they weren’t willing to do that for a guy that scored 30 goals in his first year here.
So, where do the Bruins go from here? Well, the NHL’s equivalent of the $3 DVD bin.
Perhaps try to take a flier on
Dany Heatley (a former Ottawa talent), or maybe they try and see what it’d cost to sign somebody like
Devin Setoguchi, a player that’s certainly fizzled out in Winnipeg. Both of these players stocks are at all-time lows, and could be had for around the price the Bruins were hoping to get Iginla at -- at least in terms of base salary, anyways.
It’s still early, and the Bruins aren’t known for their July 1st moves, but their issue remains the same whether they sign a guy today, an hour from now, or a week from now-- the Bruins are basically as broke as one team can be. And at the worst time to be dead broke, no less.
Big thanks to Ek and Mike Augello for having me on the HockeyBuzz Cast this afternoon.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
Join the Discussion:
»