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Boston Bruins center
Marc Savard has not played in an NHL game since Jan. 22, 2011.
That’s how it’s likely going to stay, unfortunately, too.
The 5-foot-10 playmaker has never quite recovered from the concussion woes that plagued him with the Black and Gold in 2010 and into 2011. The now 37-year-old’s Savard’s concussion issues began with a cheapshot at the hands of
Matt Cooke in Mar. 2010, and while Savard battled his way in and out of the lineup with concussion symptoms, it was an odd hit along the boards from
Matt Hunwick on that Jan. afternoon in Colorado that ultimately put an end to Savard’s career.
Since then, Savard’s contract, which comes with a cap hit just north of $4 million through the 2016-17 season, has been placed on the club’s long-term injured reserve Day 1 of the regular season. But that could be coming to change, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman
reported that the Bruins could search for a potential suitor to take the remaining two years of the contract off their hands this summer.
You saw this earlier this season when the Columbus Blue Jackets sent
Nathan Horton, another Bruin who’s unlikely to ever return to hockey, to Toronto for David Clarkson. The Bruins did something somewhat similar to this a couple of years back, too, when they sent
Tim Thomas, taking a year off from hockey, to the N.Y. Islanders to free themselves of Thomas’ contract.
This is basically a new form of cap circumvention, which ironically is what Savard’s contract, which carries an actual salary of $525,000 in the final two years, was thought to be. And it’s the actual salary versus the cap hit that could attract some potential cap-floor clubs to picking up No. 91.
But why would the Black and Gold want to move Savard if they can simply put him on their LTIR?
Well, it comes back down to what the Bruins have -- or rather haven’t -- been allowed to do in the summer and fall
because of the Savard deal. Although they’ve bothered the Bruins in mainly ‘paper’ deals than anything else, the Bruins’ inability to put Savard on the LTIR before Day 1 of the regular season has always seemed to throw a bizarre wrench of sorts into their summertime plans.
Moving Savard’s contract would be an obvious plus for the cap-crunched Bruins, as it’d simplify what’s a typically confusing cap situation for their front office, especially with shiny new contracts due for top-tier d-man
Dougie Hamilton and maybe even pending unrestricted free agent Carl Soderberg.
But the right suitor has to emerge for B’s general manager
Peter Chiarelli. In essence, it’s a trade that requires a trade partner that has a legitimate need to reach the league’s cap floor (or, for some strange reason, wants to add more salary to their books). That leads you towards low-budget clubs in the midst of a rebuild, like the Arizona Coyotes or maybe even the Buffalo Sabres.
What would make this deal different from the Horton to Toronto deal, at least in my opinion, is what would likely come to Boston as the return. Read as: I don’t think the Bruins would receive anything of legitimate value. This would be a situation that’d most likely just be another variation of the B’s ‘future considerations’ return from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for
Marco Sturm in 2010.
In that case, the ‘future considerations’ turned out to be an absolutely nothing but cap space. And despite the emotional attachment between the B’s and Savard himself, who still tweets about the Bruins on a fairly regular basis, that’s more than enough for the Black and Gold this time around.
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 • 
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