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Bruins sign Torey Krug, make bad buyout with Seidenberg

GettyImages-519672450
GettyImages-519672450

The Boston Bruins said goodbye to Dennis Seidenberg and extended restricted free agent Torey Krug on Thursday.

First, on Seidenberg: Considering the week Peter Chiarelli is having, it’s unfortunate we have to pile on with ghosts of general managing past, but here we are.

The Boston Bruins bought out the remaining two contract years for defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, who is 34 going on 57. He’ll get two-thirds of his remaining salary. The Bruins will have $1,166,667 in dead cap space in 2016-17, 2018-19, and 2019-20, and the hit is $2,166,667 for 2017-18.

It was Chiarelli, then GM of the Bruins, who decided to trade Johnny Boychuk rather than Dennis Seidenberg two years ago, getting a better return (two second-round picks) and perhaps making the more cost-effective move, although Boychuk is roughly two years younger. But he made the wrong choice, and here be the repercussions.

The Bruins couldn’t trade Seidenberg now because he was an injury risk, having missed the start of last season due to back surgery. He injured his groin near the end of the season. In between, he had one goal in 61 games and the worst Corsi rating at 5-on-5 of any Bruins player at 47.19.

So they ate his contract, and DJ Bean writes that it should have been the last thing in the fridge they reached for:

The better way to have jettisoned Seidenberg would have been to do so via trade, with the Bruins retaining half his salary. That way, the Bruins would face cap charges of $2 million the next two seasons, but the bleeding would stop there. Instead, the Bruins will have over $1 million of dead money on the books in seasons in which they’ll hope to be more of contenders than they are presently.

It’s also worth noting that when considering the “savings” of buying out Seidenberg, his roster spot will not be filled for free. Should the Bruins replace Seidenberg with a cheap bottom-six lefty in the $1-2 million range, they might see an upgrade in performance, but it won’t be for much cheaper and they’ll still have to pay those extra millions of buyout dollars down the road. To that end, another option — though probably as unappetizing as the one they chose — would have been to keep Seidenberg on the roster next season and buy him out at a lesser charge next offseason.

Either way, they’re getting indigestion, we suppose.

While one defenseman goes, another one is extended: Torey Krug, last seen taking a bridge contract with a $3.4 million cap hit last summer, finally gets paid: $5.25 million annual cap hit on a 4-year deal with the Bruins.

Krug had 44 points in 81 games for the B’s last season.

“We haven’t found a deal yet,’’ Sweeney said of his contract talks with Krug last week. “We’re hopeful we’ll find common ground.’’

And they did!

We hope that Sami Vatanen enjoys the Edible Arrangements that Krug sends him for that $4.875 cap hit contract he signed to set the market.

Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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