The departure of Tyler Bertuzzi, who signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, caught some in Boston by surprise…including Bruins general manager Don Sweeney.
The latter actually believed in his chances of retaining the services of the 28-year-old hockey player, whom he acquired from the Detroit Red Wings in early March. In addition, he had tried to grant him a longer-term agreement, especially since Bertuzzi had already stated that he was looking for a long-term commitment. However, the one-year, $5.5 million pact the Queen City attacker signed on the autonomy market seems to have reversed the whole thing.
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“A little bit likely,” the DG said on Sunday, radio station 98.5 The Sports Hub reported. “There are people who wanted a contract for a longer period and my conversations have been adjusted accordingly. However, the formations were good for making shorter deals that still had the value the player wanted. On our side, we had to meet our needs. However, we decided to create the necessary space [sur la masse salariale].”
“It could have allowed us to be more active and make the changes we envisioned. However, we concluded that it wasn’t worth it and that it wasn’t mandatory to be aggressive,” he continued, avoiding too directly mentioning the Bertuzzi case, which is now owned by a competitor.
In Boston this summer, the Bruins dropped defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Taylor Hall. The future of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci remains uncertain as the option of retirement is very present in both cases.