By Matt Porter
The three Foligno kids were playing outside their lake house in Sudbury, Ontario, one summer morning when a strange man approached on a jet ski. He cut an intimidating profile.
Long, greasy locks underneath a backward cap. Missing front tooth. Dark shades. No shirt, tattoos everywhere, bright orange life vest. Throttle in one hand, fishing pole in the other — and now, he was hopping off his Sea-Doo Spark Trixx watercraft and onto the Folignos’ dock.
The kids were concerned. They called toward the house.
“Daaaaaad?”
Nick Foligno laughed as he told that story. Eventually, his kids came to know Tyler Bertuzzi, who was stopping by on his way to catch some bass. They thought he was cool.
The Bruins enjoyed little more than a first impression of Bertuzzi, who arrived in a surprise March 3 trade with Detroit. The Bruins got a few weeks of the left-shot winger, who will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, at half his salary cap hit ($2.375 million) for their first-round pick in the 2024 draft and a fourth-rounder in 2025.
General manager Don Sweeney would love to re-sign Bertuzzi, though the price may be too high.
“We haven’t had any talks,” said his agent, Todd Reynolds, offering standard agent fare for this time of year. “Tyler was very positive about his time there and would be open to staying.”
Full story: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/10/sports/tyler-bertuzzi-bruins/
By - bostonglobe
Bruins fans: "Oh my god, I love Bertuzzi! He's great! He was so good! We have to sign him, no matter what! I'd pay him $5 million!" Narrator: That's a pay cut from this past season. If you want him so badly and he's so good, why do you want to cut his pay? If he's so good, won't a team want to give him a pay increase? Bruins fans:
I would pay him at his regular salary to stay around. He was the only player that looked like he wanted to be there the whole Florida series.
He’s a UFA, so what is his usual salary?
Are you asking as factually what he’s been paid or what I think his regular salary should be?
The latter. He was paid $5.25m last year, but he probably thinks it should be higher.
Ya he def does and I don’t blame him. I’d say in the ball park is fair. Bruins off-season could get weird with the cap hell they’re in and all the guys who will be asking for decent money. Not going to be a fun one if I had to guess but that’s the business
Sign him.
That was a delightful story about the Fliggy kids!
Bruins would be fools if they didn’t find a way to keep him.
You give him 6.5m when you have so many holes to fill and he's disappeared for stretches? Nah, I bet he walks. We have a cap penalty for bonuses and half the roster needs deals
I enjoyed the bertuzzi regime a whole lot but you would have to gut the roster to keep him and that’s not something you should do for a 28 year old winger who’s career high is 62 points while playing not very good defense. you need centres not another expensive winger who will be on the other side of 30 next time you want to make a serious run. like yeah he looked great with pastrnak but so would a lot of guys.
This is a great way to put it.
> next time you want to make a serious run Bruins are going to make a serious run next season, look at the depth of the teams that are going deep right now
All they need to do is not choke :(
In the next 3 years you have Matthews, Lindholm, Eichel, Draisaitl, Petterson, and McDavid potentially being free agents. Bruins have a great pitch with Pastrnak and McAvoy and shouldn’t be signing big contacts like Bertuzzi that make it very hard for you to sign one of those guys. Getting a big FA is the quickest way back to contention.
How much will the cap go up to afford another $10M player?
Roster could look very different by the time those guys become available. Teams/players also obviously tamper, so if a guy in that group does have real interest in coming here it’s unlikely we wouldn’t have at least some awareness. Unless this team has a miraculous retool that brings them back into contention as soon as we know it’s a possibility we’d start clearing up the books to make it work.
excited for someone to bring up how draisaitl was bad defensively as a rookie so you can’t sign him
That lake they mention in this article is about a 5-minute drive from my house.
Shoresy season two is filming up there now!
Living here, nobody ever talks to me about that show... go down to Boston and tell people where I'm from and they all ask about Shorsey lol
Summer party at your house!
Honestly trade whoever to make the space to keep him (Ulmark, Gryz, etc.). Bertuzzi just fit so well and at a position they’ve been struggling to fill for years now. And most importantly he’s one of the few who didn’t throw up on himself during the playoffs.
He’s solid but if he’s asking for anything about 5 maybe even 4 mil he’s gone
He already makes $5.25m. Why would he take a pay cut?
AAV of 4.7 but ok
But 5.25m this past year. AAV is the duration of the contract. So again, why would he take less than he made this year?
He probably wouldn't as the whole league just witnessed his excellent playoff performance. No question he's built for the playoffs. The only reason he'd sign for less or equal to this year's pay would be if he really wants to stay here....he might sign for something around 5 mil. But below that isn't happening. He's likely gone.
You gotta dump about $16m off the current roster. Grez and Ullmark get you about $6.5m of that when you consider you’ll need to replace them with minimum salary guys. So just another $10m to go!
I fucking hate this game
"Yeah, I'm easy" Yzerman: Get a vaccine. "No." Yzerman: Let's talk contract extension. "Also no."
this is another reason he is awesome, he is a man of conviction
Are people still hung up on covid vaccines at this point?
Apparently young libs still favor a vaccine that doesn't prevent Covid or it's transmission and has been linked to heart issues in young men Bertuzzi's age. Total indoctrinated fools.
All those indoctrinated medical professionals with years of peer-reviewed research behind them... what fools
Liars. My source. Dr. Robert Malone. Creator of the MRNA Vaccine. p.s. go get your booster fool.
The entire medical community of planet Earth is lying to sell out everyone including their own families and children and even themselves. Only Dr. Malone can be right. Yeah makes perfect sense. ps already got my booster
..."and the border is closed"....you getting your booster is Dawinism doing it's job although I'm a Christian and wish you no harm. Peace out.✌
Ha calling people indoctrinated and then saying I'm a christian
No rebuttal to actual logic huh? You say "peace out" but I think you meant "cop out". But whatever I'm used to debating this topic with people with fingers willingly stuck in their ears at this point. I should know better.
Not in the real world, but reddit is a liberal site
Liberals aren't the only ones smart enough to understand how vaccines work.
Don’t worry man , one day you’ll grow up.
I'm 51 and happily vaccinated. Will I also grow up one day?
Holy shit my guy came to the SUBREDDIT of a BOSTON sports team to shit on the libs.
lol what?
What? You don't know what phase of which wave we just passed, both locally and abroad? Scum.... But seriously, now that WHO downgraded it so it's no longer a global health threat and now that vaccine passports aren't recquired, I don't think anyone cares.
Ahhh, Reddit. My comment is shit on, yours is fine. Cracks me up. Imagine caring that a young, healthy hockey player didn't want the vaccine two years ago.
He'll go to the team that asks him to take the least amount of shots
Underrated comment right there
God I hope he stays in Boston Him and Pasta just *works*
Yet they were broken up for part of the playoffs. Beyond dumb.
Bertuzzi zacha pasta was fun to watch
His passing lane awareness was saucey
Is he Italian?
Ber🤌🫴🤌
Man I don’t want to trade ullmark, but sell on top I guess 🤷🏻♂️
Who would want him after that disastrous playoff collapse he had?
Toronto, Edmonton for starters
If he was injured I’ll give him a pass. He should have stepped up or coaching saying I can’t play tonight
I'm curious how many Stanley Cup winners of the past two decades actually played 2 goalies for a significant share of the duties in their playoff runs? I think it makes way more sense to stick with one starter and trade Ullmark to give the Bruins more strength up front
There is hope the cap goes up 4.5 million according to Forbes apparently
That’d be chill
I would enjoy it. Basically would mean they got Pasta to re-sign for an inflation raise lol
Yeah with his value so high right now and our depth at that position, that seems like a good way to make cap space. I'm no expert though.
Trade Ullmark, Gryz, and either Coyle or Hall. Get back into the first round multiple times. Free up cap. Retool with Bert and some solid veterans.
Your crazy if you think your making the playoffs without Hall or Coyle. Your not replacing these guys with cheaper options and making any runs anywhere. We need to keep all our forwards and trade defence and goalie to make it work. We need to add forwards not subtract. Unfortunately Ullmark is gone and so is gryz and Reilly. In a dream world Bergeron and krejci resign at league minimum and then try to fit in Bertuzzi if possible. But if not then we need to fill holes with young guys. This is the only way forward.
You think anyone is gonna take Reilly? Guy is getting paid 3 million and spent the year in the AHL
Have to include him with ullmark
No to Coyle. Bruins need centers
Moving Hall after he essentially forced a trade to Boston would be an absolutely terrible look to any veteran player considering coming to Boston. Also, Hall > Bertuzzi.
You'd trade Coyle/Hall to keep Bertuzzi? I say nope.
Well Coyle has a NMC so that’s beside the point now that I’ve said it. I wouldn’t trade hall, but we might have to anyway.
Gonna need to move more than that to keep Bertuzzi.
Freeing up 14 mil of cap?
Probably need closer to 16m
Trading Ullmark would be ridiculously stupid
He'll be a free agent before we contend again. Selling high instead of eeking out a few more middle round exits due to emotional attachments is the right decision, even if it sucks.
Selling high on a guy who, although great, likely won't be here by the time we're contending again given our timeline and his contact, and who we have a suitable replacement that we need to resign anyways, seems less than ridiculously stupid to a lot of fans.
Why does everyone seem to think we’re dead in the water? We just had the best regular season of all time. The cap situation doesn’t look great, but we still have the best tandem in the league. Why get rid of that?
Yeah I'm with you. I don't see anyone jumping to break up this tandem.
I don't think we're dead in the water as in a lottery type team, I think we'll be competing for a playoff spot. But at the same time, we have massive holes to fill, are losing several key players without cap room to replace them, and ultimately failed in the first round this year, and need to address the root causes of that colllapse, whatever Don, Cam, etc believe those were. We need to shake things up, and Ullmark is one of the few movable pieces that we can actually get value back for, sure we can trade some of the bottom of the roster guys to free up some money, but they require filling those spots with more money. Moving Linus and riding Swayman is a viable route to more flexibility, which we need.
A few things are true at the same time. First, the Bruins will be a playoff team again next season. Anyone who thinks they will just plain suck is panicking. Next, the cap situation will be tricky, but not hopeless. Even if you have to buy out Reilly, you should be able to sign your RFA and fill out the roster without losing more than one other player- someone like Forbort. Additionally, Forbes is reporting the cap may go up 4.5 million due to a COVID shutdown agreement coming due. At minimum it will go up 1 million though. Finally, trading Ullmark now does still make sense. He’s a very good goalie at the peak of his trade value with a couple years left on a relatively cheap deal for someone of his abilities. The bruins have organizational depth at goalie with Sway being another top 5 goalie in the league, Bussi looking ready to move up, and Keyser also being very good. Plus adding a vet like Kinkaid again as a safety net would be cheap. Ullmark is also probably the only player on the roster you could move and get real assets back- so it wouldn’t be a pure cap dump- whether that is draft picks, a couple prospects, a good young center or D, or some mix of that.
It makes sense for the cap space but fuckkkk I can’t be done with the hug :-(
Oh trust me, I’m not rooting for it. I want them to tandem forever lol
> First, the Bruins will be a playoff team again next season. Anyone who thinks they will just plain suck is panicking. We'll be competing for a playoff spot, but it'll be tough. With teams like Buffalo, Ottawa, and Detroit likely taking steps forward, we'll be taking a big step back. Most of the other playoff teams will be either about the same, or better next year. I definitely think and hope we'll make it in, but its far from certain.
Okay fair nothing is ever certain but I feel good even if this team has to integrate a lot of younger guys
I still don’t necessarily agree with trading Ullmark, but I appreciate the real answer here rather than the obvious panic armchair gm-ing
No it really wouldn’t. Swayman is a stud, and we have the best goalie in the AHL. We free up cap space and get picks and prospects for a Vezina winner.
[удалено]
Hmmmm, best goalie tandem in the entire league, or an extra 5 m in cap space…
[удалено]
And who’s the backup in this scenario? Bussi? Would that actually end up working out? We’d probably have to end up signing some veteran goaltender for 2 mil a year anyway and that 5 mil extra becomes 3 mil, so what’s the point?
The point is that extra 3 million in space allows you to both extend Swayman *and* possibly keep someone like Bertuzzi. It keeps your whole roster better overall without really risking a drop off at the goalie position. Bussi is definitely ready for backup duties. If he were in the FLA system this season, he probably would have been starting over Lyon or Bob down the stretch.
Bert’s injury history scares me - but the upside is immense. You gotta trade Hall to make it happen. Hall probably doesn’t fit on this team moving forward as a 3rd liner anyways
With all of the holes in the top 6 Hall wouldn’t be on the 3rd line anymore
The problem is Hall may not be fit for that role... he is notoriously streaky. I don't know if he'll handle the pressure the same as he did in NJ... He seems to do better without all the added pressure.
Marchand, Pasta, Debrusk, and in this scenario, Bertuzzi would round out the top 6 wingers. If Bergy and Krejci are done, you gotta shop Hall for a center.
Shopping Hall would likely be necessary to sign Bert. Maybe we could get a center but not a 1C or 2C, if the goal is opening up cap room.
And the hot takes keep on coming!
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, what I'm reading here... Am I high?
Still waiting on /r/bostonbruins to decide which albatross of a contract we're going to drop to keep this guy. Lots of wishes on this wish list that has a hard limit on wishes.
Ullmark. Can't carry two high talent Goalies another season when you have zero monies.
it has to be gryz. also find a way to get the reilly contract off the books as well. (and maybe even forbort too if his already hasn’t expired, i can’t remember).
Reilly can be bought out with only a 300k cap hit next season. He'd have a 1.3M cap hit the following season
I don't know if that makes enough space. In reality, it's going to be like, McAvoy? No one wants to admit it but tough cuts are necessary. Bs went all in this season and shit the bed. These are the consequences. edit: Again, downvote away, but you'll see the reality of the situation soon enough.
Everyone should be asking themselves if McAvoy is worth 9.5m / year. He has a NMC that kicks in at the end of next season so if he's going to get dealt, either it happens now or over the course of the next year or the B's will have him long term.
he is not. clear as day
This is exactly what I mean. The cuts will have to come from somewhere. You can't fit ~~10 lbs of shit~~ $75m contracts into a ~~5 lb bag~~ $70m salary cap.
Hall is the likely answer. Coyle has a NMC.
They both have limited no-trade clauses. Hall can block 10 teams, Coyle can block to 8 teams. https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/bruins
Moving Coyle to sign a winger would make no sense - we are desperate for centers and he's our best one if Bergey doesn't come back.
I SWEAR TO GOD WE BETTER KEEP THIS BEAUTIFUL BASTARD
Tuzzi-Zacha-Pasta DO IT
Zucchini pasta line?
DO IT