from Steve Conroy of the Boston Globe,
Not only will there be young men to draft, but the trading season kicks into high gear once the Stanley Cup finals end. Sweeney has made it no secret that he’s open to just about anything to get his team on track, whether it’s through a player-for-player swap — aka “a hockey trade” — or dumping some salary so he can dip his toe in the free agent waters, even though the UFA pool is pretty shallow.
He also has to figure out a way to pay defenseman Dougie Hamilton, who appears to be getting more expensive by the day. That means Carl Soderberg most likely won’t be back, which was reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on Saturday and was becoming more and more obvious, especially after the B’s signed 27-year-old Finnish forward Joonas Kemppainen at the cut-rate salary of $700,000.
The B’s may still want to sign rugged defenseman Adam McQuaid, a UFA, but they may need to offload some salary to do so.
There are a handful of veterans who could be in play. Milan Lucic will be heading into the last year of a deal with a $6 million cap hit. Loui Eriksson is going into the last year of a $4.25 million hit. Chris Kelly has one year left at $3 million. And Dennis Seidenberg has three years left at $4 million. After a disappointing season, Reilly Smith just signed a two-year extension worth $3.425 annually.
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