Bruins GM wants to keep roster intact, says it's not realistic

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins would like to keep the group intact that reached the Eastern Conference Second Round this season, but general manager Don Sweeney said Thursday that the realities of the NHL salary cap could make that difficult.
Forwards Rick Nash and Riley Nash, and goaltender Anton Khudobin, are among seven Bruins from the Stanley Cup Playoff roster who are eligible to become unrestricted free agents July 1.

Boston finished second in the conference with 112 points, one behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, won a playoff series for the first time since 2014, and lost to the Lightning in five games in the second round.
"Obviously our team accomplished a lot to get to the 112-point level, so ideally you'd like to bring everybody back and think you'll take another run at it," Sweeney said. "I don't think that's realistic in a cap environment. We could afford the salaries they're currently at, and some of the guys had very good years and you'd expect that to change."
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Rick Nash, 33, had six points (three goals, three assists) in 11 regular-season games, and five points (three goals, two assists) in 12 playoff games. He was acquired in a trade with the New York Rangers on Feb. 25 and completed an eight-year, $62.4 million contract ($7.8 million average annual value) he signed July 3, 2009. He said Wednesday he would consider returning to Boston.
"Everything was positive," he said. "The organization was great, the guys were awesome, so it was a great chapter here and hopefully it can continue."
Riley Nash, 29, set NHL career highs in goals (15), assists (26) and points (41) completing a two-year, $1.8 million contract ($900,000 average annual value) signed July 1, 2016. Khudobin, 32, went 16-6-7 with a .913 save percentage and 2.56 goals-against average in 31 games as the backup to Tuukka Rask. He signed a two-year, $2.4 million contract ($1.2 million average annual value) July 1, 2016.
Other Bruins heading toward free agency are defenseman Nick Holden and forwards Tim Schaller, Brian Gionta and Tommy Wingels. Sweeney said he hasn't definitively ruled anybody out.
As for a player almost guaranteed to return to the Bruins next season, Sweeney said it was eye-opening for him to see how contrite forward Brad Marchand was Wednesday.
Marchand said he understands he must change his behavior, not just because of the six suspensions he's received from the NHL Department of Player Safety, but also because of the licking incidents with Toronto Maple Leafs forward Leo Komarov and Lightning forward Ryan Callahan during the playoffs. The incident with Callahan drew a reprimand from the NHL and the threat of supplemental discipline if it happened again.

Sweeney said Marchand, who scored 34 goals this season and has scored 110 in 225 games since 2015-16, third most behind Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin (132) and St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko (112), is ready to go down a different path.
"Anybody would acknowledge that Brad is a really good hockey player and you want him on your team," Sweeney said. "You also want him to lose the stuff that takes away from him being a good hockey player. … And I hope that he can do that, and we're going to help him. We've put people around him hopefully that can continue to help. His teammates are willing to help him. But it really falls on the person himself to hopefully continue to effectuate the change that we all hope he can do."
Bruce Cassidy, in his first full season as Bruins coach, integrated five or six rookies into the lineup each game and improved play in the neutral zone. Since the end of the Lightning series, Cassidy said he's been thinking about things he could have done differently in terms of off-day schedules and in-game talks. He's also considering a change to the defensive system.
"Are we playing fast enough in the D-zone?" Cassidy said. "We've had a certain layer mentality for years; a lot of teams are man-to-man. I like the layers, but maybe we need to tweak that so that we can close on plays quicker to help our [centers]."
Sweeney said the Bruins being eliminated is like being knocked down to the bottom of a hill and staring up at the same hill you just tried to climb. Cassidy said that basically was the message from the coaching staff to the players heading into the offseason.
"I think the message ... is it's not automatic you get back there," Cassidy said before listing some 2017 playoff teams that did not qualify this season. "You can look around the League this year, look at [the] Edmonton [Oilers], Montreal [Canadiens], the [New York] Rangers, you can look through some teams. So we have to put the work in this summer to prepare to be a playoff team again next year, and then once we get there, then the idea is to go farther and learn from the experiences this year. And that's our goal going forward, simply put."