An excerpt from Kevin Paul Dupont’s Boston Globe article:

Last week’s free agent hunt, which had the Bruins looking for a puck-moving defenseman or a finisher up front, netted ex-Canadiens right winger Michael Ryder. Is he the shooter/finisher they so desperately need? Well, uh, maybe. That’s about what $4 million a year gets you in the new NHL’s free agent market – a résumé with, shall we say, a couple of question marks and a little bit of ‘splainin’ to do.

Habster:

Part of the Boston Bruins woes last season and during the playoffs was their inability to produce any offense especially off the rush or defensive zone breakout. They really need to address this deficiency before the season.

As Kevin Dupont stated, Peter Chiarelli has $54.5 million commited to 23 players and Dennis Wideman isn’t included in that total. With a $56.7 million salary cap limit, we can safely say that a good chuck of Wideman arbitration settlement will absorb the $ 2.2 million available cap.

Chiarelli will have to find a willing dance partner to take some of his dead weight salary (i.e- Glen Murray and/or Manny Fernandez) while absorbing the other team’s salary. The other option is a buy-out or demotion which isn’t the easiest thing to do when your owner is the notoriously cheap Jeremy Jacobs.