With the Stanley Cup in hand, the Boston Bruins are still in full celebration mode, as they should be. Yet looking ahead to next season, the Bruins are in great shape to make another run at a Stanley Cup championship.
Boston has nearly $52.2 million invested in 18 players on its roster entering next season, with only one restricted free agent - Bard Marchand. In total, the Bruins have four unrestricted free agents - Mark Recchi, Michael Ryder, Tomas Kaberle and Shane Hnidy.
Recchi has already announced his retirement, and it's unknown whether or not Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli is interested in bringing back Kaberle, Ryder and Hnidy.
The Hockey News reports that Marchand is the only Bruins player who is guaranteed a raise, which would reportedly be around $3,000,000. Marchand had 21 goals and 20 assists (11 goals, eight assists in 25 postseason games).
Should Chiarelli opt to bring in a new crew of free agents, here are some of the names that might be available, according to The Hockey News - Joni Pitkanen, Christian Ehrhoff, Andrei Markov, Kevin Bieksa, James Wisniewski, Ian White, Anton Babchuk, Andy Greene, Ville Leino, Jussi Jokinen, Simon Gagne and Alex Tanguay.
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