If Cam Neely chose Don Sweeney as the latest GM of the Boston Bruins franchise for his ability to keep the team at the forefront of the general NHL consciousness, then only a few shorts weeks into the job, Sweeney is absolutely knocking it out of the park.
In fact, considering what has gone down in the past couple of days, the neophyte Bruins GM is probably already in line for a pretty fat raise.
A quick recap: Sweeney started his overhaul by dealing Carl Soderberg's negotiating rights prior to and Dougie Hamilton and Milan Lucic during, the draft. He then traded a 2017 third-round pick to the Flyers in exchange for rugged fourth-line checker Zac Rinaldo. He reportedly talked trade on his franchise netminder Tuukka Rask, but has since denied that report. He signed defenseman Adam McQuaid to a new deal and now, Sweeney revealed to reporters on Tuesday that he's had conversations concerning a potential trade of veteran forward Marc Savard.
ESPN Boston's Joe McDonald reports that Sweeney said the team has had discussions on trading the 37-year-old Savard due to the potential cap relief it could bring.
Savard, of course, has not played in an NHL game since the 2010-11 season after his career was ended due to a series of concussions. He currently still has two years remaining on a seven-year, $28.05 million contract which carries a $4.027 million cap hit for 2015-16, but only a $575,000 base salary - the majority of which will be picked up by insurance.
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman suggested in April that the Savard could be a candidate to be dealt by Sweeney, likely to a team looking for help to reach the salary cap floor.
"So if you're a team that gets that contract, you're only going to have to pay about $240,000 of it," said Friedman, while appearing on Calgary's Sportsnet 960, via NicholsOnHockey.com.
"So that's a great bargain if you are looking to get to the cap floor. And when I really sat down and did the math - I heard about this on Saturday afternoon. I checked with Peter Chiarelli and he didn't really want to tell me, but he didn't deny it either - so I knew it was kind of true."
Chiarelli has, of course, been replaced by Sweeney since this report, but it seems the Bruins focus where Savard is concerned hasn't.
Sweeney also intimated while talking to reporters that the team and recently-acquired netminder Martin Jones have discussed a contract and are still working through options there.
"Had discussions, explored some different possibilities with him. We'll see where the day leads to," Sweeney said, via Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports.
The 25-year-old Jones is a restricted free agent currently without a deal for the 2015-16 seasons. He made just $550,000 in salary last season, so the B's qualifying offer to him has to be no less than 110 percent of that figure.
Considering his limited NHL production to date - he's appeared in just 34 career games as professional - it's unlikely Jones will garner much in terms of guaranteed dollars.
