The Boston Bruins have been very busy finalizing contracts with their own free agents before NHL free agency officially opens across the league Tuesday at noon ET.
The team announced Monday it has agreed to the following contracts with three restricted free agents:
- Henri Jokiharju, D: Three years, $9 million
- John Beecher, C: One year, $900,000
- Michael DiPietro, G: Two years, $1.625 million
The Bruins don’t have much depth on the right side of their blue line, so it’s not a huge surprise that Jokiharju is returning. The B’s acquired him from the Buffalo Sabres at the trade deadline back in March, and he fit in well over the final six weeks of the regular season.
Beecher is a solid bottom-six forward who excels on faceoffs (53 percent for his career) and can kill penalties. Signing him for a salary cap hit below $1 million is good value, and he still has room for improvement.
DiPietro is coming off a career-best season with the AHL’s Providence Bruins during which he went 26-8-5 and tallied a .927 save percentage. If the Bruins could move Joonas Korpisalo’s contract, DiPietro could slide into the backup goalie spot behind Jeremy Swayman next season.
The Bruins also announced on Sunday new deals for right wing Morgan Geekie (six years, $33 million), bottom-six forward Marat Khusnutdinov (two years, $925,000 cap hit) and defenseman Michael Callahan (one-year, two-way deal with $775,000 NHL cap hit).
The Bruins now have around $12 million in cap space, per PuckPedia, with free agency about to begin. The B’s also could use this cap space to make trades if they don’t like the options on the free agent market.
