Report: Bruins To Let Multiple UFAs Walk

With his two-year, $8 million contract ($4M AAV) at an end, Jake DeBrusk was asked after the Boston Bruins' season came to an end last week if he was surprised there's been no extension forthcoming as yet.

“Yeah,” DeBrusk said, per Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic. “But I understand business is business... I wasn’t necessarily completely surprised. But I thought it’d be done. I thought that things would all work out earlier, I guess."

According to Shinzawa, GM Don Sweeney has a price point in mind for any DeBrusk extension that he will not eclipse. "So unless the sides compromise between now and July 1, it appears the expiration of his two-year, $8 million contract will mean the end of DeBrusk’s time as a Bruin".

But the list of UFAs who will likely not be offered a new contract doesn't end there, writes Shinzawa. Those who likely won't be re-signed reads as follows:

Jake DeBrusk
Derek Forbort
Matt Grzelcyk
Kevin Shattenkirk
James van Riemsdyk

A seven-year staple on the Bruins blueline, Grzelcyk wrapped up his 4-year, $3.687M cap hit contract on a low point, with the least productive season of his career, and was scratched for 10 of their 13 playoff games.

Forbort has had an injury-riddled couple of seasons, and likely won't be retained either, while van Riemsdyk is 35 now and slipped noticeably in the second half of the season with just six points over the final three months.

We covered the situation of Shattenkirk here.