Bruins sign Nikita Zadorov to $30 million deal

If we're going on size alone, it's hard to imagine the Bruins making a bigger swap than the one they made Monday, with unrestricted free agent and 6-foot-6 defenseman Nikita Zadorov officially brought into the fold as the unofficial left-side replacement for the 5-foot-9 Matt Grzelcyk.

Linked to the B's coming out of the 2024 NHL Draft weekend in Vegas, the B's were by all means upgraded to 'favorites' late Sunday night according to a league source, and the sides quickly put the pen to paper when free agency began, with Zadorov inked to a six-year deal worth $30 million ($5 million average annual value).

A well-traveled defenseman, Zadorov made 75 total appearances with Calgary and Vancouver a year ago, and posted six goals and 20 points along with 177 hits. Zadorov looked like a different player following his in-year trade from Calgary to Vancouver, too, with five goals and 14 points in 54 contests.

Zadorov was also one of Vancouver's best players in the 2024 postseason, and had a definite (and potentially unexpected) scoring boom, with four goals and eight points in 13 playoff tilts.

One area of concern with Zadorov's game, however, comes with penchant for penalties.

Zadorov took 39 penalties during the regular season, which finished as the fourth-most in the NHL and second-most among all defensemen. In fact, among the group of 131 NHL defensemen with at least 1,200 all-situation minutes of time on ice in 2023-24, Zadorov’s 1.79 penalties per 60 minutes trailed only Anaheim's Radko Gudas and his 2.05. And with just 14 penalties drawn, Zadorov’s minus-25 penalty differential was tied for the worst in all of the National Hockey League.

But with Zadorov inked, the Bruins have a much more complete picture on the left side of their defense, with the 29-year-old joining a group that already features Hampus Lindholm, Mason Lohrei, and Parker Wotherspoon all under contract for the 2024-25 season.

Zadorov's signing, coupled with the signing of Elias Lindholm, not only makes them teammates on their third different team, but also takes a significant chunk of change out of the Bruins' cap space situation, with $12.75 million now committed to Lindholm and Zadorov.

The Bruins still have some negotiations going on around the league, but with the big guns signed, the focus seemingly has to turn to re-signing restricted free agent goaltender Jeremy Swayman.

A painfully condensed window between the 2024 NHL Draft and the start of free agency left the Bruins and the rest of the league scrambling to finalize their decisions ahead of Monday's free agent frenzy.

And for the Bruins, that came with decisions made on all seven of the Black and Gold's restricted free agents — a class headlined by goaltender Jeremy Swayman — made by 5 p.m. Sunday. And when it boiled down to it, the decision was a simple one in the sense that a qualifying offer meant that the player was sticking around with the Bruins, while a failure to tender a qualifying offer meant that the player would be free to sign with anybody as an unrestricted free agent beginning at 12 p.m. on July 1.

Now, in the no-brainer of no-brainers, the Bruins did extend a qualifying offer to Swayman.

An All-Star during the regular season, the 25-year-old Swayman (who said at break-up day that his plan was to remain in Boston for the summer) is set for a massive payday after a regular season that featured a 25-10-8 record and .916 save percentage.

That projected payday only grew during the 2024 postseason, too, where Swayman started all but one of Boston's 13 playoff games, and was one of the best goaltenders in the league throughout the postseason, with a .933 save percentage and staggering 13.3 goals saved above expected.

The belief is that Swayman, who is eligible for arbitration once again this summer (though the Bruins have outright admitted that they do not want to go that route again), may very well make $8 million per season on his next deal.

Up front, the Bruins also extended a qualifying offer to forward Marc McLaughlin.

The North Billerica, Mass. native scored in his lone NHL outing of the 2023-24 season, and has recorded four goals and 21 hits in 14 NHL games over the last three seasons. On the farm, McLaughlin posted eight goals and 14 points in 68 AHL contests, and has tallied 21 goals and 44 points in 135 total AHL games with Providence.

McLaughlin's qualifying offer checks in at $813,750.

On the blue line, Massachusetts native Michael Callahan was extended a qualifying offer following a 2023-24 season that featured four goals and 17 points in 70 games for the P-Bruins. Those figures were professional career-highs across the board for the 6-foot-2 left shot defenseman. Originally acquired in a trade with the Coyotes in exchange for a 2024 seventh-round pick, Callahan has made 140 appearances for Providence since 2022.

Callahan's qualifying offer is for $874,125.

Callahan was not the only B's defender extended a qualifying offer by Sunday's deadline, as the Bruins also extended one to Alec Regula. Added to the fold via last year's cap-clearing deal with the Blackhawks, Regula scored four goals and 26 points, along with a plus-36 rating, in 55 games for the P-Bruins. Regula’s plus-36 was not just tops among all Providence skaters, but also finished the year as the best mark in the entire American Hockey League.

The 6-foot-4 right shot's qualifying offer is for $813,750.

The most notable player to not be extended a qualifying offer by the Bruins, however, was speedy fourth-line forward Jesper Boqvist. Capable of playing both center and wing, Boqvist made 47 appearances for Boston in 2023-24, with six goals and 14 points over that NHL run. Boqvist also posted a career-best plus-12 rating, while his 71 hits were also a career-high, besting his previous high (50 in 2022-23) by 21 smacks.

The Bruins' decision to not qualify Boqvist means that he will be an unrestricted free agent, and that the Bruins have effectively moved on from at least two consistent members of their 2023-24 fourth line, with Jakub Lauko traded to Minnesota in last Saturday's deal to move up the board in the fourth round of the 2024 NHL Draft.

In addition to Boqvist, the Bruins also decided not to extend qualifying offers to AHLers Joey Abate and Curtis Hall.

Hall, a fourth-round pick (No. 119 overall) of the club back in 2018, never quite seemed to find his footing with the organization, and will depart having scored just six goals and 16 points in 113 games with Providence.

In the case of Abate, however, his lack of a qualifying offer does not mean a departure from the organization as a whole, as the Bruins have announced that he will remain with the P-Bruins for the 2024-25 season.