Don Sweeney and the Bruins squeezed every single penny out of the season.

There was no stone unturned. No money-saving mechanism left unused. No cushion of the couches in the B’s management suite left unflipped. From long-term injured reserve to daily shuttles back and forth from Boston to Providence for players such as Jakub Lauko, the Bruins did everything possible to ice the best possible roster in a hard-cap league.

It worked for 82 games, too. To record-breaking results, in fact. But after a playoff run that ended after just 13 days and seven games, the bill has come due for Sweeney and the Bruins, and there’s absolutely nothing they can do.

“Roster changes are likely coming,” Sweeney admitted. “You know, we’re not going to be the same team.”

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• The biggest problem for the Bruins is the $4.5 million in bonus overages that’s going to wreak havoc on their books in 2023-24. That’s largely because of the bonus-laden contracts signed by Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci last year, and with a pinch of Jeremy Swayman performance bonuses thrown in there.

  The Bruins being unable to find a suitor for Mike Reilly, and failing to trade Craig Smith much earlier than they did, and then playing the ‘LTIR’ game to add Tyler Bertuzzi ahead of the trade deadline failed to help, as that made it impossible for the Bruins to pay off any of their overages with end-of-year cap space, as they had no real end-of-year cap space. (You can’t pay off overages with LTIR-created cap space.)

  “Our cap situation … we leveraged a little bit,” Sweeney acknowledged. “Everybody knows our overage at four and a half [million]. So, we have some constraints, as do several other teams around the league.

  “Our goal was to put the season on the absolute best roster we could put together and try and take a real legitimate run and we failed, no question. So, we have to pay that forward a little bit.”

• 

  MONTREAL, QUEBEC – JULY 07: Cam Neely and Don Sweeney of the Boston Bruins look on during Round One of the 2022 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bell Centre on July 07, 2022 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

• As it stands right now, with those overages factored in, the Bruins are slated to enter the summer with just over $6 million in cap space. And that’s assuming that the cap jumps up by $1 million.

  The hope was that the cap would go up by more than a meager $1 million, but big market teams like the Bruins, Rangers, Avalanche, and Kings exiting in the first round didn’t help. (How a league with two new TV deals, two new franchises introduced in the last six years, ads slapped on every possible inch of ice and now on jerseys and helmets, and nauseating digital ads on broadcasts has yet to experience a sizable cap increase is both bewildering and maddening, but alas.)

  That’s $6 million to make calls on pending UFAs such as Bergeron, Krejci, Connor Clifton, Nick Foligno, Tomas Nosek, and deadline additions Dmitry Orlov, Garnet Hathaway, and Tyler Bertuzzi.

  Every single of those players played a valuable role for the Bruins. This was especially true for Bertuzzi and Orlov, both of whom were acquired in exchange for first-round picks at the 2023 trade deadline, and there’s an obvious desire to keep them around. As unlikely as that seems in mid-May.

  “I couldn’t just categorically sign those players today,” Sweeney said. “That might mean we’re instituting younger players [next season], that might mean roster changes, which we would like to make. That might mean I might be able to sign, as you referenced, one of those three players [added at the deadline] or other unrestricted players.”

• 

  MONTREAL, CANADA – APRIL 13: Dmitry Orlov of the Bruins celebrates his goal with teammates Tyler Bertuzzi and Charlie McAvoy during the second period against the Montreal Canadiens at Centre Bell on April 13, 2023. (Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

• The Bruins also have two notable restricted free agent contracts to ink this summer, with both Trent Frederic and Jeremy Swayman due for new deals as arbitration-eligible restricted free agents.

  Frederic scored a career-high 17 goals and 31 points in 79 games during the regular season. The 25-year-old Frederic hit those totals without a set role on the Bruins’ power play, and was actually one of just two NHL players to score at least 17 goals while averaging less than 12 minutes of time on ice per game. He’s undoubtedly due for a sizable raise from the $1.05 million cap hit he’s skated on for the last two seasons.

  Swayman, meanwhile, made a second-half push that put him among the game’s best goaltenders, and finished with 24 wins in 34 decisions. His .920 save percentage ranked fourth among goaltenders with at least 30 appearances, while his 2.27 goals against average was third-best among that group of 42.

  That $6 million gets gobbled up real quick, you see, meaning tough decisions are simply inevitable.

• 

  Mar 19, 2023; Buffalo, New York, USA; Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman (1) during a stoppage in play against the Buffalo Sabres during the second period at KeyBank Center. (Timothy T. Ludwig/USA TODAY Sports)

• Behind Hampus Lindholm atop the Bruins’ left-side defensive depth chart, the Bruins have almost $10 million in contracts signed for 2023-24 between Matt Grzelcyk ($3.68 million), Derek Forbort ($3 million), and Mike Reilly ($3 million). The Bruins would simply give Reilly away to a team if it meant clearing his $3 million off their books, and they may very well be able to do that with Reilly entering the final year of his deal. There’s also Jakub Zboril, who appeared in just 22 games (and just nine after Thanksgiving) last season, on the hook for $1.13 million.

  Winger Taylor Hall is making $6 million for the next two seasons and may very well no longer be a luxury that the Bruins feel they can afford. Especially if they want to make a strong push to retain Bertuzzi.

  Vezina Trophy favorite Linus Ullmark, meanwhile, has another two years at $5 million per year, and his no-movement clause becomes a modified no-trade with a 16-team no-trade list in 2023-24.

  Cuts are almost certainly coming — it’s legitimately difficult to try and build a roster for next season without making at least one or two noticeable cuts from the books —and it’s just a matter of when and where for a Bruins team that wants to remain competitive with their new core.

  “Our mandate internally, collectively as a group, is we have a really strong core of guys that hopefully as Jim [Montgomery] was talking about, will continue to grow, will take leadership responsibility moving forward regardless of whether or not Patrice and David walk back through the door because they need to,” Sweeney said. “Charlie [Jacobs] referenced the 100 years. Well, these guys are part of the next hundred and they should understand that the expectations don’t change in that regard.

  “So we have some challenges and that just might mean younger players will have their ears pinned back in terms of the opportunity presented to them, [but] cap flexibility will certainly be an area that I’m going to try and explore.”

  Not like he has much of a choice there.

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