It feels like we're now playing the waiting game between the Bruins and Mike Reilly; Brandon Bussi re-signs

The NHL's first buyout window opened Friday, giving the Bruins the chance to instantly create some much-needed cap relief. So now the question becomes, what will Boston do with Mike Reilly?

Don Sweeney and the Bruins are bogged down under the flat cap once again, with $4.9375 million in cap space to begin the offseason, according to CapFriendly. Reilly is entering the final season of a three-year deal that carries a $3 million cap hit, annually. This year will be the highest actual money of the three with the 29-year-old on the books for a $4 million base salary.

Reilly had one assist in 10 regular season games with Boston before putting up 26 points (7g, 19a) in 36 games with the Providence Bruins. He appeared in one AHL playoff game. Reilly had 17 points (4g, 13a) and a minus-1 rating for the big club in 70 games in 2021-22 before zero points in five playoff games. After coming over from the Ottawa Senators for a third-round pick in 2021, he had eight assists and a plus-7 rating in 15 regular season games before four assists and a plus-3 in 11 postseason contests. 

There are three options here for the B's and Reilly: keep him, trade him or buy him out. 

Let's explore all three.

Keep him

This is by far the easiest move of the three, as the two sides would simply ride out the final season of Reilly's deal.

Just because it's the easiest, doesn't make it the right move. 

If the Bruins were to keep Reilly, he'd need to play in the NHL, perhaps as insurance for moving Matt Grzelcyk ($3.6785 million) and/or Derek Forbort ($3 million) ahead of the final years of their deals and losing Connor Clifton on the open market. 

Reilly, very much an NHL defenseman in other organizations, toiled away in the AHL with Providence this season. He initially looked like a home run bargain bid add in 2021 when Boston acquired him from Ottawa, but he struggled to gain traction during his only full season in Bruce Cassidy's system. 

Reilly had strong underlying numbers at 5-on-5 in 2021-22. According to Natural Stat Trick, with No. 6 on the ice, Boston controlled 56.48 percent of shot attempts (Corsi-for), 58.48 percent of actual shots on goal, 57.02 percent of scoring chances and 58.96 of high-danger looks. The goal differentials weren't nearly as sparkling though, even if they were still fine, with the B's sitting at plus-4 (plus-2, high-danger) with Reilly on the ice at 5-on-5. 

Even then, Reilly found himself in Cassidy's doghouse at points throughout the season, and when Boston acquired Hampus Lindholm at the 2022 deadline, Reilly was on the outside looking in. 

The returns were again decently promising under Jim Montgomery at the start of the season as Reilly plugged holes with Charlie McAvoy and Grzelcyk on the shelf early on.

The Bruins had a 4-1 edge in high-danger goals in the 148:55 of 5-on-5 ice time for Reilly this season. Scoring chances were 73-62 for Boston (54.07 percent), and high-danger looks were 36-22 (62.07). Goals were an even 6-6 for the B's with Reilly on at 5-on-5, and they were plus-3 (4-1) in high-danger goals. 

Nevertheless, someone needed to be sent down to clear enough cap room for players to return, and Reilly was the odd-man out, one of six left-handed defensemen in the system capable of logging NHL minutes.

He took up $1.875 million in cap space while buried in the minors. Another year of burying Reilly in the minors certainly isn't an affordable option for the cash-strapped Bruins.

Plus, with the left-handed logjam still in front of him (Lindholm, Grzelcyk, Forbort, the cheaper Jakob Zboril and the cheaper and younger Mason Lohrei), there's is a slim he'd make an NHL impact in Black and Gold. Again, that's barring Boston feeling he could plug a roster spot in place of Grzelcyk and Forbort. 

In an interview with The Athletic in January, Reilly said there had been "little communication" between him and the front office. He was "crushed" when he was sent down. 

It seems a fresh start is best for all parties.

Trade him

There are a few ways a trade could go down involving Reilly, whose contract is really the biggest holdup here. 

First, the Bruins could get lucky and somehow be able to pawn Reilly off for a low-end draft pick. But unless Don Sweeney has NHL23 fired up on his Xbox or PlayStation, good luck finding a taker to get that done.

Now that video games are turned off, another option for Boston could be to attach one of their own picks, which are very far and few between, to Reilly to avoid potential retained salary in a deal or a buyout penalty down the line. The likely return in any trade would be future considerations, which oftentimes is fancy speak for nothing.

We've seen this several times in the last few years. Such is life in the flat-cap world. 

At the trade deadline this year, Chicago took on Nikita Zaitsev and his $4.5 million salary from Ottawa, who also had to send a 2023 second-round pick and a 2026 fourth, in exchange for nothing. Last offseason, Vegas shipped Max Pacioretty (all $7 million of him) and young forward Dylan Coghlan to Carolina in exchange for nothing. Minnesota essentially gave Anaheim Dmitry Kulikov ($2.25 million) in the name of cap relief and future considerations. Calgary had to send a 2025 first (with many conditions) to Montreal in order to unload Sean Monahan's $6.375 million salary. The return? You guessed it: future considerations. 

The Maple Leafs (who got Matt Murray from Ottawa at a retained salary for future considerations last summer) were fortunate enough to receive a sixth-round pick for their troubles of sending Patrick Marleau ($6.25 million) to Carolina. Toronto also had to send a 2020 first and seventh, while the Hurricanes immediately bought Marleau out. That first-rounder became Seth Jarvis (13th overall), one of Carolina's brightest young forwards. Ouch. 

Boston got creative with Craig Smith ($3.1 million) at the deadline, sending him, a 2023 first, a 2025 second and a 2024 third to Washington for Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway. Minnesota got a 2023 fifth-round pick from Boston for playing broker as well. It's safe to assume one of the picks to Washington (the second or third) was to entice them into taking Smith. 

Maybe there's another intricate deal like that out there for Boston, but it appears unlikely. Retaining salary or having to cough up picks and prospects to move Reilly, especially considering the state of the cupboards, doesn't feel like a palatable option either. 

Reilly went unclaimed through waivers (twice) at the start of the season when 31 other teams had a chance to pick him up for nothing but cap space. While the Bruins were able to offload Smith's cap hit in the deadline deal for Orlov and Hathaway, there were no takers for Reilly, once again. It's unreasonable to think that if a team didn't want him for free (essentially), then there'd be no reason to cough up assets to get him, either.

Considering the minute amount of interest both on the waiver wire and the trade market over the course of the last year, it seems unlikely that a trade would happen.

Buy him out

This is the cleanest and simplest route for both sides.

With teams not exactly lining up to help each other's cap woes, barring draft pick incentives, a buyout would allow both sides to move on. Reilly would become an unrestricted free agent and seek a new deal elsewhere, while the Bruins would be able to cut their losses

A buyout would cost Boston approximately $2.667 million with a total savings of $1.333 million, according to CapFriendly. 

The B's would have to deal with a $333,334 penalty against the cap for the 2023-24 season, but it buying out the final year of the contract would instantly create about $2.667 million in cap space, making this upcoming season's penalty fairly marginal. There would, however, be a penalty cap hit of $1,333,334 in 2024-25. 

The Bruins would be in much better shape to handle that penalty as the cap is expected to have a significant jump, possibly as high as $88 million, next summer. Before next season's penalty, the B's project to have about $29 million in cap space to play around with. 

Sweeney would bump the Bruins' cap space up to roughly $7.2 million right now with a Reilly buyout, giving him important breathing room to begin getting business done. The collateral moves wouldn't stop there, though, with the B's needing to re-sign RFA's Jeremy Swayman and Trent Frederic, court Tyler Bertuzzi, potentially re-up Patrice Bergeron and/or David Krejci and make additional moves.

Boston has until 5 p.m. ET on June 30 to initiate a buyout. It feels like it should be a matter of time.

Additional candidates

The Bruins have two more potential buyouts to consider, and one certainly feels like a lock:

Mitchell Miller – Boston needlessly invited a sideshow when it signed Miller last fall, hoping to sweep his past under the rug. A buyout is the best way to get the contract off the books and move on after the organization paid Miller to sit at home for 2022-23. It will cost them $215,834 against the cap for the next two seasons before an additional two at $129,167. The B's would save $645,833 in cap space in those first two years. Neither of those figures is completely insignificant – even if it is chump change in professional sports – considering how valuable caps space is to the Bruins right now as they pay Miller to do nothing. 

Derek Forbort – Grzelcyk is most likely the more tradeable asset between him and Forbort. If the Bruins prefer to keep Grzelcyk and move Forbort, it might be hard to fetch a worthwhile return or even facilitate a trade for a third-pair defenseman and penalty-killing specialist who carries a $3 million cap hit. That opens up the buyout route, which would save Boston about $2.333 million in 2023-24, opening them up to roughly $9.5 million in space in addition to a Reilly buyout. But buying out Forbort would count $666,667 against the cap in 2023-24 and approximately $1.167 million in 2024-25. Not sure that might be worth it for Boston in the 2024 offseason if they have both that penalty, Miller's and Reilly's taking up over $2 million in cap space. 

Bruins re-sign Brandon Bussi on one-year, two-way deal 

The Bruins announced Monday that they re-signed goaltender Brandon Bussi to a one-year, two-way deal that will carry an NHL cap hit of $775,000. Bussi was set to become a restricted free agent, coming off a one-year entry level deal as an undrafted free agent out of Western Michigan. The 24-year-old flourished in his first professional season, going 22-5-4-1 in 32 appearances for Providence. He posted a .240 GAA (sixth among qualified goaltenders) and a .924 save percentage (second), earning a spot in the AHL All-Star Classic. In four Calder a cup playoff appearances, the 6-foot-5, 209 pound puck-stopper had a 2.28 GAA with a .926 save percentage  

BSJ Analysis 

• Re-upping Bussi was a no brainer. He’s arguably Boston’s best young goaltending prospect behind Jeremy Swayman. He very much has backup or 1B potential.
• With one full season in the pros under his belt, a very strong showing too, Bussi is set to take on most of the reps with the P-Bruins this year. 
• It also adds organizational insurance behind Linus Ullmark and Swayman, also a pending RFA. 
• If the Bruins absolutely feel Bussi is ready for that next step (the NHL) then perhaps it opens a route to move Ullmark or Swayman, if a deal cannot be struck. 
• Boston would need to be completely sure Bussi can take the reins behind one of the current two, though. It would be unwise to rush him and bank on a his rookie AHL season translating to the varsity club. It’s likely best to have him prove it again in the AHL, and either run it back with Swayman and Ullmark, or find an affordable, established backup or 1B if the B’s choose to explore a trade of either netminder.