The bottom line with Bruins third-line center Riley Nash is that he’s going to earn himself a hefty raise in the next few months.
That’s what happens when a player such as Nash, 29, enjoys the best season of his NHL career just as he’s approaching unrestricted free agency. It really couldn’t have been timed any better for the center. Sure, things came apart in the postseason when he never truly returned to his previous form after a late-season puck to the side of the head caused a concussion. The one point in nine playoff games for Nash eventually became part of the Bruins issues with depth of scoring in the playoffs, but more important, he just wasn’t the same guy as he’d been in the regular season.
- MORE B'S FREE AGENTS - Rick Nash a long shot to return to Bruins
Nash posted career highs of 15 goals and 41 points in 76 games while mostly teaming with Danton Heinen and David Backes on the third line, and on semi-regular occasions, Nash also stepped up and filled in admirably for Patrice Bergeron in his injury absences. The ability to provide quality two-way hockey on the third line is certainly a valuable quality for the Bruins, and unearthing Nash, who can also suitably fill in for Bergeron for stretches of time, is something of unique value to the Black and Gold.
For those reasons, the Bruins would certainly like to retain Nash and could definitely make a run that. Certainly, Nash feels some loyalty to the Bruins for giving him a two-year deal a couple of seasons ago when he wasn’t an in-demand asset after leaving the Carolina Hurricanes organization. The veteran also made it clear it wasn’t going to be all about money while looking at an opportunity to at least triple his annual salary to something in the neighborhood of $3 million per season given his production, his versatility and Nash’s ability to play responsibly in a lot of different situations.
All of that is good for the Bruins when it comes to Nash possibly returning and it certainly sounds as if they will get some consideration from a player who feels like he’s found a home in Boston.
- MORE B's FREE AGENTS - Stick with Khudobin or find a new backup plan
“I’ve been around for a while, so winning is going to be one of my top priorities,” said Nash. “If they see a fit here, then I’ve truly enjoyed my two years here, it’s been awesome and I’d love to come back. I think they have one of the best teams coming up with the young players and the veteran leaders, so this has been a good fit for the last two years. We’ll see if we can figure something out.”
Boston Bruins
Find the latest Boston Bruins news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Boston.
On the unfortunate side for Nash is that the Bruins are pretty well-stocked in young options at third-line center with both Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, 21, and Trent Frederic, 20, very much in the B’s picture for next season. JFK had some injury issues last season with Providence, but still posted 15 goals and 32 points in 58 games with the P-Bruins and was back in time for the AHL postseason. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Frederic already has NHL size and strength. He finished with five goals and eight points in 13 games for the P-Bruins at the end of last season after opting to leave the University of Wisconsin.
None of the young Bruins center options feels like a finished product and that should give the Bruins some pause about simply handing the third-line center duties from Nash to a younger player. Still, in this NHL salary cap world, there are times when a team simply doesn’t have a choice and needs to make the hard choice while having confidence their young talent can get the job done.
It worked last season when the Bruins left top-nine winger spots open for Jake DeBrusk and Danton Heinen and it could work again this year with either JFK, Frederic or perhaps even 19-year-old Jack Studnicka (a goal and five points in five games with the P-Bruins), who had a lot of hype coming out of junior hockey. Don Sweeney rightly understood at Bruins breakup day that the organization is going to want to hold onto the key elements of a team that got to 112 points on the season, but must also be constantly reinventing itself with youthful players on entry-level contracts.
“Our team accomplished a lot to get to the 112-point level. Ideally, you’d like to bring everybody back and think you take another run at it. I don’t think that’s realistic in a cap environment. We can afford the salaries they’re currently at, but some of the guys had very good years, and you expect that to change,” said Sweeney. “I’ve had discussions periodically with some of those players and will have with their representatives going forward in the next month or so and a couple weeks.
“We’ve got some players that we think, internally, will continue to push and carve out goals, and we’ll see how we piece the jigsaw puzzle back together. [The incumbent free agents] are all great contributors, and in an ideal world, you’d like to entertain bringing them back. But I don’t know if that’s realistic.”
- HAGGERTY'S MOCK DRAFT 1.0 - Dahlin's the guy
So what will the Bruins do in the case of Nash?
The sense here is that the Bruins may pursue re-signing Nash if there’s a hometown discount of sorts, but it’s going to be difficult given the position the player is in to sign the best contract of his NHL career. A solid center will garner interest from around the league as a free agent and it might become too rich for Boston’s blood if the talks spill over into the start of free agency July 1. At that point, the Bruins would probably turn over the competition to JFK, Frederic or Studnicka in camp, but also hedge their bets with another veteran player, just as Nash was two years ago that they could probably buy low on in free agency.
It’s not ideal given that Nash was such a good fit on the Bruins, but an NHL team really can’t afford to be paying their third- and fourth-line forwards big dollars when they’ve already got David Backes taking up a $6 million cap hit there. That’s just the nature of Boston’s salary cap situation and the necessary approach when they have an abundance of qualified young talent at the exact position Nash has been ably filling for a couple of seasons.