Rangers Ryan Strome deal could may be great news for the Boston Bruins.

The Boston Bruins have thus far had an extremely underwhelming offseason. In spite of the fact that it sounded like the Bruins could have one hell of an offseason at times, with the team being linked to huge names like that of forward Taylor Hall on the free agent market and that of defenseman Oliver Ekman Larsson via trade, none of those moves have materialized. In fact one could make the argument that the biggest offseason move from the Bruins thus far has been to lose defenseman Torey Krug via free agency, and no one is going to put that one in the plus column for the Bruins or general manager Don Sweeney.

Perhaps it was due in part to the loss of Krug that Sweeney quickly re-signed restricted free agent defenseman Matt Grzelcyk following the departure of Krug, but one of the organization's other key RFAs still remains unsigned well into November. The Bruins only remaining unsigned RFA is forward Jake DeBrusk, a player whose name has come up in trade rumors over the last year or so. DeBrusk is no doubt seeking a significant payday being just one year removed from a 27 goal and 15 assists performance two seasons ago that saw him total 42 points in just 68 games, but the Bruins no doubt were hoping to get him on a much cheaper deal given his quickly growing reputation as a very streaky type of player. 

That's why when the New York Rangers announced this week that they had signed forward Ryan Strome to a brand new deal there may have been no one happier than the Bruins themselves. Strome's new deal comes in at an average annual value of $4.5 million and in his case we are talking about a center who gave up one year of unrestricted free agency, so the Bruins will be looking at a significantly lower number for DeBrusk. Strome is fresh off a 48 point season with the Rangers and put up 50 in the previous season but will only see a bump up in pay of $1.4 million per season in terms of AAV no doubt due in part to the financial strain imposed by the pandemic. 

There have been rumors, and I must stress that they are only rumors at this time, that the Bruins and their management have been put under an internal cap by ownership due to the financial losses suffered across the NHL as a result of the pandemic. This certainly would help explain the complete lack of any big moves from the Bruins in the offseason, and it could also help explain why no deal has yet materialized for DeBrusk. If Strome is only getting $4.5 million in AAV in this current NHL climate I don't see the Bruins giving up more than $3.5 million for DeBrusk, and that could prove to be a huge benefit to Sweeney if he is indeed feeling the squeeze from ownership.